To add to last couple of posts, regarding use of aluminium in sight carrier parts. Once all the mechanical parts and the large brass part are all off the sight carrier frame, it became VERY light. You guessed it, it's aluminium also, and today all the paint was stripped off. That is a job I don't want to do again. It took hours to get
almost every bit of paint off, followed by a thorough wash down and quick scrub with the wire cup on places I could get to.
Have a close look at the above photo. Any exposed point where two dissimilar metals touch, has evidence of significant corrosion of the aluminium. This occurs, regardless of the 'other' metal type. IE: It occurs where Aluminium touches mild steel, brass, or bronze. This does NOT seem to be as significant an issue where Aluminium touches aluminium, but it has suffered to a lesser degree. I mention all this merely as a point of curiosity. It won't affect me, beyond need to apply some filler here & there. Also interesting, when running the wire cup over the surfaces, small flames could be struck between the two! Not sparks......flame, up to about 3/4" in length, and these did not fly off as sparks do. Must say I don't really think I've put an abrasive cup on aluminium before, but I have cut the stuff with a disk and shaped using a grinder disk, and I have not seen this phenomenon in the past.
Some parts got their final coat.
Others got a thorough clean, and are now ready to be put in place, once the final little pieces have been acquired. For example, I still need a pair of small brackets for centre of the cross-levelling screw assembly.
I'm also having difficulty in locating the correct size/TPI nut that holds the range indicator handwheel, in the above image. Local hardware retailer now stocks only metric nuts & bolts. Bunnings has a better range, and does have imperial sizes, BUT not all types of imperial threads. They certainly don't have the one I want. I've got some TPI and thread width gauges laying around somewhere.