It's difficult to find a good photo of an Orion mast clamp but from what I
found it does appear to be pretty rigid, it may be a little short. Your
reasoning for poor clamping over time seems logical. You certainly can set
the two halves up in a milling machine and take a bore cut to match the mast
diameter. The problem is, it is an interrupted cut which is slow so unless
you can do the work yourself it would likely be less expensive to just
purchase an aftermarket clamp. Also the machined area would have no
corrosion protection and the clamps should be stripped and re-plated.
John KK9A
k7lxc wrote:
Howdy, TowerTalkians -
IMO the Orion mast clamp is a very poor design and has 2 fatal flaws.
The first being that the finish is dimpled and the dimples get flattened
down over time and the clamp loses its grip. The second flaw is that the
teeth only provide a small fraction of a square inch of actual clamping area
- 0.1 sq.in.? - and the teeth get ground down by mast movement hence it
loosens up no matter how much you tighten it. I've sold much superior after
market clamps in the past but can't get my supplier to make more. My
question is can you hone the existing clamp for a better fit? IOW can it be
bored for a 2" or 3" mast? It'd be something like boring a cylinder to a
specified size. If the teeth were filed down, there would be much MORE
clamping area and thus the clamp would actually hold the mast. In my
experience I've only talked to a couple of owners who claimed theirs didn't
slip and ones that I've installed seemingly always slipped eventually.
Cheers,Steve K7LXC
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