Shadetree Top Question

[BenchShooter]

I purchased a used Shadetree joystick top for my rest and have a couple of questions about it.

1. I don't get a lot of vertical travel (up and down) on the joystick because it hits the top of the rest's rear adjustment screw on down and hits the bottom of the gun stock on up. I know a lot of other manufacters have addressed this issue by bending (offset) their joysticks which works just fine because their jotsticks don't twist in their mount. The Shadetree stick twists (spins) in the top which I assume would be problematic if bending the stick to an offset so it will clear everything.

Any thoughts or suggested fixes on this?

2. Windage is real nice with absolutely no slop or backlash on this top. And, real smooth, glides like on ice with just the right amount of friction. I'm extremely impressed. However, verticle has slop. After going down or up on the joystick, when reversing vertical direction, there is at least an 1/8 inch movement of the end of the joystick before the rest actually moves. I hope I explained that well.

Any thoughts or suggested fixes on this?

Thanks, Charles

 

[JRS]

Call Butch Lambert at Shade-Tree Engineering & Accuracy.

 

[fastarget]

How old is your rest? Sounds like it may need a little adjustment, he has some instructions on his site. As far as the joystick there are several ways to compensate, I would contact Butch first, he is pretty prompt.

Butch is great to work with, ordered a top for my daughter two weeks ago, dad goofed and got the wrong threaded post size, Butch had me send it back and is taking care of us.

 

[BenchShooter]

Thanks for the swift reply GSXR and fastarget.

The reason I have not contacted the manufacture is because I purchased it used and thought/think it would be inappropriate to request their time in supporting one of their products that I did not purchase from them.

fastarget, I have no idea how old this top is. It was a gun show purchase. It is in 10+ cosmetic condition and where you can look through the opening where the joystick comes out of, the top appears very clean and lubed. The top came with the original instruction sheet and I confirmed that it was the latest by downloading the instructions from the web site. I then rechecked and redid the setup proceedures covered in the sheet, ie. it's set up correctly.

Thanks

 

[Eddie Harren]

Thanks for the swift reply GSXR and fastarget.

The reason I have not contacted the manufacture is because I purchased it used and thought/think it would be inappropriate to request their time in supporting one of their products that I did not purchase from them.

fastarget, I have no idea how old this top is. It was a gun show purchase. It is in 10+ cosmetic condition and where you can look through the opening where the joystick comes out of, the top appears very clean and lubed. The top came with the original instruction sheet and I confirmed that it was the latest by downloading the instructions from the web site. I then rechecked and redid the setup proceedures covered in the sheet, ie. it's set up correctly.

Thanks

Just call Butch and put the "drama" behind you. He'll be more than glad to help you out.

 

[charlesbr]

The reason I have not contacted the manufacture is because I purchased it used and thought/think it would be inappropriate to request their time in supporting one of their products that I did not purchase from them.

Hi Charles,

From another Charles.... I certainly do understand your reasons about not contacting the person that made the rest when you didn't buy a new one from him. Even though I don't think he would mind, I certainly think that that is very courteous of you to consider in the first place. A hell of a lot more courteous than the forum bully that demands you end the thread. It's your thread, you started it and no one except a forum boss or moderator has the right to tell you to end the thread.

I have sent you a PM with my contact info. Contact me and I will help you with both of those problems as I have already successfully dealt with both. Too bad it couldn't have been dealt with in open thread so others could have benefited from the fixes but we sure don't want to offend the forum bully that demands an end to the thread.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/forum-behavior-issue-watch-it-guys.2448516/

It's discourteous ruffians like that that make other people apprehensive about asking for help in open forums or worse yet, coming back and participating on the web site.

My apologies to the other forum participants but I have zero tolerance for forum bullies and discourtesy!

CBR

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Im sure its a simple adjustment and butch is more than helpful and knowledgable on his products

 

[JohnKielly]

I'd like to add myself to the list of beggars.

 

[rain164845]

I would also like to hear even though my shade tree top has been flawless.

 

[AndyTaber]

I am using a Shadetree top, and for the record it is one fine top.

To gain more clearance when moving the joystick up toward the stock I went to my local hardware store and purchased a smaller knob. The thread is standard 1/4-20. This provided all the extra travel up I needed

To gain more travel down you can shorten the base screw so the joystick clears. I had a base made for mine that mimics the Hayes style. When I did this I had the machinist swap the leg orientation so what would normally be the rear leg is now in front. Problems solved.

 

[george]

i just put a 1/4 inch aluminum plate under the bag that helped alot....the one dixieppc has now.

 

[WSnyder]

I use a Hart iron tripod base with my Shadetree. I removed the original knob/base screw on the rear leg and put a pointed setscrew in its place. I ran the pointed setscrew below the top of the base and used a short setscrew on top to lock the pointed setscrew down.

 

[charlesbr]

Well, with a little bit of back and forth with Benchshooter, I believe we fixed his two issues with his Shadetree top.

Problem #1 about 1/8" backlash in his vertical was because his two tension screws were a little too tight. I don't know why this didn't also effect his horizontal, but taking a little tension off took care of the vertical backlash.

Problem #2 about very little joystick vertical movement space between the top of his speedscrew and bottom of his stock was taken care of with two things. Since he doesn't really need a speedscrew shooting score, it was removed and the original back leg, which is a lot shorter, was reattached. Then a 1/4" shim was added under his front bag to raise the height of the bottom of the stock up. I think George mentioned the same fix in a message above. Both of these gave him an additional 1 1/4 inch of vertical joystick movement travel. The speedscrew was the big vertical travel killer here.

A note I have read on how some others have fixed this problem is by simply turing the rest around 180 deg and mounting the top components for this reversed configuration. Yes, I know the course adjustment lock screws are facing forward now but if you can adjust the whole set so you are center target with the joystick center travel before starting your run, then no course adjustments should be needed during fire. Then again, maybe not. Not my idea, just something I read.

I have also read and actually seen one example at a match where you mount the whole top at an angle on the top post where the whole top & joystick is angled out but the rest bottom is straight. I don't like this because you are not getting ***PURE*** horizontal movement from left to right. What you would be getting for a right hand shooter is left with a little forward and right with a little backward. Doesn't sound like a formula for accuracy to me.

I'm not a machinest so don't know exactly how to do this but I have been trying to figure out how to lock the joystick on mine so it doesn't rotate so I can then bend the joystick to enough of an angle so the knob totally misses the back rest leg and bottom of the stock. Being a right hand shooter, that means bending the joystick to my left far enough so the knob doesn't hit anything in its full vertical travel with the top at full right horizontal.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

To keep the joystick from turning other mfrs tap a setscrew into the body that puts tension on one of the spherical bearings

 

[BenchShooter]

I would like to publicly thank Charles For helping me get my top set up properly. That is what this site is here for. And thank those of you that encouraged others to openly post their fixes and suggestions instead of.... Ending The Thread!

My hat's off to the Gentlemen on this site.

 

[BenchShooter]

To keep the joystick from turning other mfrs tap a setscrew into the body that puts tension on one of the spherical bearings

Would sure like to see a Photo or Diagram of that on the Shadetree top.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Like i said Other mfrs have it. Maybe you could incorporate it into the shadetree top