Consensus on t'interweb appears to be that the mount is OK, to a point[1], but the tripod is rubbish, especially for manual focusing. I would concur. I shall take a look at the mount and consider fabricating better legs if I do not have much joy with them. It may well be a case of adding suitable stiffeners, or replacing with something more robust as it looks like the tripod head is readily removable.
[1] That point is probably well within the intended use with a DSLR.