Ok MauiGuy, explain how the plastic pieces fit with the mesh. does the mesh sit on top of the ribs and then you slide the plasic piece in? I took another look and the pieces on the ribs of the dish themselves are pretty much intact, but I need to slide them out and straighten the mesh out to preserve the shape as much as possible. How should I go about sliding them out? Shoot WD40 down the ribs and hope they will slide out?
Now, on the very outer rim of the dish, what holds the mesh taut? it all sags and looks nasty on this dish, there is nothing out there supporting the last six inches of mesh to the outer edge.
As far as tying the mesh down, I'd like some detailed instructions....you said you used leader material, did you just put it through the mesh and around the rib and twist? I have mesh from an old Winegard 10 foot dish so I have material to make the patch panels. The preforation will not be the same and neither will the color, but hey, beggars cannot be choosy, right?
The chain on the motor, do you reccomend I take if off and soak it to make sure its pliable, or should I just oil the crap out of it for a few days running and give it a shot? I'll take some closeup pics of it if you wanna see it closer. I am going to make a jig so I can stand up the motor/pole inside my shop, so I have the electricity and tools handy (and a FAN, its 96 in the shade right now!).
That's all for now.
The ONLY way to get the plastic out is to have it slide out of the outboard end of the truss.
This is not always easy. I just removed some the other day from a smashed dish, and about six of them came out really easy. I had one that I tried to heat a little, and melted it. And some just break.
My method was to try some pliers and grab the end and pull. I also had some success using a screw driver (or other sort of "punch") and tapped on the inboard end using a light hammer to start the thing moving. I used silicone spray, but not sure if it was all that effective.
The climate on my part of Maui is really wet, so I am aware of the possible corrosion isssues.
One note on this is that breaking them out is not a particularly good solution because you will wind up with the little retaining part still in the groove.
INSTALLING THE MESH
For simplicity purposes I am going to refer to that Paraclypse manual that I uplinked last week. Once you have the dish assembled, and true, then you install the inner section of the mesh first. It is supposed to sit snugly between the little ridges that hold the plastic strips.
Then, I crawled behind the dish, and had my son in front of the reflecting surface. He would push the little "J" hook thru the mesh from the front, and i would then use linemans pliers to pull the mesh taught to the reinforcing ring, and then bend it to hold in place. (see figure 22, 23 and 24 on page 17 of that manual on the paraclypse.
The little diagram in figure 22 tells you about where to start with the clipping. ( I had sat down one weekend and made a gazillion of the clips before we went out to install the mesh.) it is a tedious procedure, but if you put those clips in about every three inches or so, the surface will look great.
With all of the dishes I have been able to scrounge, I was fortunate to have fairly decent mesh to deal with. On one panel that was sort of bent and warped, I sat down and bent it slightly over my knee etc to make it "sort of smooth". Then instead of installing it like it had been originally installed, I reversed it. In other words, I put the reflecting side toward the back of the dish, so that when the clips were installed it would be pulling "new" material to the rings, instead of material with a memory. (hope you follow me on that one)
I will enclose a page from another paraclypse manual to give you the "actual size of the J clip, but I just made them good and long so I could grab and pull them with pliers.
If I have the opportunity today, I will try to borrow a digital cam and get some shots of the clips as they are installed.
BY the way, if you look at that figure 24 on page 17 of that manual, you can note how they show the pliers being used. I did NOT use mine that way. I firmly grabbed that clip and pulled the mesh tight against the rib and then bent the hook shaft around the support ring.
One more thing on the mesh. After you have clipped the tthe rings closest to the center of the dish, you must leave the outer most ring unattached because when you install the larger (or outer) mesh section it is supposed to go slightly under the inner portion of the mesh. This ensures a smoother surface.
Take your time that mesh can make a real drinking man out of you.
INSTALLING THE PLASTIC
When I re-installed the plastic strips I sprayed the "base of the T" with silicone. I then carefully placed the material on the rib and GENTLY started tapping with a small rubber mallet. It should snap in easily. If it does not, it may be because the material is not aligned with the groove. I broke a few pieces playing around.
THE EDGES
Paraclypse made some great dishes. However, they did not do much about the edge of the mesh. In your case, your outer edge is part of the large outer section of mesh which makes replacing it a little cost prohibitive. There is no solution to the edge problem.
Having said that this is what I have done to prevent damage to my dish. First I made sure that if the dish is disconnected from my actuator, the edge cannot touch the ground. So my pole is about seven feet long. Now, this next point may sound stupid, but it seems to be true. When installing your mesh put in a lot of clips. Do not skimp. The fewer the clips the looser the mesh is, and that allows it to bend.
The edge will never be as strong as we would like, but it is stronger with clips about every two to three inches...
I am attaching a scan of the measurements of the mesh panels that are used on a typical 12 dish in case you can find some "expanded aluminun". Also a scan from a different manual showing the actual size of the "J" clips, along with one that I made....
I see in one manual it says to install the outer mesh first. Then the other manual says install the inner mesh first. Go figure...
CHAIN
My CD mount also had a rusty chain. I sprayed some lithium grease on it, to sort of protect it because I have yet to install it. One day, I went out to the garage with an old Houston tracker IRD, and a small TV, and hooked it all up. I then used the tracker to move the mount left and right just to see how it would go. It seemed to work ok. I heard no strange noises, and every thing was smooth. I did note one thing about that mount. When I looked to see how the tensioner works with the chain, it just seemed to me that it could have been made stronger, or maybe out of stainless material. I worry that it could break if I tried to remove the chain.
FYI, the tensioner in discussion is on Page 9 of the manual, and is listed as item 34.
Hope this helps and I apologize for being long winded.