antique 10' bud

[shankle]

Some pictures of my 10' working bud. For me it was an 8 month nightmare.
I give credit to Fat Air and Stanleyjohn for getting this project working.
See the attached photos.
I dread the thought of going through this again in the event of another tree falling on the dish, hurricane, lightening strike or whatever.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Thats one beautiful dish!wish i had a 10 footer but i think my my wife would shoot me.

 

[shankle]

Thank you Stan,
Wish it was a 12'er but I by myself would never been able to handle it.
This is a nice compromise.
Now if could only paint it hunter green. But I think the heat down here
would fry the lnbs.

 

[FaT Air]

NICE! Doesn't look to be a hail ding anywhere, unlike mine. (Don't look too close)
(???) Oh-Oh, Thinkin' here, maybe if you paint the backside, the color may be visible, but not so that it absorbs the suns rays(???) just thinkin. If that's raw aluminum, I would put a coating of something on it. Maybe the hunter green won't be so bad. Paint a test piece of metal with it, and a piece flat white or light grey. set in the sun, and check temps .(????) Just thinkin.

 

[shankle]

Hail, What is that????
Thought you had a button hook dish.
I had other dishes painted hunter green and it didn't seem to matter.
But maybe it's hotter now. All in Florida.

 

[FaT Air]

Yeah, It's a button hook. But built so HD (100% steel) I have never detected the feed leaving center. Hail, sometimes Santa trips whilst transporting fresh ice cubes to his drink, and they end up down here. (wadaya think he does in the off season?)

 

[beavs2112]

congrats

nice dish glad to see it's being used for a good purpose and not scrap metal! nice to see pics of the finished product after your and fat's hard work.

 

[Cham]

Looks great! Like the cable supports for holding the mast in place. I might utilize that idea on one of my dishes. My 10' solid picks up the S2/8psk signals very well on C-band (and Ku), so I don't think I would ever "need" anything bigger. You will be happy with your setup for sure!
-C.

 

[shankle]

Thanks guys for the kind words.
Most of the credit goes to Fat Air and his experience.

I had trouble with expansion and contraction of the guys wires
when they were connected to the outside of the dish.
Moving them in 2' on both sides cut that way down.
They seem to be pretty stable.

 

[shankle]

Any ideas on who made this dish?

Painting an aluminum dish.
Not as simple as it sounds.
There seems to be a chemical reaction to oil based paints and aluminum.
Of course it is understood that a good cleaning is needed first.
Then something like titanium oxide primer. This is supposed to etch
the aluminum and give it a good bind to the metal.
Then paint with an exterior oil based paint.
I understand that latex paints are no good on aluminum.
If you have any better ideas I am all ears

 

[FaT Air]

Zinc chromate primer comes to mind. Used in aviation a lot. But maybe this rustoleum product is the answer as it does the etching (surface prep) and priming in one application.

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=397

 

[BrettBardi]

You could always use aircraft grade primer to undercoat it, we use it at work all the time. Its a yellow green to olive green color. I'll look it up when I'm at work on Monday and post the brand and type. The stuff goes through hell on aircraft and I've never seen any peeling on parts we get back after 20 years. Sometimes we topcoat it with an epoxy white for some companies, like on the F-18, usually navy aircraft gets a white coat for leak detection.

 

[BrettBardi]

Zinc chromate primer comes to mind. Used in aviation a lot. But maybe this rustoleum product is the answer as it does the etching (surface prep) and priming in one application.

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=397

Oh man, now you jogged my memory, Zinc Chromate is the primer we use. I'll still post the brand and maybe can find a supplier that sells it, but you can probably look it up. It does etch the aluminum slightly when it's applied providing a better bond.

 

[FaT Air]

zinc chromate is the best primer for aluminum, without any other surface prep, other than a good cleaning with soap and water. Hands down. Been used in aviation for decades. If you want to powder coat, theres an acid wash( to clean and etch), then a neutralizer.

 

[shankle]

Thanks guys for the info.

The problem I had with the Zinc Chromate primer is that I can get
it only in 12 oz spray cans. This in my opinion is dangerous and
wasteful on a mesh dish. And I would have to buy about 6-8 spray
cans of it. I did manage to find at NAPA a quart of etching
aluminum primer. Expensive but i think it will do the job.

Hasn't rained here much for 6 months and now that I want to
paint the dish it rains every day.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Send the rain up here (no weekends please).Lets see a new pic for the dish when the paint job is done.