Should I revive spun aluminum dish?

[ebo]

I have an 8 foot spun aluminum dish laying down at the farm. It was the first dish I ever purchased back in 1984. A dealer had it mounted in a little trailer so that he could pull it to someone's house and do a little demo. It had a hand crank and an Astron AR110 receiver.. Pretty crude, I know, but I enjoyed a lot of TV with that setup. I rhink I might of gave him $800 installed.
The biggest problem is the mount fits a 3-1/ 2 inch pole. I have a 3 inch pole supporting my 7-1/2 foot used and abused Perfect Ten. I have the original 3-1/2 inch pole laying behind the barn complete with a large chunk of concrete still attached.. but I'm not interested in fooling with it. I am 65 years young and have Parkinsons, you gotta slow down sometime. Any ideas on fitting the mount to the existing pole?
If I remember correctly. looking at the dish in profile, it was kind of wonky. Had a button hook mount that I can't say gave me any trouble.
JRsTheMAN has the 10 foot mesh, if he's okay with giving it to me, that I was thinking of upgrading to.
Ideas? Comments? Tirades?
Ebo

 

[solarvic]

I bought my first drake satelite receiver that had a 7 1/2 foot dish with a 3 inch dia. dish and decided to get a 10 foot dia. perfect 10 dish that needed a 3 1/5 inch dia. pipe. The sat dealer I bought the used 10 foot dish Gave me a scrap piece of 3. 1/2 dia. . pipe around 30 inch length. It fit over the 3 inch pipe. Drilled and tapped 3 holes for bolts toward bottom of pipe and another 3 holes below the top of pipe far enough to mount the satelite dish. Make sure you adjust the set screws to keep the top pipe plumb. Put this up in 1994 and still using this setup.

 

[primestar31]

I bought my first drake satelite receiver that had a 7 1/2 foot dish with a 3 inch dia. dish and decided to get a 10 foot dia. perfect 10 dish that needed a 3 1/5 inch dia. pipe. The sat dealer I bought the used 10 foot dish Gave me a scrap piece of 3. 1/2 dia. . pipe around 30 inch length. It fit over the 3 inch pipe. Drilled and tapped 3 holes for bolts toward bottom of pipe and another 3 holes below the top of pipe far enough to mount the satelite dish. Make sure you adjust the set screws to keep the top pipe plumb. Put this up in 1994 and still using this setup.

THIS above is exactly the easiest thing to do. I have done it several times for different dishes. Works well, IF you have enough cement holding down the original pipe. An 8ft spun aluminum dish will catch a bit more wind than a 7.5ft mesh, which means more potential load on the cement holding it all in place.

 

[phlatwound]

...If I remember correctly. looking at the dish in profile, it was kind of wonky...JRsTheMAN has the 10 foot mesh, if he's okay with giving it to me, that I was thinking of upgrading to...

If the 8' aluminum dish is bent or distorted (wonky?) even a little bit you would be much better off going with the 10' mesh dish if you could get it. 8' is on the small side to begin with and if the reflector is not near perfect it will not perform well.

You can use the same process described above to install the 10' mount to the pole if there is a size mismatch.

Depending on schedule there is a chance I could help you remove the dish at JR's place if it needs taken down, I am about an hour from there. Shoot me a message if you decide to go that way.

 

[solarvic]

I also did the satelite pipe update I explained on a solar panel ground mount. It has been up for 12 years with no problems.

 

[Cham]

I have an old 7' spun aluminum dish with a button hook, works ok on 91, 99, and 107 C-band with 3 LNBFs. It's a shallow dish with a long focal depth. Also has a bit of a dent on the bottom from sitting on the ground leaning up against a building. It was free... and it works.
If yours isn't warped or dented it might even work for Ku. Buttonhook support is easy to adjust as well.
As for your mast, you have a 3" mast and mount is 3.5", maybe cut off a foot from your old 3.5" mast and see if it fits over the 3" mast (or measure before cutting). maybe get an adapter welded using that piece of your larger mast to something big enough to fit over the 3"
What ever works, cheap, and simple always wins!

 

[ebo]

Thanks to all for the replies. It's good to hear your solutions have held up over the years. Phlatwound, yes, wonky is my technical term for it being out of shape. It looks a little S shaped in profile, if I recall correctly. I appreciate the offer of help taking down one of the 10 footers, I may take you up on it. I'll look at 3-1/2 inch mount tomorrow, take a few measurements and decide where to go from there. I was wondering if the spun aluminum would outperform the perfect 10 mesh. particularly since the mesh is banged up a bit - all my fault; I've ran into it few times with the RO
PS on the lawnmower over the years. It sounds like it won't.
Anyway, nothing is going to happen soon. I'm scheduled for surgery on my right hand this coming Monday and they are telling me it will be two weeks before I can get serious about gripping anything with it. And I should stay away from people due to the virus, so I guess that kills this weekend.

Thanks again everyone.
ebo