C8 Tube Restoration

[sj777 (Dave)]

A few years ago my Nexstar 8SE tube was water damaged in a flood and I'm just getting time to attend to the clean up.. I've carefully taken the mirror cell and the corrector out to clean them but the tube itself will need reflocking. The matte black paint or shoe polish...has failed and is crumbling.

My thoughts at this stage are to wet and dry sand the old paint off back to bare aluminium and then flock it with some material flocking this time rather than paint.

I'd be interested in thoughts on this plan. Any suggestionson sandpaper grade etc?

Thanks

[JA]

Originally Posted by sj777

My thoughts at this stage are to wet and dry sand the old paint off back to bare aluminium and then flock it with some material flocking this time rather than paint.

I'd be interested in thoughts on this plan. Any suggestionson sandpaper grade etc?

Thanks

You could also consider some carefully applied paint stripper, safety mask, etc.... to remove the paint. I agree that flocking would be better.

Best
JA

[sj777 (Dave)]

Originally Posted by JA

You could also consider some carefully applied paint stripper, safety mask, etc.... to remove the paint. I agree that flocking would be better.

Best
JA

Thanks JA. I found some acetone I had left over from gluing ABS 3dprints and have tested that out and it does the job nicely. Just need to get some more IPA and distilled water to cleanup the leftovers and do the glass.

Do you have any suggestions on good flocking material?

Thanks

[JA]

Originally Posted by sj777

T
Do you have any suggestions on good flocking material?

Thanks

Whatever has the lowest reflectivity - Possibly something like black velvet or black felt.

[ChrisD (Chris)]

Originally Posted by sj777

Do you have any suggestions on good flocking material?

Thanks

I've used this to flock a C8 and a smaller refractor.

Protostar Flock Board

It's not a cheap solution but because it doesn't need adhesive it is really easy to get a nice clean fit in the tube, also doesn't shed material. They say the average visible reflectivity @ 80º incidence angle < 0.7%.

Chris

[sj777 (Dave)]

Originally Posted by ChrisD

I've used this to flock a C8 and a smaller refractor.

Protostar Flock Board

It's not a cheap solution but because it doesn't need adhesive it is really easy to get a nice clean fit in the tube, also doesn't shed material. They say the average visible reflectivity @ 80º incidence angle < 0.7%.

Chris

Thanks I'll look into that I think - happy to pay for simplicity

[Leo.G (Leo)]

I'd previously tried a combination of self adhesive black felt and non adhesive black felt but found both I had purchased reflected light like a mirror when I held a torch in front of the Newtonian I'd done (as a test and it stopped me messing with other scopes). Spend the money and buy materials recommended and tested.
I bought what I had at Spotlight for the non adhesive and possibly ebay for the self adhesive stuff, both were said to be good but it didn't appear good with light entering the tube as far as reflectivity went.
I've also seen non reflective flocking available on AliExpress but haven't tried it.

[sj777 (Dave)]

Installed flockboard and I'm happy with the result. Photo shows before I cut to length but it goes in easy and is easy to cut with a stanley knife. I have some left over that would almost do another c8 I expect. I'll post on icetrade when i get a chance in case anyone in Oz is looking to do the same.

[ChrisD (Chris)]

Looking good

Chris