Go by Bunnings and grab yourself a smooth & flat piece of off-cut wood, anything from 4-6 inches wide, and at least 1/2 the length of your tube. You'll cut stips with this.
You'll also need a VERY sharp hobby / exacto / stanley knife.
Whatever you do - don't follow the directions of a cloudynights post out there, the dude cut large sections and managed to pull it off. Not recommended... And why would you? The manufacturer recommends that you cut expansion lines in the material when you're done - so you end up with strips anyway Makes sense, with temp changes the tube will move, so the material will need expansion / contraction room. The expansion lines / strips will provide this.
My eldest daughter brought a black velvet skirt from Savers a few years ago, (worn it only once then into the recycling bag) Thought I'd try using this to flock my 10"dob. I stuck it onto a thin cardboard sleeve first before placing into the tube, then used blu-tac to hold it in place. Works well.
Cheers!
Also installs a lot easier if you have a second pair of hands.
This stuff is definitely worth it. In light polluted inner Sydney, I went from 90 sec to 150 sec subs before the light got the better of my camera just by installing this stuff.
- DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STICK MATERIAL ON ITSELF. I left my scope unused for a month of so, and in the one place where I overlapped the material it came off altogether! This stuff is amazingly sticky on metal etc, but not on itself.
- Buy yourself one of those cheap-pet-hair-remover-sticky-roller things. Give the inside a good roll to get rid of residual / loose black fibres from time to time.
- And as a common practice anyways: store you scope mirror side up! I had a nice collection of black fibres on my primary after storing it vertically – mirror side down.
Makes sense, with temp changes the tube will move, so the material will need expansion / contraction room. The expansion lines / strips will provide this.
I think it worked out well... not too shabby.
