Need to paint the old Beta Lux

[Parabolicman]

Hi ...quick question. I am pretty familiar with what paints not to use on a dish (glossy , metallic) . While flat is the choice that is best....does anyone have any information on if it would cause any overheating problems if I use a light colored (almond) satin finish on this 9 foot dish?

 

[phlatwound]

I think that will work fine. Just prep the surface and use a high quality paint.

Someone here on the forum recently said something about using a clear UV-resistant topcoat I believe as well, sounded interesting.

 

[Chewie]

I used rust-oleum white flat protective enamel on my beta lux 9' dish, I haven't seen any issues, I get good signal, mine is only set up for C-BAND.
Regards.
Chewie

 

[primestar31]

My first Danex spun-aluminum dish back in the early '80's was painted a nice flat almond color, and looked very nice!

 

[RimaNTSS]

This summer I refurbished 1,8m aluminum PFA. Removed old paint and gave it to paint-shop where they applied powder non-metallic paint and then fixed it under high temperature.

 

[Anole]

This summer I refurbished 1,8m aluminum PFA. Removed old paint and gave it to paint-shop where they applied powder non-metallic paint and then fixed it under high temperature.

That is a beauty.
What did it cost to have the dish powder coated?

 

[RimaNTSS]

What did it cost to have the dish powder coated?

It coasted little bit more than I payed for dish itself . About 50 bucks.

 

[primestar31]

Next to buying the dish itself real cheap, that's probably the best $50 you ever spent! lol

 

[RimaNTSS]

And for this 1,8m PFA I've spent about 10x more than to buy it :rant:. Aerofraphed by professional artist with car-paint and lacquered in auto-shop (so very dangerous to use when sun copies Clarke belt). Will probably use it as a painting in the garage.

 

[Parabolicman]

Just finished painting the Beta-Lux with Rustoleum's "Fossil" color which is similar to a camouflage tan. It is satin finish and all is working well so far Even the neighbor commented it looked good haha

 

[Chewie]

post some pictures of the new look.

 

[turbosat]

Very nice work Rima, excellent dish farm. You must get tons of channels!

 

[Cham]

Great idea on the power coating! Have never thought of that. I have a few companies nearby that are capable of doing that type of work, they manufacture and paint grain bins. Guess the hard part would be cleaning off the old paint and not damaging the dish when moving it to/from the painting facility...
Nice fancy custom paint job on the other smaller dish too. Dish farm looks well organized and leaves a small footprint, easy to mow under etc.

 

[wallyhts]

I agree that dish looks awesome. Nice!!

Will a power coating peel?

 

[Anole]

If dealing with painting new products, the powDer coating company will prep the metal to their specs.
In the example above, it probably cost less because the dish had all old paint & corrosion sanded off.
Did they give an additional acid bath to prep?
'
A properly applied powDer coating should easily last 20 years without peeling.
?(colors are available, plus gloss, satin, and matte finish).
There are a few dishes in the field now, which continue to look new.
I can't prove they are powDer coated, but it is my strong suspicion:
?The two in my signature, plus the Winegard Pinacle 10 foot perf.

 

[primestar31]

Perfect 10 dishes are claimed to be powder coated. It's basically a plastic paint coating that is baked onto the metal in an oven.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Guess the hard part would be cleaning off the old paint.

Yes, it took some time and made me quiet dirty :rant:

not damaging the dish when moving it to/from the painting facility...

For that I made 4 small holes on the edge of dish and screwed dish to 2 wooden planks, so no damage at all and easy to carry (see my post #5 picture #4).

If dealing with painting new products, the powDer coating company will prep the metal to their specs.
In the example above, it probably cost less because the dish had all old paint & corrosion sanded off.
Did they give an additional acid bath to prep?
A properly applied powDer coating should easily last 20 years without peeling.
?(colors are available, plus gloss, satin, and matte finish).

Most likely they did not do acid bath, they just said that sanding should not be too old and it was only couple of days old in my case.
Variety of matted colors was not so great and I picked what I picked.

Nice fancy custom paint job on the other smaller dish too.

Small dish is also 1,8m

 

[RimaNTSS]

Very nice work Rima, excellent dish farm. You must get tons of channels!

Thanks. Yes, there are many channels in the list, and all of them, if needed could be reached by one single polar-mounted antenna. That also does not mean I am watching all those channels.... maybe couple of tens and some terrestrial. And that picture is not current one, my farm is changing quiet often in quantity and also quality. My last favorite antenna is 1,8m offset Prodelin located on the ground (not on picture).

 

[Anole]

Transporting 1-piece dishes

The two dishes in my signature are one-piece.
I used a similar board method to move them.
Two 2X8's were bolted to the flat back side of each dish in turn.
Then the dishes were carried to a flat bed truck (I couldn't get a trailer).
Multiple cargo straps were used to secure each board.
The dishes were transported face up, with feed horns in place.
?.