Black Velour Telescope Flocking Material

[Steve Ward]

Wasn't suggesting particularly underhand just asking the question.

That said , if I purchased a load at £5 and tried to sell them on here for £7 I'd be crucified for profiteering...............

[FLO]

If you have a local Wilkinsons and it is in stock then you can save £2, which should buy you a coffee at Starbucks. If not then you will need to factor in their £4.95 delivery charge, which would make it more expensive than ordering the same roll from us. Not sure how the math works with larger quantities but I guess there must be a break-even point.

Consider this, it is not necessary to criticise SGL or it's sponsor to promote your preferred forum

HTH

[Steve Ward]

I strongly resent the accusation that I am attacking you as the sponsor or SGL as a forum ,

I have NO PREFERRED FORUM .

I am a member here , on Astronomyshed , PAIG and Cloudy Nights. I post regularly on all 4.

I've only been active since February of this year and have no interest in the history , politics or petty squabbling that has obviously gone on before.

Rant Over.

Steve Ward.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I have just bought a roll of this from FLO which came by return. I flocked my 6" Skywatcher on Monday removing the mirror, focuser, secondary and the finder bracket. Easy to fit and I flocked the whole tube, edges of the secondary and the inside of the focuser. All this for £7 - wonderful.

I spent some time getting the collimation just right and last night it became clear so able to test the scope. Tested on the double double plus numerous Messier objects - verdict brilliant.

Thanks FLO for stocking this product.

Mark

[FLO]

I strongly resent the accusation that I am attacking you as the sponsor or SGL as a forum

And I am not pleased at being accused of profiteering...

[Teslar]

And I am not pleased at being accused of profiteering...

You can hardly be accused of that as you have already said its available at wilkinsons cheaper and why. So buyers have to option to buy it elsewhere for £5 if they desire

[StevieDvd]

Knocking the stocking of flocking is shocking and will end up in locking, so no mocking or rocking.

[Jamie]

Nice one StevieDvd.......... That needed saying....

@ Steve Ward, If in future you have any query's about FLO's pricing policy I suggest you contact them OFF forum.

[8kids]

Fight, Fight Fight............. :grin:

[Avo]

We spend £k's on scopes, mounts, eyepieces etc then argue over a few quid for a bit of flocking material.................................................?

[DarrenG]

After reading this thread a quick dash to Wilkinsons and grabbed the last two rolls of Flocking material!

Stripped the scope, measured up and applied the material in 5cm wide strips. Was a little fiddly but not to bad. Not a lot of access in a 130mm tube but it went OK. I've flocked the entire tube and took the opportunity to remove the original dovetail and strengthening plate as I'm using tube rings and an 8" dovetail. Also binned the RDF mount as I now use a Rigel. Have re-sited that in the RDF's location now.

Now I just need some clear skies so I can see what difference this makes! I'll also look at flocking the focus tube over the weekend. I bought some blackboard paint, would it be a good idea to do the outside of the focus tube which is currently silver and shiny'ish? Not so sure about painting the sides of the secondary, too much scope for me to [removed word] that up!

[SnakeyJ]

I did my Explorer 200P with the DC-Fix (sourced from FLO), about 1.8 rolls from memory to do the full tube. Thread

The material is great to work with sticks nicely, but can be lifted and repositioned easilly, but the adhesive goes sticks much harder when left overnight.

It does shed some fibre, see the above thread, but after hoovering and patting down with sticky tape the shedding was certainly lessened and I don't think this will be a major problem.

Excellent service from FLO who part shipped my order so that I had the flocking material next day.

Not sure on any quantifiable improvement side by side with my unflocked 200P, just haven't had the time to do a comparison - but there are some before and after shots on the thread above. It certainly looks the part now!

[ajohnson]

Over the past hour or so I have been over various threads re flocking and blackboard paint (Val Singleton would be proud of you all!)

I am considering flocking / black painting the inside of my SW 300 PDS Newt (on an NEQ6), the longest day is nearly on us so there is precious little "Dark Sky" out there anyway so I might as well have a go at this. I suffer a lot of direct light pollution in my garden from a street light at the far end (I keep as far away from it as possible) and also from the lights from various neighbours, if the tube is pointed the right way the black / dark grey SW interior glows a lovely orange / white with the reflected light. I note some of you have gone completely mad and flocked your whole OTA but is this necessary? At what point does this go from improving contrast to being an aesthetic mod? Also the 300 PDS is a bit of a monster they're not kidding about the 1500mm focal length, to do the whole thing I would need to either evolve longer arms or possibly find a Victorian chimney sweep as my kids are too big to fit up the tube to flock it!

So is it necessary to flock the whole tube or partially flock the tube sections visible through the focuser? E.G the opposite tube wall and lower sections of the tube around the primary.

I've worked out that whether I buy flocking from FLO or not I still need to visit / WIlco or Wikes for some blackboard paint for the various nuts and shiny bits but would there be an improvement over the SW tube wall paint doing out the tube in blackboard paint to kick off with anyway?

[FLO]

I think the 80/20 rule applies here. You will achieve 80% (or thereabouts) of the benefit if you flock only the tube wall opposite the focuser and at the bottom of the tube around the primary mirror.

HTH,

Steve

[faulksy]

still cant believe the attitude from earlier over 2 quid, your doing a good job flo

[Laurie61]

I think Steve's comment regarding the 80/20 rule is the right approach for you. I have a 300mm f6 scope which I flocked and just did the area inside the tube visible through a colli cap. I put a stick into the back of the tube, past the primary, and looked to see the end of it through the cap. I then flocked from a little in front of this point back to the mirror. Once you've flocked opposite the focuser the other improvement might be a dew hood type extension on the front of the tube.

[ajohnson]

Steve

I figured it could be something like this, you may well see an order from me in a few days. I think the price argument was a bit of an unnecessary distraction, trawling around I get the idea people have tried other sources and get some very varied results, I would hope that knowing what is required FLO will have done this up front, so for the sake of a couple of quid it hardly seems worth arguing over. This is not to say I won't look in Wilco when buying my paint !

I will measure up when I get the chance and estimate what I need, many thanks for the feedback.

[ajohnson]

I think Steve's comment regarding the 80/20 rule is the right approach for you. I have a 300mm f6 scope which I flocked and just did the area inside the tube visible through a colli cap. I put a stick into the back of the tube, past the primary, and looked to see the end of it through the cap. I then flocked from a little in front of this point back to the mirror. Once you've flocked opposite the focuser the other improvement might be a dew hood type extension on the front of the tube.

Thank's Laurie.

I currently drop a carboard box over the apperture when I'm pointing East (where that ********* lamp post is) it's ugly but effective at reducing the amount of light pouring down the OTA. However, if I am going to schedule some down time on the scope I will probably build something a little more elegant and get some black paint inside it for good measure.

Many thanks for the tip

[faulksy]

tempted to do my sct like cath but a bit concerned about fibre shedding is flo,s flock and wilkos the same stuff, as in brand name

[FLO]

still cant believe the attitude from earlier over 2 quid, your doing a good job flo

Thank-you

tempted to do my sct like cath but a bit concerned about fibre shedding is flo,s flock and wilkos the same stuff, as in brand name

It is identical

If you have a local Wilcos there is no need to order it online.

It was Dave Gibbon's discussion that bought the material to our attention. It has proved very successful.

[faulksy]

Thank-you

It is identical

If you have a local Wilcos there is no need to order it online.

It was Dave Gibbon's discussion that bought the material to our attention. It has proved very successful.

your more than welcome, you get nothing but praise of people on this site they cant all be wrong. regards mike

[ajohnson]

Wilco were out of stock, so two rolls of black flocking have just arrived from FLO, thanks guys so I should now be able to partially flock the 12" Newt.

Just to be clear here, I'm happy with flocking around the bottom end of the tube above the primary, by my calculations this will take just over one roll. From the look of things the 42 cm width of material will just reach up to where I can't see it with a coli cap OK so far.

I can see the value in flocking behind the secondary (opposite the focuser) to stop stray light entering the focus tube but is this correct? Should the partial flocking also go around the focuser to prevent direct light reflections getting onto the secondary? Logically they should end up down the OTA tube due to the angle of the mirror plus everything is going to get a good coat of Blackboard paint to darken down / reduce reflections where I will not be flocking. I just want to verify this first.

The OTA is untouched so far, haven't started dismantling yet.

[denisorionxt6]

Glad to hear all these good reviews of this flocking, I ordered 3 rolls today to mod my dob, looking forward to this

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