So how do I Flock?

[Stub Mandrel]

Great! I now have two sheets of the legendary black 1.0m x 45cm flock from Wilko (I didn't expect them to send it flat - arrived as two very squished oval rolls, luckily no creases!)

But... I am really bad at Fablon, and the thought of doing Fablon in the middle of a metre-long tube fills me with dread.

Any tips? Should I do it in strips and if so lengthways or round and round? Or in patches - or will this look awful?

 

[DRT]

This is the only scope I have flocked:

A bit more room to maneuver than you'll have in the 150PL but it might give you a few tips.

Best to remove all the optics and focuser before you begin so that you can move the tube around easily without breaking anything. You'll also need one of those stick roller things that you use to de-fuzz clothes otherwise your primary will be covered in flock fuz

[MarkyD]

This flocking material is actually quite easy to use.  I did my 200P-DS in two pieces around the circumference starting from the tube seam.  Remove all the hardware so you have a bare tube. Peel approx 6 inches of the backing and position the edge against the seam and then whilst pulling the backing off smooth down the flock until you reach the seam again and then run a scalpel down the seam to finish.  Then do the same to the other end of the tube.  Remember to leave a gap at each end of the tube to allow you to replace the end cap rings.

The glue does allow you to remove and re position the material fairly easily if it is positioned wrong.

--

Mark

[xtreemchaos]

you need to get the cooperation of some birds or even sheep and get them to huddle with you. na havent a clue never done one before. charl.

[Guest]

Hi pal, its easy..dont be afraid of slight overlap as its not noticeable !

I tried butting it up on my 150p but its hard to tell if it slightly overlaps, almost better in some respects as if you dont quite get it butted up spot on there is a shimmer of mat black shining through the slit

I cut mine into 2" strips and just stuck it at one end, fed my arm through and with one hand hold the end and the other hand peel back the paper and gently take the tension without stretching and lay it out as tight to the next piece as i could.

All ended well, good luck pal.

Its mint when done.

Lee.

[ChrisLX200]

Well it's a lot easier if you can arrange to have a plain tube with no fittings at all - and a whole lot easier than trying to do a blind-ended tube like an SCT!  My 12" f/5.3 Newt was a problem due to it's long length - that's a long tube and difficult to work inside of. What I did was to have the flocking material wrapped around a length of 3" tube pastry-roller style with just a couple of tabs of Sellotape to hold it (I had a long piece of 3" tube which stuck out either end of the tube for the OTA), and a long piece of round dowel (broom handle type) to which I had taped the end of the flocking paper backing. So, insert the two into the tube, judge by eye that you have the flocking set parallel (easy with this method), use the dowel to unwrap a few inches of backing paper and press the sticky side of the flocking paper in place with the 'pastry roller' ;-) I just worked my way around and there were no wrinkles and the thing was kept in good position. Repeat for the next section. Unlike the comments above - I found the flocking paper I used was fairly unforgiving about being stuck in the wrong place and that trying to get it off to re-position it was difficult, However, this was a few years ago so maybe the quality of the paper is better now...

ChrisH

[johnfosteruk]

I just did my 130 and despite a certain amount of pre flocking dread it was quite easy. I gave it a hoover and a brush first, then nicked some of The Present Mrs Foster's hairspray to hopefully help prevent fuzzy mirror syndrome. Then I removed everything from the tube, rolled the material up backing side facing outwards pulled an inch or two of the backing off and worked away from the seam, pulling a little bit of backing off at a time.

As Mark said, the glue is quite forgiving. I did have a few bubbles and creases come the end, most of them ironed out with a bit of massaging, and the rest I just poked with the scalpel to let the air out and then flattened them down.

I have to say it's an astonishing difference, it's like peering into a void in spacetime and I'm looking back at me!

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks all,

(1) it sounds like it really is worth doing

(2) there are some great tips/approaches I hadn't thought of there.

(3) I need a larger diameter telescope 

[Guest]

Regardless of any other mod number 3 will plague you for the rest of your astronomical life lol

Pictures when flocked please

Take a look inside mine Neil......its like a black hole lol

Good luck pal.

Lee.

[johnfosteruk]

Speaking of pics, here's mine for reference Neil. It is like looking into a black hole

[Ricochet]

When I flocked my 8" dob I butted each piece up against the seam and then smoothed it all the way around the tube. I decided to overlap the joins by maybe 10-15mm to try to prevent them lifting at some point in the future. If you have any non-uniform curves then you can use a hair drier to heat the flocking paper as you apply it which will allow it to stretch (within reason) to follow the curve of the surface you're sticking to without creasing or pulling away. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I've lined the dew-shield for my 300mm lens as an experiment. It seems to go on lot easier than ordinary fablon, it's stiffer and less likely to bubble, which is good!

[happy-kat]

Measure three times cut once :-)

[bottletopburly]

Flocking has a grain , feel it with your hand I did my 200p I only twigged after I done two bits going opposite to each other still lookS good though , let flocking hang out end of tube trim flush , then retrim half inch back from the tube , bit more mirror end or you wont get ends back in if that makes sense, I made a gizmo with a stanley blade glued on to it so it cut 12mm below tube making a nice cut in flocking .

[acey]

Simple rule - look through the focuser drawtube without eyepiece and identify all places other than the secondary where light is coming from. Those are the parts you need to flock/screen/baffle. A newt that looks like a black hole when you stare down the top of the tube is very pretty, but we don't use newts by staring down the top. There's no need to completely line the tube with flocking material, unless you just like the look. In general you just need to flock the part opposite the focuser, also dealing with any bit beyond the top end of the tube that's visible through the drawtube. If the unsilvered visible edge of the secondary looks bright through the focuser then darken it with black felt pen (or paint if you're brave).

[Parus major]

I did a 150PL tube which is 113cm long and it wasn't fun but it wasn't too taxing either.
What I did was is use the grid on the back to cut it into 20cm wide strips and cut to be about 2cm longer than the internal circumference of the tube.
peel a bit of the backing off and set it up against the raised edge of the rolled seam up the length and place it on, rubbing it flat until you go round. The material is quite thick so placing the next piece up to it was easy.

It's not hard work, it's just a chore.

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks James,

It's a 150PL I have to tackle, that sounds like a good plan.