RE: [ATM] Moisture resistant baffles

["mbyorick" <mbyorick@starband.net>]

Sounds like an innovative technique, Jim!  Here's another method for
cheaply making light baffles:

When I found that Kydex was several times the price of other types of
plastic sheeting (and not locally available), I sought a cheaper (and
more readily available) alternative.  But when I couldn't find any
plastic sheet material such as CSB or even HDPE (living a bit off the
beaten path), I was forced to look for something that even 'Mr. Ed's
Country Hardware' would have in stock.  

With a stroke of blinding luck, I stumbled onto some clear plastic sheet
material used to cover fluorescent lights in recessed fixtures. 
I bought a piece that had the roughest surface (an 'eggshell' pattern),
carefully cut it with scissors (didn't have a scoring knife that
worked), sanded the edges with a belt sander, and sprayed the sheet with
Krylon interior/exterior flat black paint (the kind that sticks to
plastic).  In another moment of insanity, I mean creativity, I attached
the thing to the truss tubes on my scope by the following process:
	I first drilled a slotted hole in each of 4 small pieces of wood
(~1/2" x 1/2" x 1"). Then, I glued the pieces to various parts of the
plastic sheet (using Devcon 'Plastic Welder' epoxy, which sticks to
nearly anything).  Finally, I attached the sheet to the truss tubes
using cable ties (which allowed me to fasten the thing at the odd angles
presented by the truss tubes).

Pretty simple, eh?  Also cheaper and less reflective than Kydex, et al.

Mike Byorick
SW New Mexico 

-----Original Message-----
From: atm-bounces@atmlist.net [mailto:atm-bounces@atmlist.net] On Behalf
Of Jim Miller
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 1:13 PM
To: ATM
Subject: [ATM] Moisture resistant baffles

I did some work last fall on improving my baffling but haven't had time
to 
implement it after some experiments nor put the info on my website. I 
thought I'd just pass it along now for those interested.

I've been using black plastic corrugated sign board (CSB) (one brand is 
coroplast) for much of my baffling and attached it with industrial
strength 
Velcro.
<snip>

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