Help, Truss tube dilemma!!

I need a bit of help. These are aluminum truss tubes which after a year waiting for the scope and a year of use, the paint is cracking off horribly. The manufacturer told me to go get a can of bed liner from wal-mart, I'm unsure if that is the correct course. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi Michael
First I think I would strip the stuff off that is on there. The spray bed liner from Home Depot I have heard works. My Starmaster has black heat srink tubing over the truss tubes, works great. I've also seen black foam pipe insulation but I'm not sure I like the looks of it and it must be a bear sliding a shroud over them. I know paint them in barber pole stripes, just kidding.
Just a few thoughts
Buck

I have had good luck with Flat Black Epoxy paint with an etching primer base for the tubes. The color is pretty flat and the paint is hard but durable. Make sure the old finish is stripped and the tubes are lightly sanded or use 3M Scotchbrite pads to scuff the metal before the primer is applied.

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This is a little off-topic, but you could mention to the vendor that maybe he/she should at least be buying the Bed Liner stuff for you, or offering to take the trusses back for re-coating. Unless those poles were specially prepped, the paint will usually flake off.

I use gray pipe insulation and it works great...

Pat

Hello:
It doesn't sound like much of a problem to me. I've left my truss poles unpainted and haven't seen any ill effects from it. The truss poles are generally so far from the light path that it's pretty hard for light to reflect/scatter off and go into the focuser, especially with a shroud on. As fas as I've heard, the main reason for putting pipe insulation on the poles is to dampen vibrations and so your fingers don't get so cold pushing the scope around. I say let the paint fall off, I doubt you'll notice it when you're looking in the eyepiece, and who cares what the scope looks like in the dark anyway?

Cheers
Mike Connelley

I just had my poles anodized with a black matte finish. I also had them do some of the drops and then used these for the cage. It looks very nice.

The only down side is that they could not anodize the quik connects because they are cast. I roughed these up, primed and painted flat black. I am letting them cure for a couple of days to be safe.

When I get verything back together, I'll post a photo.

Ed