Advice Needed Damaged dish, what should I do?

Paul it all depends on the dent. Tapping out a small dent with a smooth dolly at the front and a shrinking hammer from the back should work fine. And with the low price of dishes these days if that is not good enough you might as well just throw it in the dustbin and start again.
 
I would probably use a sandbag as a dolly and start by tapping the dent in from the outside with the pointed end of my panel beater's hammer. Using a solid dolly you run the risk of bounce which can make the dent worse.
 
PaulR said:
I was taught to lead fill but that was just a faff and most of the trade used polyester filler. The point of all this is that the surface after shrinking was not suitable for painting straight away and neither would a satellite dish be suitable for reflecting radio waves.
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Lead fill would be suitable for microwave reception.
 
Yes, but what about the heat needed to melt it into place. Not to mention the weight of the beast afterwards.
 
I would just slap some bondo (automotive body filler) on it, sand it to the curve of the dish then spray it with some aluminized paint, then spray some color matching paint.

You will never know the difference.
 
I've been testing the damaged TD88 dish and the replacement and to be honest there isn't really any noticeable difference using just my DrHD F15 satellite receiver's meter. Maybe the damaged one is down by 0.2dB or so, but equally it could be thicker clouds passing (unfortunately it's cloudy now for the foreseeable future) or my inaccuracies in getting the dish in the same position (I just replaced the dish face and left the mount on but had to remove the LNB first). Either way, it's not a dramatic difference.

What is dramatic the the difference between the TD88 (active surface about 85cm) and the old clear plastic mesh dish (active surface about 79cm) I'm replacing. For the first time I'm picking up some lower Astra 2E Europe transponders (nice to have the full EPG again) and also most of the Astra 2A southern transponders. I'm now seeing the Eutelsat 28A horizontal transponders for the first time too (I should have done this years ago!!).

I always suspected something was up with my clear dish and the horizontal transponders where always a lot weaker then the verticals but I assumed it was the dish position on the balcony or the LNB.

So a good result, very happy with the TD88 even if it is a pain to align. Luckily I'm working at floor level on my balcony so can take as much time as needed to get it spot on, even if it involves a few swear words...

Sadly I've reached the physical limits of my balcony, I can't go any bigger I won't be able to open the door, but the extra 6cm is good.
 
timo_w2s said:
I just bought at new Triax TD88 from a web site in Finland and the dish is slightly damaged. Do you think I should return it? How badly do you think this is going to degrade my signals? It looks like some kind of circular item of about 35cm diameter has been pressed on the dish although it's hard to see the full ring in the photo. It's only just noticeable by running my fingers over it and only visible when light reflects off it, so it is only a very slight imperfection. The package wasn't damaged so it looks like it was like this before it was mailed to me.
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I have had a Triax dish like this.

Its possible it was done in the factory when it is picked up by a machine because it looks the same as the 'dent' in my dish.

If you can install it temporarily where it will get a bit of wind exposure it will just pop out when the dish oscillates slightly in the wind.
 
hexah said:
I have had a Triax dish like this.

Its possible it was done in the factory when it is picked up by a machine because it looks the same as the 'dent' in my dish.

If you can install it temporarily where it will get a bit of wind exposure it will just pop out when the dish oscillates slightly in the wind.
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I think if it had been pushed in it was already popped out by the time I got it and now it's just the creases in the metal that where left. The dish face is now in storage since it's got no mounting and LNB brackets so isn't much use but I just can't throw it away...
 
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