Cumulus Support

Hi all,

I'm looking to add an additional screen to my set up. One day (fairly soon) I shall construct a full on Stevenson, but in the short term, I want to do some trials with additions to the stock item.

Does anyone happen to know how the saucers that make up the stock screen are held together?

I can see there are 4 points where a connection could be made from one disc to another. 2 of them seem to be simple moulded in pins for stability perhaps, and the other two are plugged by what could be a long sprue of plastic, travelling the entire height of the unit. Maybe they are glued, but the base end of them can rotate slightly if held (gently) with a small pair of pliers.

Has anyone had one apart and is there a trick to doing that so it's also reversible?

I was looking to add a support bracket at the top on each side, I was thinking perf strip and maybe a screw or something along that line. I can do it that way at the base but can not see a good way to do it at the top yet. The holes in the base will take an M3 bolt or screw which will just grip, but only just, additional fixing is probably required and sensible.

There is only so far I can go at present as my panel unit is defective and it will all have to be returned for exchange, fairly soon hopefully.

I've taken mine apart, as far as possible.
There are two long plastic rods, with a larger diameter head at the bottom to retain the saucers. The upper ends are glued into the top cap, and therefore they cannot be removed.
I carefully shaved down the sides of the heads (using the mini chisel on my Swiss Army knife) until they matched the rod diameter, so allowing the saucers to slide off. Unfortunately the two saucers below the top cap on mine must have copped some super glue too, and they are stuck fast to the rods
To retain the saucers on reassembly, I drilled 1mm holes through the trimmed ends of the rods, and slipped short pieces of wire through them.
Why did I bother? I wanted to paint the insides of the saucers matte black, as per the latest fad for stevenson screens.
I don't know if it made any difference, but it was a challenge I couldn't resist .....
The biggest improvement I have found, is to keep the unit out of the sun altogether. I've now got mine strapped to a tree trunk, and the foliage does a great job of shielding it - very happy with the temps I'm now getting.

Thanks very much for the great info Ned,

It's sort of as I suspected! I shall just have to get a bit more inventive with my top mount in the short term then.

I know exactly what you mean about the black and the challenge!

Maybe on the tree you need to spray the underside of the leaves black?

Flying Eye wrote: Maybe on the tree you need to spray the underside of the leaves black?