Solar Concentrator Mirrors - How to attach?

[Indyplumber]

Do you have the dish that has a mesh screen on the back? If you do you could glue/attach a 1/4" nut to the back of the mirror, use a short piece of threaded rod and secure the rod to the mesh with more nuts and washers.

[cdig]

yep, mesh screen! I was thinking along the same lines, but I want to give the mirrors a little more strength by glueing them to a piece of plywood or something, and then attaching the hardware to that. I think I'm going to try 1/4" plywood with a couple coats of barn paint to seal it.

Thanks for the input!

[ThomSjay]

Originally Posted by cdig

yep, mesh screen! I was thinking along the same lines, but I want to give the mirrors a little more strength by glueing them to a piece of plywood or something, and then attaching the hardware to that........
Thanks for the input!

If you could get your mirrors fixed and focused, then you could lay the dish mirror-side down and coat with low-expansion foam over everything. This will help spread the load.

And as I'm thinking about this I thought "What if a mirror broke? How would one replace it?" An option would be to spray or brush cooking oil or something similar on the mirror backs. This would prevent the sticking and the foam would be right at the mirror back still supporting it.