Another new dew shield for the AR-6

I was really disappointed with the supplied dew shield that Meade includes with the AR-6 so several months ago I made one that is a perfect fit from 8" Sonotube lined with black felt. That one is 11" long but kind of heavy.

Well, it looked like painted Sonotube even as nice as it worked and I was starting to want something that worked and looked a little nicer.

I used a piece of thin sheet plexiglass that is commonly used to cover cheap framed prints you can buy at the local mall print shop.

After measuring for the circumference I cut the piece by scoring with an Exacto knife and snaping it on the edge of my workbench with a 60" steel rule on the top of it clamped to the edge of the bench.

Forming was the difficult part. That plexiglass is really flexible and it tried every chance it got to get away from me while I was trying to position it to clamp it for gluing.
I used a 1" wide strip on the inside of the length of the dewshield to have something to fasten the edges to. Using C-clamps and my trusty 60" steel rule, I used an industrial super glue to bond one edge to the 1" strip and allowed it several hours to dry. Then I curved the other edge of the dewshield around to the 1" strip and used the C-clamps and an 2" oak strip of wood down the center inside the shield.

After it dried and I released the clamps it was perfectly round and fit right on the AR-6's front cell inside of the plastic cell flange. I used a plastic primer spray paint and then Gloss White Rustoleum on the outside. After lining the inside with felt and allowing it to dry I found that the felt pads on the cell fingers to hold the stock shield had to come off. After removing those the new shield fit perfectly.

It's a bit on the thin side, a little thinner than I would have prefered, but I already had it laying around in the shop and it will be so high in the air there's not much chance of it getting banged up.

It's 15" long and has a very nice factory appearance. All for the cost of about $5. The OTA from stem to stern is now at 60" at prime focus.