Valve shields ....paint ?

[Guy Boisvert]

Has anyone ever painted the vacuum tube shields on an amp/pre-amp or have heard of same ?

Guy

[caffeinator]

I have painted the shields on a couple of Seductions.  Both the removable shield and the flange (fixed) portion.  Easy enough to do; make sure your prep is good and have at it.

They've been on the Seductions now for a few years.  Paint is still holding strong; the shields don't really get all that hot.  I doubt there's any effect on sound or other performance measures, though I've got no side-by-side comparison data to substantiate that.

[Grainger49]

I painted my Eros tube shields.  I didn't paint the bases so there is an aluminum ring below the shields.  Also, I only painted the outside of the shields.

[Guy Boisvert]

Thank you for the replies. My idea was to spray paint just the outside of the shields, - so as to match the transformer paint job. I did not anticipate doing the bases because I  thought it prudent to leave the metal to metal contact intact.

[caffeinator]

Good point on the metal to metal.  I painted only the outsides of the shields also, and after the bases were dried, abraded the paint on the interllock features (little bumps in the metal) to make sure there would be good contact with the shield uppers. 

[Guy Boisvert]

Just curious, did you remove the base to paint them ? or had you painted them when you started construction ?

[caffeinator]

I painted all the sheet metal before I began assembly.  Iirc, the bases were separate from the sockets so it was easy to paint them (not sure on this - it's been a while.)