Backing pads made from High tech plastics?

[LadyStardust]

I want to fit the brackets of my Hydrovane wind steering to my canoe stern by producing a large block of wood cut to fit over the stern, a bit like a backing pad. One side would have a U or V shaped cutout to go on the stern and the other side flat for the bracket. I have been told by Hydrovane to check out new materials like Micarta® in preference to using teak, Does anyone have any experience of such materials, where do you get them and how do you work with them. I have attached a picture of the kind of bracket I need to fabricate.

[image]http://www.lady-stardust.co.uk/sternmount.htm[/image]

Cheers,

 

[sailorman]

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[yogi]

Micarta is hardly high tech as some British blocks were made of it at least fifty years ago. I believe another name for it is toughnal. It can be machined like wood but wear a dust mask as the yellow powder that comes off is not very healthy to breathe. Look in the phone book under plastics. Also known as phenolic it comes in many grades.

 

[FullCircle]

...tufnol.
You could also use delrin. Even have a block of aluminium billet machined and then anodised.

 

[Scarron]

I'd second the suggestion for Delrin [also known as Acetal] we machine it all the time and it is beautiful to work with, dimensionally very stable, not hygroscopic like nylon 6/6, UV Stable and is widely available in either black or natural [slightly off white].

Try any engineering plastics supplier, and get a friendly machine shop to shape it for you.

Paul.

 

[Blueboatman]

In answer to the second part of your question:How to work the material into the required shape?You can start by making some templates from cardboard of a contrasting colour to that of the material.
Then it depends how handy you are but you should be able to rough out the required shape using a bandsaw,jigsaw(watch the heat build up)and a 4inch angle grinder fitted with sanding(not grinding) discs.Wear goggles ,clamp the material in a vice and with practise and a light touch you can rough out the concave inner profiles.Remember it is going to be bedded to the hull with eg sikaflex so does not have to be mirror smooth.
It helps to get the bolt holes drilled fairly early on too then you can verify that it is aligning correctly as you continue to trim it..The last face to make would be that against which the Hydrovane casting sits..
I did mine with laminations of teak,the advantage was that with sanding imho it is easier to get a smooth external finish on a piece of wood thanit is with plastics...

 

[LadyStardust]

Thanks very much for that, I will check out the local plastic suppliers to see what is available, but also take some teak with me. Unfortunately the boat is in Gran Canaria waiting for the start of the Arc in November and I will have the 2 weeks prior to departure to do all of this, probably hanging over the pontoon or from a dinghy! I hope i don't have to lift the boat out.

Cheers,

 

[Blueboatman]

Hi PaulC,
There is another possibility(maybe)
When I was in Lanzarote there were some fantastic deals on getting stainless steel welded..its a big fishing industry and the steel is subsidised by the Spanish government I believe...
Not sure about Gran Canaria,you might have to ask the ARC organisers.My mate Torsten had a pretty good business going fitting Windpilot windvanes to all sorts of sterns.Don't know the current situ though.
If you want to do it in good old wood,may I suggest getting the 2 blocks rough cut in the UK and then finessing with the good old grizzly disc on an angle grinder when you get back to the boat ?
By the way,imho Hydrovane is a superb bit of kit !