cheap instrument mounting pod for binnacle

[tjfmmaes]

Hi

I want to mount a single raymarine ST60 instrument on my binnacle (just a U shaped tube) but don't want to pay £150 for a pod as that seems a little excessive for some plastic & fixings. Does anyone know of a cheap alternative? I was thinking about just a plastic electronics box but can't find a decent looking one (yes cheap & vain, a bad combination) The dimensions of the instrument are W110xH115xD41. I know I could mould one myself, but I am not that great with grp, and anyway, buying the raw materials would be difficult around here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thomas

 

[AlistairC]

I used rectangular vent ducting from a well known nasty DIY store.
It comes in 1m lengths, so I cut the ends at angles and sealed.
It looked really good for £10!

 

[tjfmmaes]

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea! How did you seal it? With heat or with silkaflex or the like?

I guess I will be off to my nasty x&y then!

 

[AlistairC]

I just made a marine ply bung and sikaflex.
I think you can get end caps however, and I'd probably investigate that if doing it again.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Two thoughts.

Make one out of ply, seal and paint.

Look around a housewares store. Quite possibly you'd find a food storage box of the right size. Paint it white on the inside and Robert's your mothers brother. Or you could use it as mould for a DIY GRP one.

 

[hubert]

Nasa do an injection moulded pod to take two 110 mm square instruments. They are very robust and cost about £30-

 

[andf]

I seem to remember an article in one of the mags on this subject. The writer used a Tupperware type sandwhich box of the right size and sprayed the INSIDE white. He used the thing back to front with the instuments mounted in the bottom of the box (on the outside) and used the lid as a snap on cover. The whole thing was mounted to the stainless tubes using stainless clips of some sort. Could work if you could find a box of the right size.

Crianza

 

[AlistairC]

Its a shame I dont have a picture of what I did, (on a previous boat)
That looked very expensive.