Nylon or other plastic to replace small pieces of plywood

slawosz said:
Hi,
I found this on ebay: Nylon 6 Plastic Sheet Block Plate | All Sizes | Natural (White) | eBay
What I read, nylon could be a good replacement for plywood. I plan to use it for backing plates, to mount clam cleats higher, and similar applications. Is it good for it, or I am mistaken. Also, maybe there is a cheaper alternative to it?
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I can never remember the properties of all the different polyethylenes & nylons but direct plastics have lots of info.
Hdpe choping boards is a good shout, I've come across people elsewhere putting them to interesting uses.
 
Unreinforced plastic is a lousy backing pad material, it's just not stiff enough; encapsulated it could replace a plywood pad as it's only resisting compression but as a backing pad it won't spread the load at all.
 
Meant to suggest phenolic board (not the phenolic ply - different stuff) amazing material if you can find it anywhere.
 
Kilo said:
I can never remember the properties of all the different polyethylenes & nylons but direct plastics have lots of info.
Hdpe choping boards is a good shout, I've come across people elsewhere putting them to interesting uses.
Click to expand...
Wow, direct plastics is exactly what I need.
Re backing plates, I will probably use aluminium or big washers.
 
HDPE (cutting board) is quite possibly the WORST choice of a material for backing plates. Ask a material or mechanical engnieer. Under pressure it creeps, thus failing to protect the core from crushing, which is the primary function. It also has a tendency to crack over time from stress--I've seen this MANY times. You likely won't see the crack until it fails. There are many threads to this effect, since it is a commonly suggested shortcut.

GRP, aluminum, stainless steel, and even a few layers of additional glass are all better choices.

Nylon has much lower creep than HDPE, so if over-speced, it should be OK, just not for very high loads. But if you are buying something, GRP is a far better choice.
 
I have used HDPE as a backing for a 85hp outboard motor without issue.

For very heavy loaded backing pads for cleats, bollards and chain plates I use stainless steel
 
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