Zagato
Well-Known Member
Apart from wood, what do people use as a backing spreader plate for some deck fittings... my wife's plastic chopping board looks just right for the job! Just needs chopping up!
Plastic chopping board for backing plate!
- Thread starter Zagato
- Start date
Poignard
Well-Known Member
My aluminium mast has been standing on a piece of plastic chopping board for many years to insulate it from the galvanised steel mast-step.
mikegunn
Well-Known Member
I find that polyethylene chopping boards are a very good source of material for use as backing plates. Keep an eye open for bargains from pound shops etc.
Mike
Andrew_Trayfoot
Well-Known Member
Ikea is also a good source
Quandary
Well-Known Member
They are free if you take them from the kitchen and the surface will have been abraded, their regular disappearance encourages the retention of a spare so no harm done,they are useful as mounting boards too.
Zagato
Well-Known Member
Great, seems to be obvious and widespread then....and I thought I had a genius moment. Thanks
noelex
Well-Known Member
They are very good for isolation of dissimilar metals, but not in my view good as a load bearing under deck backing for deck fittings (if this is the application you had in mind).
The material is not strong and bolts heads tend creep to pull through the plastic even with large washers.
Better is to use, aluminium, stainless steel, fibreglass, or fibreglass /ply.
The material is not strong and bolts heads tend creep to pull through the plastic even with large washers.
Better is to use, aluminium, stainless steel, fibreglass, or fibreglass /ply.
Neeves
Well-Known Member
I'm sorry to be such a killjoy - and people do complain about me
I am sure someone will pop up and tell you why you should not use chopping boards (but it will not be me).
I had the same quandary and having used offcuts of marine ply I made my own by simply laying up glass and resin. It depends what you need the backing plates for but you can lay up multiple or single layers of glass, I use 750gm glasss. Lay up on a sheet of polythene, as a peel coat, and then as many layers as you want. You can chop them up to whatever size you need bond them with Sika or with resin - so they become structural. Thin sheets flex so the match hull curves. You can cut with a hole saw or angle grinder.
If you make big enough pieces one batch will last for years.
If you wanted to be fancy you could make them from foam and glass.
Depending on the application I have also used 3mm stainless plate and 5mm aluminium plate.
Jonathan
I am sure someone will pop up and tell you why you should not use chopping boards (but it will not be me).
I had the same quandary and having used offcuts of marine ply I made my own by simply laying up glass and resin. It depends what you need the backing plates for but you can lay up multiple or single layers of glass, I use 750gm glasss. Lay up on a sheet of polythene, as a peel coat, and then as many layers as you want. You can chop them up to whatever size you need bond them with Sika or with resin - so they become structural. Thin sheets flex so the match hull curves. You can cut with a hole saw or angle grinder.
If you make big enough pieces one batch will last for years.
If you wanted to be fancy you could make them from foam and glass.
Depending on the application I have also used 3mm stainless plate and 5mm aluminium plate.
Jonathan
DinghyMan
Well-Known Member
As noelex says above: chopping boards are usually HDPE which creeps under load and is unsuitable for backing plates
Davy_S
Well-Known Member
If you visit a Plastic fabrication place or stockist, you can buy half inch thick nylon sheet, they make spatulas for the food industry out of this, you can buy off cuts that work well as backing plates.
sarabande
Well-Known Member
I agree with Noelex and DavyS. Don't use HDPE where you want dimensional stability for a critical application.
Yellow Ballad
Well-Known Member
I recently asked a club member about using HDPE for backing pads on my Sea Feather and he said he had it for an outboard mount. The HDPE ended up slipping slightly against the glass with vibration causing the holes in the glass to oval giving him a bigger job.
I opted for 10mm G10 which I've rounded the edges, this will be stuck in with thickened epoxy, a fillet edge and then glassed over whilse I'm at it. I'll be replacing all the soft ply the same way in due course.
I opted for 10mm G10 which I've rounded the edges, this will be stuck in with thickened epoxy, a fillet edge and then glassed over whilse I'm at it. I'll be replacing all the soft ply the same way in due course.
Poignard
Well-Known Member
I don't know what my 30' aluminium mast and ancillaries weighs but the piece of domestic chopping board on which it has stands has not crept anywhere since I fitted it in 1998.
fisherman
Well-Known Member
I had a nylotron bar on a pot hauler, very expensive, got three replacements from one chopping board. Then i found Bay plastics....
Cut to size plastic such as Acrylic, Polycarbonate, Perspex & Plastic Fabrication | Bay Plastics Ltd
Cut to size plastic such as Acrylic, Polycarbonate, Perspex & Plastic Fabrication | Bay Plastics Ltd
STATUE
Well-Known Member
Warning : they won't be around for long !
Those who count themselves as aficionados of 'Saturday Morning Kitchen' or 'Master Chef' will have picked up that plastic boards are riddled with germs, chefs are now running scared and embracing wooden boards, far more healthy .
Those who count themselves as aficionados of 'Saturday Morning Kitchen' or 'Master Chef' will have picked up that plastic boards are riddled with germs, chefs are now running scared and embracing wooden boards, far more healthy .
pvb
Well-Known Member
Surely wooden boards are absolutely teeming with germs?
Poignard
Well-Known Member
A friend of mine used to be a butcher and he told me that his shop reverted to wooden chopping blocks as being easier to clean.
ithet
Well-Known Member
I recently made spacer pads for a mainsheet track from nylon blocks. Loads of suppliers on ebay who will cut to size. Same sources will provide you with HDPE also.
TernVI
Well-Known Member
I used some bits of GRP from the boatyard skip. Some nice thick bits where someone had cut out an extra portlight, and some others. Cut to shape add a few layers of matt and resin. Bond in place with chopped matt and resin 'mash'.
salar
Well-Known Member
Another gotcha from my experiences with using chopping board - sealant won't stick to it so that has disadvantages if you were thinking of gluing in place, or if it is over something that you want to remain watertight.
