[Public-List] track car slides

[Rachel]

On Mar 6, 2008, at 9:45 AM, J Bergquist wrote:

> .
>
> 2 other thoughts I had. One is that the fiberglass board that rachel
> mentioned is called G-10 or Garolite (if I am thinking of the same 
> stuff).
> It's basically very high fiber volume fiberglass. McMaster does sell 
> it in
> sheets, bars, tubes, and other extrusion forms. It's not cheap, but 
> it's
> great stuff. I use it for backing plates all the time and for machining
> other kinds of small parts. It's dense, strong, hard, machines to a 
> nice
> finish (although it will dull your tools in a hurry), and doesn't rot.

The pre-made fiberglass board at McMaster comes in several variants.  I 
forget which letter designation the dark green variety is, but it's 
cheaper than G-10.  G-10 (a light pear green color, IIRC), is made with 
epoxy resin, whereas the dark green (basic) GRP board is made with 
polyester resin.  There's also a red (electrical grade) FRP board 
that's somewhere in the middle, which is better than the dark green if 
you're going to be tapping it.  I think Garolite is the fiber/fabric 
impregnated phenolic board that is dark brown -- something like the 
stock used in the Tufnol blocks of old.

Let me follow that up by saying that I'm sure about the dark green and 
the red, because I use those, but I'm a bit foggy on the letter/name 
designations for the light pear green stuff and the brown phenolic 
fabric impregnated stuff.  I might be wrong about some details of those 
last two.

McMaster has a really good online catalog where they explain the 
various properties.  Although none of it is cheap, you can buy it in 
small quantities (and if you can use the dark green that helps the 
budget, too).

Like J said, it comes in some handy shapes. The angle shape is nice for 
blocking in water and fuel tanks, making wavestoppers around hatches, 
holding down batteries, and the like.

It's true that it doesn't exactly cut like butter, though :D  (I used 
the red variety to make backing blocks for my new seacocks.)

Rachel


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