Machining/Bullnosing G10 - Ideas Needed

[bsurvey]

suggest you use the g 10 under deck as a oversize backing plate for your hardware, on the deck under the stanchions will not spread the load as the load is on the through bolts

[jhulmer]

I'm currently doing a lot of fabricating with G10 on my refit and I have been able to do all the cutting and shaping with conventional tooling.

The trick is to lower the speed of the bits and use water on the cuts. I have used hole saws and router bits (carbide) with no problem. just use variable speed drills and routers.

I took a water bottle and put a small hole in the top to make a squirt bottle. A little messy but it keeps the nasty dust down too.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Some of the tips here are definitely ones I'd not thought of, so they're very much appreciated. Not sure I'll try water cooling my router though

[krisb007]

Delrin?

[Pauls]

G10 will do a better job of spreading the load. One side of the load is in tension which is taken by the mounting bolts. The other side is in compression. Using a strong mounting base spreads that compression across a wider area, strengthens the joint, and makes it less likely to leak over time, as Uncivilized states.

The G10 will degrade when exposed to UV, so paint them before install.

Personally, I'd just use a mounted belt sander with a belt wide enough to cover the length of the pads. With a little practice you can make very nice radii and it will cut them quickly.

[Captain Denis]

Would Starboard work?

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by Captain Denis

Would Starboard work?

I'm guessing not, since, if memory serves, it doesn't have the best compressive strength. Such numbers are easy enough to look up. But if you watch things like stanchion bases, you can see the deck around them flexing when someone applies significant loads to the stanchion. This happens even on decks with stiff cores, or that are solid glass. As evidenced by gelcoat cracking or crazing in a large number of boats in these areas.

[Cheechako]

Why not just fiberglass blocks? McMaster Carr has fiberglass sheet to 1" thick.

[Cheechako]

I don't think I would worry about Starboard as far as compression goes. I might worry about them staying sealed from leaks though. One nice thing about Starboard would be no need for paint and related maintenance etc

[jhulmer]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Some of the tips here are definitely ones I'd not thought of, so they're very much appreciated. Not sure I'll try water cooling my router though

Electric shock makes you work faster!