A shout out to McMaster Carr for amazing customer service. I am replacing some old mismatched ball valve/thru hulls with real seacocks and wanted to use G10 material for the backing plates. What is really good is I ordered it mid afternoon Tuesday and received it before noon today (Weds.). Also good is you can get a 6x6 sheet or a 12x12 sheet. Now 6x6 is 36 sq. inches while 12x12 is 144 sq. inches, so over four times as much material for less than twice the cost! A 6x6 will make one backing plate, a 12x12 will make 4.
What is bad and ugly? Another distributor sells individual bronze flat head machine screws. I needed 6 for two seacocks so I ordered them plus a couple spares in case of mistakes. When I went to order the nuts and lock washers I found minimum order quantities of 100 washers and I think 50 nuts and these are pretty expensive items each. Why would they sell individual screws but not the nuts and washers? So back to McMaster Carr where the minimum order was like 25 so I ordered them thinking I have two more through hulls to do in the future so I won't have too many extras for spares or to donate to a worthy cause. The nuts and washers arrived in less than 24 hours also and I didn't ask for rush shipping.
Here's a shot of the garolite with one circle laid out for cutting. My protractors are at the boat so I used the old calculus method of approximating a circle by a series of straight lines, not too bad for shaky hands.
What is bad and ugly? Another distributor sells individual bronze flat head machine screws. I needed 6 for two seacocks so I ordered them plus a couple spares in case of mistakes. When I went to order the nuts and lock washers I found minimum order quantities of 100 washers and I think 50 nuts and these are pretty expensive items each. Why would they sell individual screws but not the nuts and washers? So back to McMaster Carr where the minimum order was like 25 so I ordered them thinking I have two more through hulls to do in the future so I won't have too many extras for spares or to donate to a worthy cause. The nuts and washers arrived in less than 24 hours also and I didn't ask for rush shipping.
Here's a shot of the garolite with one circle laid out for cutting. My protractors are at the boat so I used the old calculus method of approximating a circle by a series of straight lines, not too bad for shaky hands.
