Hi guys,I am currently in the midfinal stages of planning an throttle quadrant. But I came a cross an problem.... wich materials to use???I saw that many of you builders use materials like wood, aluminum and some other stuff. But I thought making the throttle levelers from multiple layers of acrylate plates would be the most simple solution.Acrylate plates are availeble in different thicknesses ranging from 4 to 8 mm.How do you guys think about it?thanks,Gallie

Hi Gallie,If you are talking about the top curved surface of the quad...I might suggest that you stay away from Acrylic. It is very fragile and can crack and break if you are drilling or cutting.If you have some machine tools that you can use, you may want to check out Polycarbonate which is about 30 times stronger than Acrylic. If you don't have tools...look into multiple layers of acetate (thicker types) or something called PETG. These you can cut with a knife.If you don't need clarity...then multiple sheets or one solid sheet of polystyrene works very nicely.In another thread on this forum, someone had mentioned a foam PVC. This material is used in the sign business a lot and goes under many trade names such as Celtec, manufactured by Vycom or another brand called Komatex. These sheets are sold from 2mm and up and are precolored if you don't want to paint.Now, you will still need an understructure to mount the plastic sheets to, and easiest is to use wood, either solid or plywood.The plastic will be bent around the wooden forms and glued or screwed in place. I have used a heat bender or a vacuum former to "form" the plastics, but I don't recommend it because it is very hard to control the rate of bend. Good luck, and hope this points you in the right direction.Kenwww.DakenSkys.com

Thanks Ken,I think i'll continue with polycarbonate and see if it works.Gallie

Why don't you check out the pictures on my site to see how I did it easely with a water-tube I got from a local "water-work-company".If you get what I mean. The pipes are made out of PVC and they are about 4mm thick. They are 16cm diameter but they can be streched out to 25cm if you cut them in the richt place and then bend.Carefull though, they are very strong so maybe you'll want someone to help you keep it in place while you put the long screws in.The fun part about this product is that it's:1) cheep (the local water-copany will get ridd of any part shorter than 1m)2) it is very strong material so your throttle quad will be accidentproof ;)3) it almost doesn't break ! or you'd have to be very strong to break it !4) you can drill it easely and even jigsaw it.