Homemade Coil Skidplate

[phrunt]

Outstanding, PVC's pretty tough, should work out well.

[Norvic]

22 minutes ago, Lesgold said:

I may try some polycarbonate in the future to see how it compares

Bunnings sell 0.8mm Polycarbonate in a roll 1.2x1.2m. 0.8mm does sound a bit thin but being PC is tough as nails and outlasts/lighter than factory skidplates that arent made of PC. At that thickness can cut with Wiss snips or similar.

[Lesgold]

Phrunt, the multi tool would be a great option for people without a lathe. Thanks for the info Norvic. .8mm does sound a bit thin but it may be worth a try. I think I might look at 1.5mm material to see how it pans out. The PVC has one big advantage and that is the price. You can buy it very cheaply or get offcuts from a plumber for nothing. Weight wise it is 24 grams heavier than the standard skid plate but with the extra thickness, it may not be an issue worth considering. The field test will be the main thing for me. If it stands up to a bit of rough treatment when it gets hit against rocks and tree roots etc, it may be worth keeping.

[jasong]

That's a nice result, good work! 

Just be careful with PVC though, I'm not usually one for nanny warnings but it emits pretty nasty gases at temps that I'm sure a heatgun will get to, at least the surface of the PVC. Hydrogen chloride is hydrochloric acid when a liquid, and carbon monoxide can kill with no ventilation. That's why it's not used for 3D printing anyways. Polycarbonate should be safer. I think TPU would make an interesting skid plate, or even entire coil body requiring no plates, plus way quieter, but it's pricey. 

[peterinaust]

Well done🙂 Is the skid plate dead flat across the bottom Les or is it dome shape?

[Lesgold]

Thanks for the heads up on PVC Jasong. I’ll make sure that I’m careful with its use.  I work in a well ventilated area so that helps but I wouldn’t like to be doing this too often after what you said. Looks like the polycarbonate might be a better long term choice. Now that I have a couple of spare skid plates, I won’t have to do  any more work on this for quite a while. Peter, the skid plate is flat on the bottom but one photo gives the impression that it may be domed. I must have angled to coil slightly so that it gave that impression. I did notice that this morning after I’d posted. My bad, sorry.

[Hobo]

way back before they. invented coil covers I cut a big rubber band out of a inner tube and stretched it around the coil.

[dig4gold]

7 hours ago, Lesgold said:

I suppose you could use fibreglass. It would be a simple task to make a mould using the lathe. It would be interesting to see how a skid plate would wear over time with glass fibres being exposed as the resin wears away. The resin itself is a bit brittle and may chip in use. Not sure on that one to be honest. I do know that I hate working with the stuff. 

Nugget Finders early coils were fibreglass as was Minelabs "Dust Bin Lid" mono coils for the SD2000. 

Nice job on the coil cover too. Fun project. Thanks for sharing.

D4G

[Lesgold]

Thanks Dig4gold. It’s amazing how things have progressed over the years. The old coils must have been extremely heavy.

[GotAU?]

Great looking skid plate!  I like your design for the molds, and didn’t know you could do this with a PVC pipe.

A homemade circle cutting jig on a router table would also work for this if one doesn’t have a lathe:

https://www.woodsmith.com/article/cutting-perfect-circles-with-the-router-table