is anybody able to...

[The Negotiator]

Hello everyone.

Sorry to be asking this but I have a favour to ask. I am currently finishing off a laptop desk I have made myself (aluminium for cooling with retractable mouse slider). Part of the design requires some sort of spacer and currently I would like some plastic rod (be it nylon, acetate etc. just so long as it is fairly lightweight) diamter approx 1cm-2cm that I could cut into pieces to use for this. I.e. plastic rod is a solid cylinder. I only need about 20cm length of it so going to a plastics company is difficult as its not worth their while!

Does anybody work in a company where you could get a short length of this for a small amount and I will pay postage? OR can anybody think of something I could use. My prototype uses wood pieces but I want something nicer for my new improved version. Best idea I have had so far is plumber's tubing BUT i would then have to fill the hollow and I dont really want to do that.

Regards and thanks in advance.

paul

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[arc]

i'm just about to nip up to b&q and halfords and a few other places, il keep my eyes peeled for something useful


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[The Negotiator]

Cheers Arc, I mean to go to a few places like that but I can't think why they would sell solid rods....cheers for looking out

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[JonnyBoy]

Any chance you could post some pics of your prototype? Might be able to come up with an alternative to the plastic

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[The Negotiator]

OK, will do now, i'll try to flag up what I where I want the spacers for. NB: it will be 4+ large pictures

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[sammiboo]

"my" james is a plumber with his own business, i don't know if he could get hold of anything - if you want me to ask him, just PM me with exactly what you are looking for and i will ask him when i speak to him tonight

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[The Negotiator]

First picture shows the thing as a whole so you can understand what I am trying to do. My first prototype had an aluminium top and a hardboard bottom, wooden spacers with an aluminium mouse tray with again, wooden spacers. (the rail parts which hold it tight). My new version is so far all alumium, top and bottom plates, mouse tray and rails.

This picture shows the spacers better I mean, they sepearate the top and bottom tiers so that the mouse slider can have space to go in and out and to help cooling when the laptop is being used fully like in gaming, the air gap means air is drawn out and doesn't reach my poor lap!

This shows the slider I have made and the whole thing upside down.

Again, the spacers, along this side there are only 2 to allow the mouse tray to go in and out, the other side has 3 and there are 2 more in between. This time all out of square cut pieces of wood and glued to the metal. The glue bond has broken as you might see on some of the pictures which is why i decided to make a much better version, this is why i need something solid in order to give me as much glue contact area as possible.

Cross section from the front, shows how the slider goes in and out.

I was going to buy one of these (well, similar, IMO not as good!) but it was going to be about £80 once it got into this country, so far this has been free because I have most of the materials/my grandpa does.

Hope it helps, if anybody has a powerful and hot laptop, I suggest making something like this - it works great but takes some effort to get nice - hence why my first one isn't that good.

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[The Negotiator]

I am so sorry about the size of the pictures, i thought photobucket would resize to make them less than 250kb but obviously not! Sorry again.

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[JonnyBoy]

I'd go with the wood spacers, but glue them in with heavy-duty contact glue (horrible thick rubbery stuff) as the it's near-invincible. Does a damn good job holding my sub box together anyway!
You could also paint the sides of the spacers silver with model paint to make it look better.

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[The Negotiator]

I could do that, and I have "aluminium paint" ready and waiting BUT I would just prefer it to be a "nicer" looking material considering the amount of metal work gone into it so far I reckon wood might ruin it a bit. I could use contact glue I guess, i originally used "no more nails" type stuff which took a little longer than I expected to set and hence why one side of the spacers hasn't glued properly, a lot of the aluminium used in my first one is also slightly unlevel so it didn't help. I do expect wood MIGHT hold better than plastic given the more permeable surfaces...

Will still looking but thanks for your and everybody else's input so far.

Paul

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[custard]

http://www.cakecraftshop.co.uk/shop/6/88/235/ hows about something like this 10mm diameter,or you could find out the diameter of the tier seperating pegs as they may be about 20mm

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[The Negotiator]

NEarly perfect BUT I think 10mm is just too small...given my design, would you agree? I will try to find out about the tier separating pegs but they must be hollow? Cheers custard, I never ever would have thought about cakes....lol

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[custard]

depends how small the hollow is you may be able fill the gap with 10mm,or even use wooden dowel inside it if the plastic is just for asthetic effect

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[arc]

didnt spot anything at halfords apart from the those LED tube light things, and by the time i rode to b&q it had closed.. oops!


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[The Negotiator]

THought about filling plastic tubing (plumbers tubing) with wood and then we just had the trouble of finding correct sized dowel to fit. My best idea was the expanding foam that sets hard, but we have none of that, it would fill the hollow and then be filed down to fill exactly, weight of that is practically negligible! Just buying some of that for this tiny thing is too expensive for me I think! I have spent 30 mins searching the web, I guess I will just look for a plastics company and phone and ask for a few waste cuts if they have any (be a bit cheeky!). I can't believe how difficult it seems to be to find a bit of plastic rod! lol. Cheers custard.

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[The Negotiator]

Cheers for keeping your eye out for something arc, I might pop down to wickes etc. tomorrow if i get chance and walk around aimlessly looking for something.

Paul

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[sammiboo]

Paul - i dunno if it would work but how about those strips you can buy for boxing wire in, i use them for all the wire in my room - dunno what the proper name for them is though, they are white plastic and also have adesive side! sorry i am being really unclear

I have a bling* bling* shiny blue thing

 

[custard]

do you know what would be perfect for you is those perspex cylinders that are at the top of some escalators to stop you getting your hand trapped,wouldnt want to get caught defacing an escalator though LOL

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[Stu DemonD]

What, conduit trunking???

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[sammiboo]

stu - ??????

I have a bling* bling* shiny blue thing