McMaster Alum Perforated/Expanded Bellypan

[Jibsy]

I've been working on designing a WCD style drive in Solidworks, and deciding what to use for the bellypan. I've read many of the previous discussions about the pros and cons of custom aluminum sheet bellypans. My goal is for minimal machining, without compromising performance.

I was just browsing McMaster-Carr and tripped across perforated and expanded aluminum sheets. The perforated comes in a few different thicknesses, the expanded only at 0.032".

The perforated sheets come 36" x 46" for from $45-65. The expanded sheets cost a little more.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#perforated-aluminum/=k3tbg0

http://www.mcmaster.com/#aluminum-ex...-metal/=k3tc8z


Any thoughts/experience relating to these? More resource efficient than a custom one, but still has the cool-factor of an aluminum bellypan.