Where to find this "mesh"

Hi,

I’ve seen the following material being used for electronics mounting on both wildstang’s robot, and the 33’s robot. What is the name of the material, and where would I find it? It looks like chicken wire:

http://www.wildstang.org/2003/inventor/photos/images/a1IMG_1984_JPG.jpg

McMaster Carr has this mesh. http://www.mcmaster.com/ Search their site for perforated metal and you’ll find it. Then choose your material (most likely aluminum).

it is called perforated metal. you can buy it from mcmaster carr “9232T111” but most likely any metal supply place to you locally will give you a better price.

How strong is that material?

that depends on your definition of strength, the best way to describe it is just sheet metal with speed holes pre-drilled.

I don’t know how strong it is, but the perforated metal is nice because we can ziptie speed controllers, circuit breaker panels, and many other things to it

Its not particularly rigid stuff; you can easily bend it with your hands. We usually just flange the sides and rivet it to the chassis. For our purposes (electronics board) it works great.

Exactly what I was going to say. We use it for our electronics not very strong but is really good for electronic purposes. :slight_smile:

This material is aluminum with 1/4" holes. You can buy it from McMaster but look at the catalog closely to purchase holes the way you want them spaced. The material is not strong in and of itself, but when it is stretched across the sqaure tube chassis parts and riveted in place, it is like an aircraft skin. As Karl pointed out, zip ties make an excellent, cheap and light, mounting for electronic parts. Replacement of bad parts is easily accomplished in a few seconds. Not to mention that light can enter throught the material for working inside. Although the holes will never line up for all the parts, you can’t beat this as a base as it makes a perfect way to tie wires and PWM cables down so they won’t pull out/off connectors and push ons.