I am making a baseplate for my ITBs along with a custom designed air filter. I am not sure what material to make the baseplate from - is 2mm about right?
Secondly, it is a bit of a strange, complex shape and has tabs for fixing the foam filter down (similar to Pipercross etc) so what is the cheapest way of cutting it out? Waterjet comes to mind but I am open to ideas. I will of course provide a CAD file for all the measurements but it is roughly 400 x 250- Here's the shape for reference...


Baseplate

Hi Raz, I would not have thought that you would need the backplate to be 2mm thick. 1.5mm was what I used on the Jenveys and it was fine. Much easier to work and drill and of course lighter.

just get the whole thing cut out on a waterjet (or laser if you prefer, for whatever reason) 2mm will be ok, though you probably could go thinner

Aha, I've got some 1.5mm here so I might 'knife & fork' it to see if my design works first, and then get a quantity water jetted when the orders start pouring in

The design for the foam filter will have an identical shape (obviously) but I am not sure what material to make it from. I notice that Ramair & Pipercross make their foam filters on a 15mm(ish) thick plastic frame with a mesh former to support the foam, and I'd like to do something similar ..... but where can I find some suitable plastic? I used something called Foamex when I was a signmaker but I don't think it will be strong enough for this application - it needs to be quite tough & heat resistant. MDF would just disintegrate wouldn't it?

Any ideas guys?

[Edited on 12-1-11 by RazMan]