I need to get my hands on some ali honeycomb (sandwich) sheet. 0.3" to 0.5" thick.

Does anyone have any, or can recommend a good supplier?

Cheers!

Does it have to be Ali honeycomb - there are alternatives to this sort of thing...

How much do you want? I have some leftovers - If its loads then try Hexcel - thats where I got mine Near Cambridge - Nice people.

given up on the carbon fibre chassis already?

or have you been reading "how to build bike engined racing cars" ? if not, its a good read and has a section on ali honeycomb construction...

The tub designer recommended bonding ali honeycomb sheet in for the floor.

I'll need a sheet about 200cm x 100cm.

Cheers guys.

Sorry I have nothing that big left. Hexcel will make you what you need. They do commercial and aircraft spec - seems to turn on cell size. They will face the core with your material of choice. I had them make some core faced with 7075-T6 skins - very hard and tough (but expensive)

With a span of 1m x 2m you may want to go a bit thicker than 1/2". bending is improved by the thickness - I used 19mm and 10 mm for my tub the 10mm was surprisingly floppy!

The outer skins can be very thin without loosing much strength.

If you want to try something more DIY what about "Niloplast" a plastic core you could bond that with epoxy to the aluminium skins of your choice

Thanks for that. I'll give Hexcell a buzz in the morning to see what they can do and what it will cost me. I'll check out the nylaplast.

Thanks again.

Scotty

I bought my stuff from Hexcel a while back but a commercial 1/4" cell faced with NS4 (hardish) was about £200 for a 1.23 x 2.5m sheet (circa 2002) my 7075 was nearly double that.

Niloplast which is a honeycomb faces so that the glue/resin will not fill the cells is available at http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/


I intend to make an undertray from this stuff faced with CF/Kevlar

Scootz,


I don't want to seem like a wuss, but....

That material is great for strength to weight as the skins can be so super thin, but I'd worry about its resistance to impact from something flying up from the road.

Maybe test it out by throwing sharp bits of metal at cut-offs, I think you would start worrying about your nethers.


The floor area isn't massive, so why not go with 2mm carbon sheet (carbonmods perhaps).


Matt

p.s. really enjoying your journey

I was under the impression that honeycomb was great for improving rigidity (in monocoque tubs for example) but it is not very good at taking knocks from debris and dents quite easily after the skin is penetrated. It makes good crumple zones though.

Cheers guys. Surely it can't be any worse than the 1.2mm ali sheet that many of us use for the floor panels in our Se7ens?

I remember when I butchered my Caterham that it had honeycomb sheet between the body skins and interior panels to protect against cockpit intrusion.