On 05/06/15 23:04, Tim Wescott wrote:
I'm looking for product names to look for.

I'm working on an instrument for a customer, and he's having me do the
whole-system design. This means I'm out of my comfort zone and playing
with mechanical issues.

It needs a big outer case (well, four feet long, by nine inches by two).
I'm thinking of doing the outer case from fiberglass for a number of
reasons, not least of which because I'm familiar with its
characteristics, and the instrument is going to be used on or near bodies
of water including salt water.

I'll need to attach things to this outer case. My current thinking is to
used buried studs and/or nuts, and use thumb-nuts and thumb-screws to
actually attach the bits. I'm assuming I want to use brass or stainless
hardware for corrosion resistance, and I probably want to take some pains
to match alloys.

McMaster is failing me for appropriate hardware. I'm finding thumbscrews
and thumb-nuts, but I'm not coming up with good candidates for nuts that
I can bury in the fiberglass. I'm assuming that the case will be a two-
part assembly that's glued together; nuts that can be buried in one side
and then captured in the gluing-up process seem to be the best notion to
me, but if someone with actual experience has alternate suggestions, I'll
listen (I may not _take_ your suggestion, but I'll certainly _listen_ and
_think_ about it).

So -- suggestions? I'm probably wanting some 4-40 or 6-32-ish sized
ones, and some 10-24 (or 1/4-20). The bigger ones may work better as
studs, with thumb nuts. I'm pretty sure that I want nuts for the little
ones, unless that presents severe difficulties.

I think the type of thing you're looking for is shown here
http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.u...fasteners.aspx