On 07/06/15 07:40, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 09:01:46 +0100, David Billington wrote:

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
Thanks. This is an excellent start, but the UK part is a bit of a
barrier for this Oregon boy.

It was just a pointer to the sort of things that are available. I've
dealt with that company and knew they sold them, I'm sure when you look
you can find lots of similar suppliers in the US.