aircraft grade materials

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Raider L

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When I worked for the airlines, from time to time we'd use this material to go inside a hole to keep wires, hoses, metal tubing from being chaffed, scraped, or cut. Someone called it "alligator clips" due to the teeth like pieces along the edge that looked
like...teeth.
Anyway! You can find a thousand uses for this stuff.

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There is somekind of a part number on this piece, 3500?
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See, it will conform to a shape and in most cases will stay there with a very small amount of adhesive.
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I didn't cut the whole piece but you can see that if you put it in a hole and cut to fit, it will stay without adhesive. I believe the material is nylon.
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This part number is MS 21266-3N. "MS" is a military designation. I'll bet @oldretiredafguy would know what this was and may even have a working name for it. I don't know if this company is still around but..Hey. So if you are doing some modding on you Square and need something to put around the edgte of it, use this instead of slit rubber tubing. It'll look classier!
 
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oldretiredafguy

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I remember seeing it in engine bays and avionics bays. It's used to protect wiring bundles from chaffing while passing through the lightening holes. A lot of folks don't realize that metal has all its strength in the edges and bends. Its been common practice since aircraft production started using metal in the 1930's to cut circular holes in as many structural lengths of metal as practical to reduce weight. Race cars also use the technique, as well as the heavy trucking industry.

MS means Military Specification or Mil-Spec. Military designations for fasteners include MS, AN, and NAS.
 

Ellie Niner

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I remember seeing it in engine bays and avionics bays. It's used to protect wiring bundles from chaffing while passing through the lightening holes. A lot of folks don't realize that metal has all its strength in the edges and bends. Its been common practice since aircraft production started using metal in the 1930's to cut circular holes in as many structural lengths of metal as practical to reduce weight. Race cars also use the technique, as well as the heavy trucking industry.

MS means Military Specification or Mil-Spec. Military designations for fasteners include MS, AN, and NAS.
Ford also used the swiss cheese method to lighten their light truck frames for 1980. They must have taken it a bit too far, as solid frame rails reappeared for 1982.
 

Big Ray

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I remember seeing it in engine bays and avionics bays. It's used to protect wiring bundles from chaffing while passing through the lightening holes. A lot of folks don't realize that metal has all its strength in the edges and bends. Its been common practice since aircraft production started using metal in the 1930's to cut circular holes in as many structural lengths of metal as practical to reduce weight. Race cars also use the technique, as well as the heavy trucking industry.

MS means Military Specification or Mil-Spec. Military designations for fasteners include MS, AN, and NAS.
And, the flanges (lips) give the metal strength and rigidity.
I'm a retired civil service aircraft sheet metal mechanic of 35 years.
I spent the last 20 in the manufacturing shop. It always amazed me how a simple bend or bead in a piece of flimsy, thin sheet metal would make it so much stronger. I was learning things right up until I retired...
 

Big Ray

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funny part, when I was a kid I always thought lighting holes was for lighting to pass through whenever the aircraft was struck! Lol
 

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I grew up not knowing that pickles were cucumbers.
 

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