Stainless steel backing plates, thoughts, where to buy?

[hellosailor]

Jon, even without leaking alu & s/s are notorious for not getting along. No leaks needed, just condensation or atmospheric humidity, and they often self destruct. "Proper" construction in marine or aviation shops will always, always, always, use separators and goo in between the two because they simply can't be trusted.

Check your boat tomorrow morning, you'll find the plates have all fallen off overnight just to spite you. Or, they're waiting for an even loess convenient moment. :-)

[Waltthesalt]

I went out to my local metal salvage pace and got a nice chunk or SS. I've used it for backing plated for all my stanchions and a number of cleats. Didn't cost all that much. With a hack saw, metal file and drill you can cut it, make the edges and corners fair and have a brushed finish that doesn't look all that bad. Doesn't take much money only time.

[Capt Len]

Zip cut disks on an angle grinder makes ss easy to work. I've even showed up at the scrap yard to cut out the piece I want. At a buck a pound you don't want too much waste. Much industrial scrap is already pretty polished .

[SloopJonB]

The posts about getting the stuff sheared and punched reminded me of a summer I worked in a machine shop in high school. I had forgotten about the 100 ton multi-cutting machine they had - sheared flat sheet, angle iron, round bar and punched holes like it was hard butter.

If you have ever worked S/S with hand tools, you will recognize that it would be worth spending the money to have it done. I certainly will in future - there is no question that S/S backers are better, stronger and better looking compared to aluminium. I think I'll just take care of finishing the edges and polishing them in future.