Model Forum / General / Rockets / October 2007

"Homasote" or acoustic ceilng tile works wonderfully well and will
hold pins.

For cutting, a self-healing cutting mat works wonders and will last
forever.

Earl

Hi Bruce,

I'll tell you what NOT to get.  My wife got me a 24 x 36"
'self-healing mat' for cutting.  I discovered that although the mat
stands up to a fair bit of abuse during cutting, it does NOT heal
itself if you cut through the surface layer.

For the workshop, I bought a 700 foot roll of plastic-coated kraft
paper for cheap on Ebay.  Roll it out plastic-side down.  When I'm
tired of the lumps of cured epoxy, filler dust, etc, I roll it up,
toss it, and do it again.

You might consider a sheet of masonite on the benchtop.  Very smooth
surface, cheap, easily replaced.

Best -- Terry

For model rockets, I usually use a piece of scrap cardboard.  Sometimes I
use an old box lid which doubles as a place to store things between building
sessions.

For the larger rockets, I use a section of hardboard.  It's relatively
inexpensive so I replace it when it gets dinged up.  I also have a large
cutting board I bought at Sam's Club.  It has a rough surface which isn't
good for cutting, but is good for other things as it keeps things from
sliding very easily.

-- Roger

I went to Wal-Mart and bought a huge sewing layout pad. It is made of some
kind of self-healing plastic and is marked out in 1/2" squares. Over-all its
about 30" X 30"  and set me back about $20.00  IIRC, it was made by Fiskars
but there were a couple of knock-off brands too.