Someone a while back recomended this and I decided to do it. Since I couldn’t just go somewhere and get it I had to wait til someone could take me to get a cutting board. After about a month of waiting I decided that I’ll just use ours so I’ll have one now and since my mom needed it she’d go out and get it. It made it one of her top priorities because she’d need one. Again being fourteen I didn’t have the proper cutting tools and whatnot so I just got my grandfathers 20 year old hacksaw. My mom came out when I had just started cutting and she said I’d never get it done…so I decided it was a must. I cut it in the shape of my pedal and laid it on and of course it was’t perfect…but I wanted it perfect. So, I got a hammer and a screwdriver and chizzled some off until a huge piece of the edge came off. It put me in a bad mood and I did NOT want to have to saw another one so I laid it on and accepted it. I never have really liked super glue. I had loctite super glue which I had hoped about a month ago would keep my pedal on but it fell of in a day so I bought new ones. I also didn’t have any screws to screw it on. But, I did have a lighter, and it was a plastic cutting board. So i laid the plate on the pedal and burned the edges to where they melted. The pedal is plastic so it burned to, which I think is a good thing so that it will be harder to come off. I went all around it mushing/mashing it in and mixing it with a screwdriver and its on now and feels firm. I haven’t used it yet because its still pretty warm and not hard yet. I’ll have pics as soon as I can convince my sister to let me use her camera or as soon as she falls asleep.
It doesn’t look fantastic but its at the bottom of my pedal and it slides easily so I don’t mind.
I can see the cutting board plastic being a very good sliding surface for grinding. Even when roughed up (by the knife) it still feels slippery, unlike some other types of plastic which just get rough. If/when I ever need some grind plates, I’m going to do this, albeit with metal plates to hold it on. I doubt melting it on is going to be very permanent at all. Good luck with it though!
A similar material is Ultra High Molecular Weight PolyEthylene (UHMWPE). This material is highly cross-linked for exceptional toughness. Nylon nuts and bolts are available that would be good for attachment.
No plastic should be melted with an open flame and still expect any toughness. The temperature of an open flame will shorten the molecular chains to the point of being useless. Just cut, saw, drill, or hack to fit.
www.mcmaster.com has UHMWPE and VHMWPE in various forms at a good price.
UHMWPE is what i use for risers on my telemark ski bindings and it is SWEET! it would probobly work better than a cutting board, which i use. the cuttingboard is great because it is so cheap and easy to manipulate. it also slides pretty well.
Are you guys using a huge thick chunk of the cutting board? Or are you cutting the board in half, width wise, or maybe you guys are getting thinner ones lol.
The cutting board I have is about an inch thick lol, I wouldnt ever put that on my pedal! well, at lest not for a while.
