A Soft Spot for My Sailplanes

Waffles aren’t just for breakfast any more.

About 15 years ago, I ran across some hospital mattresses at a local surplus depot. I couldn’t have designed a better item for preventing bench rash. Over the years I’ve kept an eye out and occasionally pick some up.

The ones I’ve found come in 33" to 36" x 72" and 2" to 4" thick. The dang things are convoluted — and that’s what they’re called — Convoluted Foam Bed Pads.

This is a 4" thick one, but I use the 2" thick ones the most. No more bench/hangar rash. I cut one in half to use on a regular basis, and use the larger one when I am working on something with lots of parts I want to spread out.

Also, I never have to worry about a small part or screw ending up on the shop floor or getting lost.

They just fall right into the dimples. That includes those teeny tiny itsy bitsy control arm screws from micro servos.

I paid $10 each for the ones I got, but they are worth it even if you have to get one from a hospital supply. Search around. Price ranges from $18 to $80.

Hope this helps and thank you for your reading!

©2022 Tom Broeski

Resources

• Convoluted Bed Pads on Amazon. — A wide variety of sizes and suppliers.
• Egg Crate Convoluted Foam Hospital Bed Mattress on Ebay. — This one is $25 delivered.

All images are by the author. Check out all of Tom’s Tips here in the New RC Soaring Digest. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.