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There's been discussion about using fiberglass rods instead of wooden
dowels to support spinning plates. Just a note of possibly applicable
warning from my personal experience. I bought a couple of fiberglass rods
(I think that's what they were made of) that were sold for the purpose of
marking the corners of my driveway for guidance when parking. One day I
accidentally hit one of these with the lawn mower. In the vicinity of the
cut, the rod shattered into many small needle-like fragments. Each looked
like a long thin wood sliver but still had the strength of fiberglass. I
spent 10 minutes picking them up out of the grass so my cat wouldn't get
into them. If one of the little fibers gets into your skin and breaks off
it's pretty annoying.

Maybe the rods being suggested for the plates are different, but I feel
obliged to point this out as a possibility.

Steve Fentress, Director
Strasenburgh Planetarium
Rochester Museum & Science Center
657 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607 USA
phone (585)  697-1946
fax (585) 271-7146
e-mail [log in to unmask]
www.rmsc.org

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