How to cut Fiberbuilt mat base

[abendre23]

Hello all,

I purchased a 10'x10' Fiberbuilt combo hitting mat which should arrive this week. I have a Par2Pro Impact Screen whose cage is made of 1" steel pipes. The screen is 110" wide, and the steel pipes stick out about 1-2 feet from the front of the screen.

I want to install the Fiberbuilt hitting mat flush to the front of the impact screen with the base sitting on the ground rather than on top of the pipes, so need to cut some paths within the rubber base of the mat to accommodate these pipes.

Any ideas on how to best cut these? Not sure how hard the rubber base is. Should I purchase a saw, use a 1" masonry drill bit?

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Anup

[jasonreg]

Not a 100% certain I follow what you are trying to do, but if I have it correctly - i.e. you want to cut a channel to accommodate your base EMT pipe, you may want to try a jig saw to cut the rubber base. It is pretty solid rubber - a knife would not cut it I do not think, and I think a drill would be too difficult to control. My two cents.

[abendre23]

Thanks for your help and recommendations -- you stated it better, I need to cut a channel to accommodate the 1" pipes. I will try a jigsaw and perhaps use a masonry drill bit as a back-up.

[JayEmCee]

Do you have access to a router? A router with a jig should allow you to do this easily as well as keeping very clean (although I realize you will not see the underside) but you don't want to cut too deep, the router will allow you control the depth and width.

[abendre23]

Thank you for the recommendation. I do not have a router, but I know my neighbor is a tinkerer/maker and probably has access to this. I will look into it.

Thanks again!