Europart universal heavy-duty oven liner

ManWithBeard1990 · November 26, 2014

First: let me give you a disclaimer of some sort: This IS pc-related. This is not an endorsement of this particular oven liner, but rather a report on my experience with an oven liner in general. Not for lining an oven though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00M97CZL4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

I purchased this product because, since it's PTFE-coated, I wanted to find out what it would be like as a mousing surface. I own a MadCatz R.A.T. 5, and I was very pleased with the ergonomics of the thing. I've read many reviews reporting poor reliability, but so far I've been lucky.

Unpackaging the product, which arrived -in typical Amazon style- in way too big a cardboard box with lots of packing material, revealed a black piece of material, about suitably sized to line an oven tray, as you'd expect. It seems a little thin though. Like it might blow away in a fan-assisted oven but it says heavy duty on it so it'll be fine. You could trim it down with a pair of scissors if you wanted to but I didn't. Unlike regular mousepads it doesn't have a soft foam layer underneath so you may want to use some kind of desk mat underneath it for uneven surfaces. For mousing the surface felt better-than-average in the friction department. I squirted a few drops of sewing machine oil on top, wiped down thoroughly until almost no residue was left, polished the skids on the mouse a little, and the result was undebateable.

It's by far the slickest, slipperiest surface I've ever put a mouse on. Give the mouse a shove, and it keeps going like a hockeypuck on ice. A few hours later most of those oils seem to have gone away but the slipperiness is mostly intact. It's only part of the story though. The most prevalent problem I've had with a sensitive mouse is when trying to move it precisely I tend to get sticktion. What this means is it takes a small amount of force to get the mouse moving, and then you overshoot your target. This doesn't happen with the PTFE thanks to the mass of the mouse and the low friction.

The fact that the material is a sort of impregnated fabric , in my mind, would have helped with tracking in optical mice since the weave is still visible, but this is not true. The material is too dark in color for my older, cheaper Logitech optical mouse to track accurately. The laser sensor in the R.A.T. 5 seems unaffected.

In all I'm pretty happy with this somewhat unconventional use of an existing product, and wanted to share the knowledge. The fact that it doesn't really seem to work that well with (cheap) optical mice is surprising, but not really a problem. Just thought you'd like to know. And oh yeah, one more thing, ball mice probably won't work either. You need friction for that

chilicheeseburger · November 27, 2014

Not a bad idea actually.., How'd you come up with that?

Did you try using it without the oil first?

From what it reads like, it just seems a bit too slippery, but I can understand how that helps with precise movements and I guess that's the reason why you chose to try this instead of going for a regular mouspad.

ManWithBeard1990 · November 28, 2014

Not a bad idea actually.., How'd you come up with that?

Did you try using it without the oil first?

From what it reads like, it just seems a bit too slippery, but I can understand how that helps with precise movements and I guess that's the reason why you chose to try this instead of going for a regular mouspad.

Well, I was looking for a Teflon mousepad and couldn't find one. So I decided to make my own, searching for a teflon sheet. This was in the search results.