Colyn,
Try Minco at www.minco.com.  They manufacture flexible heaters. They have
also come out with a thermostat module to drive the heater element.  You can
also get the heaters with temperature sensors integrated into the flex
heater.  They might be pricey, but not excessively so considering the price
of other airplane parts.

If you need a ceramic puck style heater try Grainger.  We used one at work
to provide a heat source for a project.  It was about 6" in diameter and
dissipated about 400W.  With the flex heaters you could wrap it around the
vent tube or the static port to keep it warm.

As for where to find industry and industrial components, try Thomas Register
(www.thomasnet.com).

Raymond Balister

-----Original Message-----
From: Colyn On Earthlink [mailto:colyncase@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 2:54 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: finding industry sources for things - heater pad

Can someone who does this regularly give me a clue on how you go looking for
the industry source of some part or other?

Right now I'm looking for a little heater pad to warm a static port and
another one for a fuel vent.  Given it's sitting on resin it should be
thermostatically controlled and not enough power to burn a hole.   If I
google "heater pad" I get retail parts, none of which do what I want.   I
think I want the name of the company, e.g. that makes the pads and
thermostats themselves.

Colyn Case
802 730 4026