Flying on the Cheap - Wood

Spoken like a true idiot that never looked at Home Depot lumber.

David Melby Cavalier wrote:

...

If Fred plans to build a plane from wood purchased from Home Depot, he
should also build a pine box. He will need it. I have never found
wood acceptable for aircraft at HD or any other such outlet. Why pass
on such bad information?

Have you ever looked at the FAS Doug Fir they stock next to the
hardwoods?

--

FF

wrote:
David Melby Cavalier wrote:
...

If Fred plans to build a plane from wood purchased from Home Depot, he
should also build a pine box. He will need it. I have never found
wood acceptable for aircraft at HD or any other such outlet. Why pass
on such bad information?

Have you ever looked at the FAS Doug Fir they stock next to the
hardwoods?

I bet either "no," or the stock in his region may simply be lower quality.

Personally I've seen some very knot-free and fine grain birch and fir at
the local Lowe's. Of course, there is also plenty "doghouse grade" wood.

Lowe's is fifteen minutes closer to me than HD

Jim Carriere wrote:
wrote:
...

Personally I've seen some very knot-free and fine grain birch and fir at
the local Lowe's. Of course, there is also plenty "doghouse grade" wood.

Lowe's is fifteen minutes closer to me than HD

Other than plywood I've never seen birch in one of the Borgs after
visitng
more than a score of them in four states. Selection is highly
variable,
even within the same company in the same region.

If you don't like what you see in one, go to another.

--

FF

If Fred plans to build a plane from wood purchased from Home Depot, he
should also build a pine box. He will need it. I have never found
wood acceptable for aircraft at HD or any other such outlet. Why pass
on such bad information?

Must disagree with this. You should look a little harder. I have many
board feet of really tight grained, vertical sawn, dry, straight
hemlock (not hemfir, a fast growing commercial mutant wood) found right
in the trim/banister section of our local Sutherlands. Our
independant lumber outlet occasionally has 8/4 shop doug fir that also
meets AC standards for all criteria. I know of a couple of Piets built
long ago with white pine ribs with hardware store flashing leading
edges.

Years ago, I heard one of the FAA guys give a lecture about final
inspections and the use of AC grade materials. At that time he made a
comment that homebuilders were the ones that certified the materials
and that as far as they were concerned you could use wet cardboard and
shaving cream to build your plane. As long as you could back up your
material choice with a least some data anything went. However, he did
mention that they could also restrict you to 200+ hours ground (taxi)
testing prior to flight.

Even Rutan ignored the AC quality thing on the first Vari-eze since
there wasn't ( and may still not be) anything such as AC certified foam.

gorgon wrote:

If Fred plans to build a plane from wood purchased from Home Depot, he
should also build a pine box. He will need it. I have never found
wood acceptable for aircraft at HD or any other such outlet. Why pass
on such bad information?

Must disagree with this. You should look a little harder. I have many
board feet of really tight grained, vertical sawn, dry, straight
hemlock (not hemfir, a fast growing commercial mutant wood) found right
in the trim/banister section of our local Sutherlands. ...

Splorf! It sounds like you got your species information from a
clerk at the Home Depot. The last ime I asked one iif their
Hem-FIr was Helock or Fir he said it was probably a hybrid!

Hem-Fir is a softwood lumber association _species group_, like
SPF, only one level higher up in quality. Hem-Fir may be Western
hemlock or any of several Firs, it won't be any species of pine,
larch, Doug Fir, or spruce and the minimum tensile strength
requirement for that group is higher than for SPF, but lower than
for Southern Yellow pine, or Doug Fir.

It may be fast grown or not, but it isn't a hybrid or a mutant any more
than SPF (Spruce, Pine or Fir) is a mutant or hybrid wood. Most
Douglas Fir and Southern Yellow Pine sold by the Borgs IS fast
grown and bears little resemblence to old-growth despite being the
named genus, or group of species.

--

FF

Even Rutan ignored the AC quality thing on the first Vari-eze since
there wasn't ( and may still not be) anything such as AC certified foam.

The Rutans ignored a great deal of "proven" practice in their
homebuilt designs yet after they proved unable to make a direct drive
pusher VW work in the prototype VariEze (which others had, having less
theoretical knowledge but much more common sense than Burt and Dick)
decided only certified aircraft engines were any good. Then they freely
instructed builders to not only ignore but defy manufacturer's
instructions, such as not operating the O-200A as a pusher.

In other words they are talking out their mouth and ass
simultaneously. When one or the other Rutan does buy it, I won't cheer,
but I'm not going to get lachrymose either. Honebuilders don't have the
sense to figure out Rutan F'ed them and kicked them out before dawn
like an acne-ridden fat broad picked up at a bar.

wrote:
...

Any mention of splicing spars usually sets several heads of hair on
fire, even though such splices are an accepted practice, their details
fully covered in the old CAM or the new AC13 manuals. In fact, once
you've made up a suitable fixture to ensure all of your splices will
have the same angle, doing a long-splice in solid wood is no more
difficult than doing a short-splice in plywood. (Hint: Solid wood,
you want an angle of about 1:15. With plywood, thanks to the
orientation of the plys, you can develop full strength with angles
between 1:10 for mahogany and 1:12 for birch. As a point of interest,
boat builders commonly use 1:8 for either.)

Making up a scarfing fixture tends to drive a lot of homebuilders crazy
as they fiddle and tweak, trying to achieve a precise angle of 3.8
degrees for a long-splice. Or 7.1 degrees for a boat-work 1:8. The
truth is, the precise angle doesn't really matter. What matters is
that all of the pieces be cut to EXACTLY the SAME angle... and that the
splice be strong enough for the task at hand. This degree of accuracy
can be achieved using nothing more complicated than fixtures assembled
from scrap wood, one for scarfing solid stock, the other for scarfing
plywood. In each case the wood gets clamped in the fixture and the
same cutter - - a portable circular saw - - is used on both.


I recommend that Fred pick up and tune a couple of hand planes.
At the very least I think he'll find a block plane and and jack to be
useful, especially for those scarf joints. Old Stanley, Union,
Ohio Tools, Sargent, Millers-Falls, KeenKutter, Winchester, or
Fultons are excellent, and better than any new planes found in
the Borgs today.

--

FF

Nice article Veeduber, I doubt I'll ever build from wood, or from scratch
for that matter but I enjoyed the read. Thanks.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Nice article Veeduber, I doubt I'll ever build from wood, or from scratch
for that matter but I enjoyed the read. Thanks.


That's really my feeling as well.

Peter