wood selection video

[Rick Bollinger]

I am posting this here to see if there would be enough interest to try to get Sparky to do a video.  About showing the proper selection of wood. Including ribs, formers, fuse sides, sheeting all of it. Proper weights and showing close up video of the different grains and densities. This would be great for those of us that are trying to move up from kits that may not have had the best or appropriate wood in them to go by.

[Jim Roselle]

That would be awesome.

[Dan McEntee]

   A video with today's technology would be interesting but I wonder how much you could really see. Part of good wood selection is by feel also. Ans also by weight. There is light, firm wood, which is what you want, and light punkish wood, which you don't for most applications. In SIG catalogs, there was always a sections on modeling basics, including wood selection and how the different grains are cut from a log. I have never seen it explained better. There was a lady named Esther as SIG years ago that graded and sorted wood, and she could tell you was the weight was just by picking a sheet up by the edges, in the middle of a sheet and bouncing it a bit, and be VERY close when actually weighed on a scale. Years ago, when I was first getting interested in free flight, I order some contest balsa from some where, asked for specific grain samples, and could they please mark what they were. I think it might have been Lone Star, but they did as I asked and I was able to see first hand what the good stuff was so when I checked out the local hobby shops and craft store displays, I new what I was looking for, and a small kitchen diet scale told me what was 4 to 6 pound stuff. There are all sorts of density charts on the internet these days, but I think the SIG web site has that stuff from the old catalogs on it now and can be down loaded.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee
    Type at you later,
     Dan McEntee

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

I have been building and flying model airplanes for at least forty years and still don't know how to select wood properly.  I live out in the boondocks and have never really had a mentor to show me this stuff.  I have read tons of stuff about wood selection but it still escapes me.  I think Rick's idea is a very good one for those of us that don't have mentors we can go to. 

Dan's thoughts about touch being important is also valid, but if Sparky did this video (which I hope he does), he could describe the feel of the wood as he is showing it.  That would take it far beyond all the articles one could read!

So Sparky....what about it....time to be the professor of model aviation that you so richly are?  I'd get down on my knees and beg, but I got bad knees!

[Fredvon4]

I actually have several future projects where..example: I want to build a Nemesis II as Howard Rush calls out on the plan...

Pat Johnston did a superb job with the short kit...now I have to source very specific grain and density wood for the LE, Spar, TE pieces

The weight is not so hard , but I do not seem to have any skill at grain selection...even after studying Sig, and other source, descriptions

Example...I seem to find a lot of wood that is the correct range of weight BUT grain varies within the length of the sheet/plank and always has some curve or warp.....grrr

I have wasted a box of sheet wood trying to strip 48 inch long by 1.5 inch TE pieces because the good looking wood, once parted from the 3 or 4 inch sheet turns into a wavy unusable crap piece

[Motorman]

Fred, strip the wood 1/8th bigger than you want it then take a sliver off each edge to straighten it.

MM

[Fredvon4]

DOH!!! Head slap


where the hell was that advice 3 sheets ago!!!! grin

Thanks a lot MM...makes real good sense...I just nibbled off one section to be square but a tad undersized...

Can teach old fart new tricks...   really POed that I did not see this obvious solution

[Randy Cuberly]

The guy to get to explain about balsa wood selection would be none other than Riley Wooten...not much the old guy doesn't know about Balsa wood!

Bob Hunt would be a great person to get a building and foam cutting video with!

Randy Cuberly

[RC Storick]

I have wasted a box of sheet wood trying to strip 48 inch long by 1.5 inch TE pieces because the good looking wood, once parted from the 3 or 4 inch sheet turns into a wavy unusable crap piece

Try this. When you cut a sheet of wood of any thickness it will usually seek its own way. Meaning because it's a living thing it will try to go back to it's rest state and always warps or bows in the direction of the grain. Instead of cutting draw 2 parallel line and sand to those lines for a straight piece. Always works.

[Steve Helmick]

I believe it was Ted Fancher that wrote about this problem. Cutting with a knife/razorblade relieved stresses or induced stresses (I can't remember which), but bandsawing didn't, for some reason. Maybe he could revisit the subject?

"A grain" is straight grain. "C grain" is that pretty flecked stuff...very stiff across the sheet, it's easy to split by accident. "B grain" is halfway between. It's not uncommon to have a sheet that's C grain on one edge or one end, but B grain for the remainder. Likewise, when you're looking for an "A grain" sheet, it is likely that one end or edge can be "B grain", which doesn't work well for molding shells or rolling Wakefield motor tubes.

One of our problems is that the C grain and sticks are more fragile and often get damaged at the LHS before it's sold. This makes the owner of the LHS unhappy. So, he wants, and the source produces, C grain and sticks from heavier logs. This isn't ideal for those of us who want light C grain and sticks, so we may have to avoid the LHS, and order double or triple what we really need. And then specify grain and density, pay a premium price, and hope and pray that we'll receive enough of what we want to get a project completed and light enough to make us happy. That's it, in a nutshell.  Steve