Yes, I have used pine to do a wood/fabric L-19 look-alike. Incidently, there is a major kit supplier that uses clear southern pine in their light sircraft. I have also built a KR-2 with locally cut spruce careful to use the staightest grain and zero knots. On a 2nd KR I also went to the local lumber yard and spent the afternoon going thru the stacks of construction grade spruce 2x8's etc pulling out the odd knot free and straight grain board. When the grain was not as straight as I like, I re-sawed the boards and laminated them to their best advantage. I once found a stash of redwood as staight and close grained as I ever saw, and built a set of wings for another, as yet unfinished, aircraft....but not before I experimented with it, building two blue grass F-5 mandolins. They proved to be every bit as strong as the usual spruce topped instruments but lacked the tone quality. Mahogany is another great wood to work with if you can get straight and close grain stock i.e. quarter sawn. This is occasionally available but you have to spend a day going thru the suppliers stacks. Finally, I have three projects in my shop right now, 2 of which are being built with Douglas Fir. I found the fir at a local hardwood supplier for cabinet makers. It was being sold as exterior porch flooring. It is a bit stronger than spruce but also 10% heavier. I am using this to make a 70% scale AT-6 Texan and a wood copy of Molt Taylors (Aluminum) Mini-Imp. This has a dramatically curved fuselage so the longerons had to be done as laminations. Surprisingly I once saw a great selection of both fir and clear pine at HOME DEPOT building supplier. In summary, you do have options. ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Stowers" <stowers62...@yahoo.com> To: <kr...@mylist.net> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 5:08 PM Subject: KR> spruce vs other woods
>I was wondering if there was anyone that has used other woods for aviation >projects instead of spruce. Spruce is getting hard to obtain at reasonable >prices and there are other woods that are stronger, but a little heavier. I >am looking at a larger engine so I think the weight issue could be balanced >off. > > Any help would be appreciated. > > David Stowers > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html >
