I need to jump in on this one. I was going to write a long treatise on the good points of wood but decided why waste my time. Those who know wood, and I mean all wood (not just construction lumber) know the strength's of this material. I remember a few years back when my stepson was given a school project to build a bridge out of a few bits of bass wood. It was a contest to see who's bridge would hold the most weight. With a little help from yours truly (on some design details) Russell's bridge handily won. While his held close to 200 pounds everybody else was snapping at under 40. Wood has many strength's and weaknesses. Like any building material one needs to know how to work within it's limits, and build to it's strengths.
Last time I checked the Cromwell is still one of the highest performing tanks in the hobby and one of the lightest. It's built from wood and a few bits of aluminum and steel here and there. There are no layers of fiberglass to make it paintball proof, just a coat of waterproof glue and some house paint. The drive sprockets are made of wood (cabinet plywood) and they show little wear after six years. The tracks are wood and all the guide teeth are still in place (though there are screws driven through each one for extra strength). The outer track pads (made from cherry) are wearing down but that's mainly due to running on asphalt when demoing at events over the years. To fix this I'll be gluing more wood on them when I get around to it. The Cromwell has been rolled, run over, dropped, run into mini-vans, hit trees at speed, hit the Navarone gun at speed (left a nice hole in the turret), demolished 1:6 scale barns, and it is still going strong with minimal repair required. About the only yearly maintenance is that I have to sledge-hammer the 1/2" hardened steel front and rear shafts straight because they get bent from the stress the wooden chassis and track system puts on them. Steve Tyng On Jun 12, 3:00 pm, Cobra9431 <[email protected]> wrote: > No doubt wood far from the top of the list in "High Performance > Materials". The point I tried to make was simply that wood is the > basic all purpose medium able to be used for just about any thing. I > would still recomend it to anyone who is not specilized in an > alternitive building material, PVC would be fun to work with tho. > > Aaron F > > On Jun 12, 4:24 am, Clark Ward Jr <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Aaron - look at the pics of Derek's KV-2 and ask yourself if those > > curves could be easily relicated with wood! Don't get me wrong, my > > tank hull is in wood, I love wood (to the point of having a wood shop > > and building boats out of wood), but there are superior materials > > available. > > > On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 6:06 AM, Derek Engelhaupt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > PVC can be formed with a torch, it routes better, it's waterproof already, > > > and it's just as easy to work with as wood. > > > That's why I like PVC. > > > > Derek > > > > On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 8:43 AM, Cobra9431 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> I'm curious as to what you expect achive with other materials that you > > >> can't with wood? It's cheap, simple to work with/repair, and very > > >> forgiving with mistakes made. Yes it can be thick, heavy, and less > > >> cool, but it has always worked. > > > >> Aaron F. > > > >> -- > > >> You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. > > >> To post a message, send email to [email protected] > > >> To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > > >> Visit the group athttp://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat > > > > -- > > > You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. > > > To post a message, send email to [email protected] > > > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > > > Visit the group athttp://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat > > > -- > > Clark in Georgia- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text - > > -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat
