[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

I'm not familliar with red wood other than the pictures one sees from time to time of the giant ones on the west coast.

Thanks for sharing your experience Kip! Some good ideas there!

The willow I have been playing with is Laural Leaf Willow,a fast growing, larger variety. Found some fire killed, standing dead 6 years for fire wood. I saved several larger, straighter logs & cut one up to 1/4" square strips to build with. When I got back to them several weeks later they resembled pretzels! I had no idea that strait grained dry wood could do that!

Thinned out to 1/8 strips it is quite flexable even without soaking so should be good for laminated wing tips.

I also have some 8" straight logs of fir from BC that I'm itching to try...

[tallone66]

My experiance with cedar.
Living on the coast here, cedar is quite plentiful. Although I have never built an airframe with cedar, I have built lots of other things ( Picnic tables, fences, decks Ect...) plus all sorts of small projects.
Wonderful wood to build with, has a fantastic fragrence when fresh cut. Unbelievably durable to weather and it's effects, main reason why is the natural oils that are in the wood. This is what would concern me if building airframes that rely on glue joints. Not certain what the integrity of the joint would be given the fact that the iols stay in the wood for years, and slowly seep to the surface. The second concern would be the tendancy of cedar to check crack as it ages and the natural oils seep out. This is why cedar decks and the likes need periodic maintainance with oil based products to maintain the ligivity of the product. Now as a one piece spar, cut to dimentions, it would be fantastic. I have seen several recurve bows made out of both yellow and red cedar, WOW, these bows are awesome.
I definatly am not trying to bash anything you have done here, just giving some experiences I have had working with Cedar over the years. For all I know, I might be dead wrong, and you may have hit a home run with a different wood that could change the way some modlers build.

Cheers
Derrick

[williame3590]

Keep the willow for the wing tips Merv.

Bill

[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

Originally Posted by tallone66

main reason why is the natural oils that are in the wood. This is what would concern me if building airframes that rely on glue joints. Not certain what the integrity of the joint would be given the fact that the iols stay in the wood for years, and slowly seep to the surface. The second concern would be the tendancy of cedar to check crack as it ages and the natural oils seep out. Derrick

This has been brought to my attention several times. The wood I am using is siding off of a house we owned a few years back. It was likely 25 years or more on the side of the house & has been sitting in our quanset for the last 18 years so is pretty well cured. That was also why I left this fuselage sitting around for another 3 years after glueing it together - to see if the glue would stick to it long term. Now I want to flight test it for that very reason!

Spruce seeps sap for a good many years too but they still use it for full scale aircraft.

On the splitting issue, that may be a green wood thing, non of the boards that I ripped & ran through the planer 3 years ago (from 3/4" down to 1/8") have split or cracked, again old stable wood.

Someone said to me "cedar is too brittle, it splits too easy!" and my immeadiate thought was "so - balsa - is not?"

Thanks for bringing it up though, it's definately in the back of my mind!

Merv

[tallone66]

Cool, one thing about Cedar, is it can be brittle, in particular red cedar, bit if cut straight grained, it is quite strong. For a good experiment, A person should try yellow cedar, not quite as oily, and very strong with the grain, and some good flexability to go with that hmmmmmm......... Think I will get some and try it out. ( Yellow and red cedar are quite abundant around here, so is sitka spruce, balsam and some douglas fir as well).

Cheers
Derrick

[kip51035]

I was under the impression that yellow cedar had more oil in it and was hard to glue. I had no problem glueing the red cedar.

[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

Originally Posted by tallone66

( Yellow and red cedar are quite abundant around here, so is sitka spruce, balsam and some douglas fir as well).Derrick

I am totally jealous!! Clear straight grained anything is next to impossible to find here!

I still have a bit of Sitka that I brought back from Vancouver Island many years ago! Very pricey it was!

Let us know how you make out please! Merv

[Francois2010]

Over the years I have used a lot of red ceder for building model logging equipment and such. I also used waterproof Weldbond and lots of clamps. Some of the pieces were as thin as 1/8 inch. The models were finished with natural oil to bring out the colour. After years of laying around drying out I have seen no sign of warping or cracking and the glue joints are still tight. A coat of natural oil and they look like new again. I also used some cured birch with the same results. Now with plane building I often use cured birch for spars and the like. No problem so far.

[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

Thanks for your input!