"C" grain Wood, what's it good for?

Makes good wing ribs.

Ribs, formers, flat sheted parts. Anywhere you need some extra rigidity.

In full-scale wooden aircraft, spars are cut using the quarter-sawn method. The legal requirements for spars demand that the end grain be within 45 degrees of the horizontal plane when the spar is sitting on edge as it would be in the wing, or in other words, the end grain should be parallel to the wing chord line, or close to it. This makes the best use of the wood's strength. Other specs for Sitka spruce call for a minimum of 8 grains to the inch, and no more than 1:15 slope of the grain along the board. Such specs mean that wooden airplanes are becoming rare, since all the good trees are mostly gone, and the remaining timber is in protected parks. It's cheaper to build an airplane of aluminum now. Quite a turnabout, considering that aluminum was worth about as much as gold in 1900, before modern refining processes were invented. My 17-year-old son builds some of his RC airplanes of spruce from the lumberyard, and of 1/8" birch ply from a local plywood supplier. For covering he uses MacTac. His airplanes cost him very little, and makes the hobby possible on a low budget, which is better than sitting and watching others play just because he can't afford balsa and Monokote and lite-ply. His airplanes are a bit heavier but he just uses bigger engines. And he pays attention to the grain direction of the spruce.

Dan

If you are having trouble making it take the shape you want, spray it with Windex or ammonia. It will then bend without splitting.

JR

MacTac?? More info Please! Daze

Never Mind! MacTac = Contac Paper. I tried that stuff many years ago, does not stick too good, heavy, won't stay shrunk. I use the black stuff for wing walks, that's about it nowadays. (Also white for masking large areas for spray painting) The hot tip for cheap covering is Doculam Film (laminatorwarehouse.com). Iron on, shrinks nice, paintable, tough enough. And dirt cheap (like,

And any color you want as ling as it's CLEAR!

Daze

Looks good...

Yea but the good news is if you buy 100 rolls - ya get FREE shipping! LOL!

I don't have that many buddies... :(

FredD

How wide are the rolls you buy and can I be your buddy? ;)

I bought the 25" width, sold 1 roll to someone on RCU at my cost + shipping. The 25" x 1.5 mil x 500' rolls are $19, ya gotta buy 2, and shipping makes it, what, $50 for 2080 square feet of covering? That much Moneykote would cost about $1700. I guess the CL combat guys have been using this stuff for years. It is NOT "just like" Monokote, but for the money, pretty darned good. Unless you like clear, ya gotta paint it, but Krylon is cheap!

My son irons it on like Monokote and it sticks and shrinks well. Perhaps it's not genuine MacTac but something better. Anyway, it works. He has used several colours, and has one airplane covered in a black/white checkered pattern that looks good. He wasn't impressed when I suggested a flowery pattern. Going to try to get some of that Doculam for him next.

Dan

It's great in thicker sections of light wood. It's not good for much of anything in thin or hard wood.

Bob

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Here's another: