Originally Posted by
Hydro Junkie
Rich, I appreciate the vote of confidence.
When I answer a question, such as the sheer web one three posts back, I actually look at the situation from multiple backgrounds. Since I do build planes, I have had to deal with balsa that's dried out or swollen. By letting it sit for a period of time, it's normally possible to use this material. By the same line of thinking, PAPER expands and contracts with moisture and age as well, meaning that a plan sheet might change size by as much as a quarter inch over night if humidity increases. I found this to be the case when building a boat years ago. I had traced out some parts and, when transferring it to the wood, found the paper had expanded due to an increase in humidity. Needless to say, the parts didn't match when they were cut out so I had to scrap everything
Ah a boat builder, which design did you build? I'm going to tackle an ilur dinghy one day
Ilur ?Clinker-kit? | François Vivier, naval architect, once the shop's set up and I've acquired enough clamps.
On the topic of shear webs... I've noticed that other LT-40 builds show laser cut shear webbing, whereas mine were pre-cut and bundled together with a bit of plastic wrap. Perhaps I have an older version of the kit or maybe the person who owned it before me messed with it (it was an ebay purchase). I'm reasonably confident that I don't have a structural issue but I might make a small modification. I have some thin maple veneers (slightly thinner than a business card) which i may tack to the sides of the spars. The weight penalty would be relatively small in relation to the added stiffness...