Snake Lovers..

Questions about alternative building materials always come up when scratch building. Two of the most often asked questions are:

*What about foam wings?
*Any substitute wood for fuselage?

Well, even though I cut all my own wings, I don't get into it for a living....but there are many who do....some of which are:
*flyingfoam.com
*matneymodels.com
*[email protected]

Every club I've ever been in has several foam cutter dudes who like to earn a couple extra bucks, so check locally. In spite of the rumors ARFs did NOT kill all the scratch builders in the world! Some of them are just hiding in their closets, waiting to come out!

Balsa wing skins are still very popular, but choice of glue is a toss-up. You can use Gorilla glue, epoxy resins, Spray 77 (careful about getting close with the new proplellant...it can melt stuff!), or Elmer's white glue for those who wish to save a little $$$.

As far as substitute wood for fuselages, etc. there is a type of plywood called "Italian Bending Poplar" (3 mm thick) 3ply in 4'x8' sheets having grain runniing either length-wise or cross-wise for your particular application. In my area a sheet runs $28.00 and can build a TON of stuff! Calculate what a 4'x8' sheet of balsa would cost for comparison and you'll get the point. A cheap set of hole saws from Harbor Freight does a nice job of cutting out lightening holes to bring the weight down even more (this poplar ply is already very light).

There must be a lot of ideas about building/building materials in this group; and it would be interesting to hear about them for sure. Hope to hear some of them soon.

Steve
Foggy Minded Mountain man