I stumbled across this thread today. I was feeling nostalgic about Wright Engineering and was doing some Googling to see what was still out there.

My friend and I started Wright Engineering in the late 90s. We were just out of college and were looking for a business to start. I had been building R/C airplanes for 15 years and we turned the building board that I made for myself into Wright Engineering. We did a lot of testing and prototyping before we offered our first building boards to the public. We still had to replace the first 50 that we sold at the Pasadena R/C trade show (can't remember the name of it) because they warped so badly when people took them to colder climates. We made a big change and never had a problem again. We ended up selling 1000 building boards with total sales of $100,000 over several years. At this point we tried to sell the business because my partner and I both were in grad school and couldn't keep up. After a year of trying with no luck, ARFs and RTFs becoming more and more popular and the economy changing our business tapered off and was no longer viable.

So, if any of you are interested, here are some tips if you would like to build one yourself. I've attached a picture of the biggest one we made as a reference.

1) We found that 1/2'' of cork had the nicest feel and held the pins the best. 1/2'' cork was not available anywhere that we could find so we had it custom manufactured and shipped to us by the pallet. To make one yourself just buy 1/4'' cork, which is common and easy to find, and laminate two layers together with contact glue (easy to find at Home Depot or Lowe's).

2) Use the thinest, lightest backer for the cork that you can find. We started with 3/4'' MDF but it was so rigid that it would warp and the aluminum rails that were attached to the bottom of the backer couldn't control the warping. We ultimately used 1/2'' Ultralight MDF which is much more flexible but also very hard to find. Attach the cork to the backer with the same contact glue (after you attach the rails).

3) Attach the rails (we used 1'' x 1'' square aluminum tube) to the bottom of the backer in such a way that they can slide. This is the big change we made after we sold the first 50 building boards that warped. To do this we attached the aluminum rails to the bottom of the backer using a fender washer and a sheet metal screw in a countersunk hole (every 7'' if I remember correctly). See the attached picture for details. When the screws are tightened they are only tightened until there is no vertical movement but the screw and fender washer can still slide around in their oversized holes. All of this is to counter differential expansion and contraction between the different materials. You can make this movement pretty stiff. Most people never knew that the rails on their building boards could be moved slightly.

4) Cork routes nicely. Oversize it with respect to the backer and then use a cutoff or roundover bit with a bearing on a router to trim it up.

Anyway, glad to hear that people are still using them.

Todd