RE: THE NEW CERMARK F-16 BUILD IT BETTER, STRONGER, AND FASTER!!!
Hi Jim,
When my gear blocks got trashed I replaced the cheap 6mm (1/4 in) 5 layer plywood with 2 layers of high quality 1/8 inch 5 layer ply. The two layers of 1/8 inch ply were epoxied together to make 1/4 in - 10 layer ply gear blocks. I believe the wood is poplar.
Only reason I used this method is because its what I had in my shop at the time and didnt want to chase material.
A couple reasons I say the stock gear material was cheap is because the wood was very soft and after cutting thru a couple of sections that were not splintered I found voids in the ply. Definitely not what would be considered aircraft grade.
I couldnt begin to guess why the material in the plane I have and the plane you have is/was different. wow.
For the rebuild I also installed blind nuts and socket head screws to fasten down the gear. My plane just came with screws that were easily stripped out of the cheap ply.
Over a year later my gear are still holding strong.
Cheers,
James