Which is stronger, pine or basswood?

Thanks,
KW_Counter

OK, I answered my own question.
Pines & Douglas Fir win out over Basswood.
[link]http://www.woodworkweb.com/woodwork-topics/wood/146-wood-strengths.html[/link]

KW_Counter

Bass has the great ability to flex and not break.  Good for pod and boom fuselages and trainers. if design accordingly.

Basswood has a tight fine grain, great for carving, but you cant build a house with it. Pine has wide diverse grain, great for strength, lousy for intricate carving. <div>
</div><div>For a plane though, if you are using the wood for strength, I would use Spruce if its for spars, and maple for thread blocks. </div>

What ACDII said, plus it depends greatly which pine - and whether you consider fir or spruce as "pine".

I make my hunting arrows out of Douglas fir - it has superior longitudinal strength to weight ratio.  White pine, red pine, "knotty pine" or clear pine all would fail miserably.  Southern pine ("yellow pine") is better but still not up to spruce or fir for strength.

 I heard years ago that redwood made a good spar, cheap, light, strong and straight grain.  I haven't been able to find any in this country in the last 15 years.  Tree huggers I guess?

When I lived in California, redwood was plentiful, but I never saw anyone using it for model building. The unique quality of redwood is its inherent resistence to rotting, thus a lot is used for patio and deck construction. Its strength is far below pine or other building materials used in construction, thus larger sizes of redwood are specified than would be needed with a stronger material. It is light, straight grained, but niether cheap nor strong. Definately well suited for my deck, though.

It would beabout as light, stronger and cheaperthan balsa for spars and stringers though, right?And better quality for knots and straightness than spruce except maybe Sitka spruce.I don't know about price because I can't find it here. It isn't the same as cedar is it? Just a different name? Because I can get that. You could get a lot of 1/8" square strips out of a 2X4.

I cut my own wood for plane building but haven't been able to find Basswood at any of the wood outlets? My son in law in MN has it in long 2X4s. I started using Poplar for stringers and so far it has worked out great. I can find it in clear so no knots. Good stuff! I started buying balsa in 2''X4''X4' sheets/blocks and cutting my own sheeting. I can cut it as required so no warping. I love my wood workers club with all the great tools that allow me to do this. If I move from here it will be the main thing I will miss.

How are you cutting the blocks Gene.  What kind of saw are you using.  I'm an old furniture builder so I have some knowledge of different saws and planners.

I cut most of my wood for the bigger planes from white pine. By going through the 1 X ?? boards at the local lumber yard (you do need a lumber yard that lets you select the boards you want) I find a lot of boards that I can get 6 to 10 foot clear straight close grained material out of. True, more knots than on other types of wood but, by careful selection you can find very useable areas that you can cut stringers and spars from. It is almost as strong as Spruce and works out very well. I use a 10 inch table saw (a 40 year old Sears) that I can cut pieces as small as 1/16 square on up by using a hollow ground blade and a zero clearance insert on the saw.

I agree with the use of a hollow ground or sometimes called planer blade. It will require sharpening and many of us are spoiled by the use of carbide tipped blades but the hollow ground blade does a great job of producing quite smooth cuts and will cut easily if kept sharp. My point in posting the additional comment to Rodney's... is to remember that modern plywoods use glue that is not very friendly to other than carbide blades and will dull a hollow ground blade quickly... so after ripping the spruce... and before using the saw to cut any plywood... return the carbide blade to the saw.

Also, it is better to rip 2-3 inch sheets slightly thicker than wanted with a conventional carbide blade, run them through the planer/surfacer to size the thickness if one is available and then rip them to width using the planer blade. The reason is to avoid cutting thicker materiel with the planer blade as it will have a good bit more cutting drag and thus propensity to heat up.

Used correctly, a planer blade is a wonderful thing... used wrongly it's a pain.

My club has two precision table saws I use for ripping hardwood into sticks and we have a recut saw I use for cutting my sheeting. We also have a micro over head sander so I can cut my sheeting just a bit over size then sand down to a smooth and sized sheet.
I assume a recut saw is the real name but it looks like a very large or giant size band saw. I also use the joiner, I gang a stack of sheeting then run it through the joiner to get perfectly straight edges.
At some point in time I took photos of our shop and posted some on RCU. If there is any of the equipment you would like to see I can take a camera back into the shop for you. It's the slow time of the season here and the shop is pretty much empty at the moment, the heat birds have all flown away to there cooler climates for a few months. The shop becomes very crowded from about October to about early June.

Where this thread has gone is very interesting.
I never said the question was related to building planes.
In fact, it relates to an engine test stand I am starting to design/build.
Don't panic, the main parts will be hardwood, probably Maple.
The pine, actually I bought 1/4" Poplar from HD, is for mounting
the fuel tank and throttle control parts.
I'll post pictures when I'm done. It's based a design I found here on RC Universe.
Should be a fun project, I need to learn to make finger joints for it.
Thanks to the PBS show Woodsmith Shop for the help.

Don't get me wrong, this has been an interesting and informative thread.

Gray Beard, I'm jealous that your club has such fine equipment.

Thanks and Good Luck to all,
KW_Counter

Please post photos of your run in stand!! Where I live you can't dig a post hole in our rock base that we have and I haven't had a good stand sense I moved here. I'm looking for a stand that is free standing but something I could run in some bigger gassers. In Calif. I had steel pipes in the ground and welded a steel plate to them and just drilled holes for the mounts as required. My kingdom for another stand like that!!

I have this Bosch drill that would solve your ground problem.  It can drill a 1" hole right into rock in minutes.  Although with the lack of rain we have had, I almost need it here to put my run up stand in the ground.  I made one from 3/4 " copper pipe, 2 90* l and one T fitting. Caps on the top, and 3/4 pipe insulation for the cushion.  When the ground is not so hard, I just step it right in, and stick the tail of the plane in it and ready to do what I want. <div>
</div><div> For an engine test stand though, I have some 1/2" steel flat stock, and a 3/16" plate with slots cut in it. I have the 1/2" blocks bolted to the plate with carriage bolts so they adjust, and a pin on each block for the mounting hole in the motor, then a clamp that bolts the motor down.  I need to find out where I put it, havent used it in years.  It has a cable with a clevice on the end and a knob on the other, and it is secured to the plate, and a place to mount the tank with a strap to hold it down. The whole thing clamps to a workmate.  </div>

http://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow...d_Strength.htm

http://www.go-cl.se/balsa.html

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf2001/green01d.pdf

They can't use an auger here, they use backhoes! When I thought of a desert I used to think of sand, was I ever wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want the skinny on wood strength check the homebuilt airplane sites. They have all the info you will ever need about strength and weight. Sitka spruce has long been the choice for F/S aircraft spars, however Douglas Fir is being substituted more frequently. It is heavier, but stronger, so you just make it a little smaller dimension and end up with about the same strength and weight.

Gray Beard,

I have an older B&D Workmate - it weighs a ton.
I mount the test stand to it and run them in my driveway.
The test stand has an "L" shaped piece of wood on the bottom for clamping.
I have seen some guys mount them to picnic tables.

Good Luck,
KW_Counter

Another source with good information on full scale aircraft wood working, and information about wood that will translate to our models is Advisory Circular AC-43.13 that is available through the FAA website. It provides good information on the strength comparison between different species of wood and the size differential for the same strength properties between species.

Hogflyer

I have one of those too!
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You use the Pine or Basswood what plane model?

Usually,the Pine easy broken.

Basswood like the sponge.</p>