acdii

Non Airplane related. I have an Artesenia Latina StageCoach that Im building, and the front, bottom and rear is formed from one sheet of flexible plywood, but not as flexible as it should be, Ican hear cracking when I try to form it. What can I do to make it more flexible so I can bend it around the sides?

http://www.historicships.com/TALLSHI...achAL16004.htm

alan0899

G'day Mate,
When I need to bend either ply or balsa, I wet the surface liberally with cloudy amonia, from the cleaning isle in your local supermarket.
make sure it is wet, & soaked into the wood, then bend as required, & either pin or clamp until dry, the smell will miraculously disappear as soon as it hits the wood.
The wood will dry exactly where you pinned or clamped it.
Lots of people on here will tell you to use water, & thats ok too. but the wood will distort as it dries, cloudy amonia won't distort the wood.

Give it a try, on a small piece, & make your decision. You have nothing to loose.

Cheers

sensei

You can also purchase Hoop Pine, its very flexible.

Bob

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

I remember a fellow that worked on guitars and he used to have to bend all sorts of woods that could be very difficult. I think he used amonia, light steam, and moderate heat and that dude could bend most any kind of wood exactly the way he wanted. Even light moisture can work at times. Keep in mind, you need to know the type of wood you are working with. Some wood will go nuts with dampness and look like octopus legs when you are done

You can also use weight if you desire the wood to be bent semi-dry by placing weight on it in proper locations and letting it sit for extended periods of time. You can build jigs to shape as needed. Also do some searches on the internet.

acdii

The ply supplied is flexible, but its an old kit, so it has dried a bit more than it should be to bend without cracking. I will give the Ammonia a try.  I thought that it was something like that other than plain water, but wasnt sure.  After its glued in, then it is planked with very thin hardwood planks, so the surface color wont matter, as long as it is smooth.

ARUP

Neat project but where to find the little horses? Just kidding! 1/64" ply is very pliable dry. Can you substitute? Ammonia is the trick, as stated, otherwise. This 1/4 sailplane has 1/64 ply wrapped around wing leading edges which has a radius of ~10mm. This was done with the ply not prebent, steamed, soaked or heated. The fuselage has a similar treatment. I used contact cement. Full thread on RCScalebuilder.

acdii

It's structural ply, it forms the body of the coach, so the 1/64 would be too thin. The ply in the kit is metric,  and rough guess is about 2 mm.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Problem with ply is it is laminated and glue doesn't like to bend. I have gotten it to flex quite a bit using ammonia or steam. I have one of those little hand held steamers that I use.

gphil

Built a full size, expermental, plane once. Called for some bends in ply. Believe it fabric softener works great. Let it soak overnight and walla flexable, no fumes and smells like laundry. G