I went to their site today to see about getting a larger building board and it’s not up?

Please help if you know anything… thanks!

Don't think so.....was run/owned? by a couple of guys in college - bet that board paid their tuititon!!! About 5 years ago they said the 'company' was up for sale...never heard of them after that.

IMHO, they made the BEST building board on the market...still have one of their largest ones and LOVE it!!!!

very true on the board, I've got a pair of their 5' boards... very careful about taking care of them, although after looking them over, they wouldn't be very hard to reproduce. Great building boards, but yes, they're no longer in business.

I was afraid of that. I have one of thier med sized boards and wanted to get a large one. oh well...

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

Using em? Heck I LOVE using them!!!!

So Godfrey,

Are you still building or flying?

Bob,

A little bit here and there. Its one of those things where you turn a hobby into a business and its never the same again as a hobby. I don't have as much time as I used to either so I mainly tinker with helicopters and the simulator. I'm sure I'll get back into it someday though. Probably when there are some kids around to teach. I have several building boards stashed away for when the time comes.

I'm in the middle of helping a friend build a full size airplane right now. It a Vans Aircraft RV-10. Does that count? I don't remember putting any rivets in an R/C airplane so probably not.

Todd

Sounds like fun.

That's one of the nice things about this game.
You can come back to it anytime, young or old...

How is the aluuminum frame put together is it welded..

Thanks,

Rick

Rick,

We made three sizes. 12''x15'', 15''x48'' and 24''x60''. The smallest one only had rubber feet and no aluminum. The middle size only had two parallel aluminum tubes. We never had any problems with the short direction on that one so we never put any cross pieces. The largest size, which is the picutre I attached above, had three cross pieces between the two parallel long tubes. These were just butted together with no actual connection. The idea there was again to allow the whole thing to be able to shift as the different materials expanded and contracted.

Todd

Todd,

Thanks for the info. Looking through the shop today I found about 40 feet of 1 inch heavy wall aluminum. Looks like I'll be putting one together. Again thans for the info.

Rick