Yeah it was Owl. He's got a houseful of women and my days away from work are always wife, daughters, grand daughters. Some times ya just need a man day. Manly men doing manly things (Monty Python). .

We did some sorting of stuff I have stored and ........gasp...........we found all the parts to several model airplanes.

Over the last few days, I've been designing my very own flight box. it looks wonderful, and I couldn't wait to start building it. Well, Dory and I went to the LLY (local lumber yard) and bought some 1/4" birch ply. Oh, I wanted that cedar veneered ply sooooo bad, but they only sold it by the sheet, and it's $140! Yipes! Nope, birch is fine.

Anyways, we headed over to the equipment rentals next, and rented a table saw. Poor thing, it's so old, and so battered, it cuts crooked and the safety cover is so loose and wobbly I can't see where I'm cutting. Nope, no, that won't do. So Dory, sweet man, took us to Harbor Freight, and bought --- dum dum dum ... A portable table saw. Wow! (by this time my migraine had gone critical, and I had to leave the store before I redecorated the place) I should be able to work on my project some more tomorrow. Hopefully I can salvage the mis-cut piece.

Today my Manta short kit arrived. By the smell filling the den, has anyone ever considered putting balsa scraps in the smoker, and doing up some fish or jerky? It smells almost like mesquite. Yummmm!

One question: On the Manta plans it asks for a 2x7mm "pire" spar and a 2mm "pire rod." Whaaaaat is pire? Can I use bass?

Katie! Blasphemer!!!!! Redecorate Harbor Freight?????????? I will not get any sleep tonight over that!

I am no expert on woods but I wonder if that's a misprint? Maybe pine? I Googled "Pire" and can't find anything. Maybe the Jeff-Miester will chime in with something but....

Awwww, I never did. That counts as something, right? I'm feeling better, the meds are starting to work. I actually ate something, yay. Harbor Freight is a great place, as long as you pay attention. Some stuff, well, it's cheap! But you can find some treasures, too. The smell was pretty strong at our shop, concentrated "hardware store" smell 100 fold. Phew!

What I really, really want to do is FIND Geode and pick his brains. I asked last weekend at the contest, and they say "oh, he's around". Good. I'll find him, someday, I hope.

Wish I hadn't sold virtually everything to fund that bike tour, but on the bright side tools and stuff are so cheap today and the range is astounding.

Have fun Katie, a well built and attractive custom field box is always a welcome sight to the eyes.

Sean, women and guns.. I should've known..

If it goes together well enough, I'll have the plans scanned. I was asking Dory what I should cover up the plywood with, because I was torn between veneer or CF, and he came up with option #3: tie dyed silk. What a fantastic idea, I think I will!

Originally Posted by atmosteve

Sean, women and guns.. I should've known..

You forgot toy airplanes.



I wish shipping wasn't so expensive to OZ Steve, we could get you back in the air fast!

I fired up my wood database and even it doesn't Have a listing for a wood called "Pire". This is a commercial data base called "Woods of the world" and lists over 1,300 different species as well as all of their know uses. If it's not in there, "Pire" may be a local name for another wood. The data base also lists alternate names but I couldn't get a hit on a search for that one.

Not having seen the plans for the Manta, I'd go with something like Spruce for the spar materials. Getting it in metric sizes could be interesting here in the states but I"m sure that with a little work you'll be able to find it.

Sean... I almost forgot! Did you get Hossman his B-day present I sent through you? And the Kevlar stash as well? I'd hate to think that ya'll forgot that stuff! Wish I could have come down and joined you guys! I need a "man day" in the worst way! All this packing and sorting for moving is a major drag!

Hey Jeff,

Yep, I sent Hoss home with the back of his Jeep stuffed to the roll bar including the kit you gave him. I can barely walk around in the cave right now so I was trying to push stuff on him. He looked like a kid at Christmas. However, I bet when he got home Laurie had a fit though, she probably cursed my name in her sleep. I did forget the Kevlar, I had the whole roll hanging on the wall and just flat forgot. I think all of us are gonna get together sometime in the next couple of weeks so I'll get it to him then.

Next WR trip is still on hold, boss is not a happy camper with a couple of his engineers. I think things will be straightened out soon though. I'll give you a heads up. Pretty sure when I come that way it will be an overnight trip so we'll hook up and process some hops.

Scaflock, that's what I'm going to go with, too. Spruce sounds good.



Sean, when are y'all coming out west? If you do, I'll help out with the "root hops".

Katie,

I'd love to come out West sometime. Just not sure if and when it will ever be. Got a lot of friends on the left coast but time just never seems to be there. Someday maybe. Farthest West I have ever been is Dallas, Tx and Stillwater, OK.

If it was on hand-written notes or plans, it's easy for an "n" to look like an "r" if the right leg is too short. That would convert "Pine" to "Pire". If the notes were later converted to typed or CAD-drawn lettering, it would be an easy typo.

In which case, spruce would be better than pine. Basswood would probably work as well. Basswood is not as strong as spruce, all other things being equal. However, most of the spruce available today is of such poor quaity that the much better typical quality basswood is probably stronger once the flaws in the spruce are taken into account (which is why we use basswood in the Chrysalis kits). The situation has gotten so bad that the wood in the "spruce" rack at your LHS is probably actually basswood. The hobby shop owner might not even be aware of this.

Since you have a new table saw, you could also use Douglas Fir (what 2x4's are usually made of). Douglas Fir is about 15% heavier per cubic foot than spruce, but also nearly that same amount stronger. You would get a very minor weight increase (insignificant compared to the total weight of the plane), but a small but significant strength increase over spruce, and even more in comparison to pine.

Hint: on a table saw, the smallest size you can saw depends partly on what the gap is between the blade and the slot in the cover plate around it.

In most cases, there is enough gap that anything thin enough to work in a model tends to fall down into the slot and gets destroyed. That gap is so you can tilt the blade to 45 degrees or so, which we normally don't need to do for most of our stuff.

The solution is to get a sheet of thin plywood (1/16" will do). Some of that 1' x 4' you can get at your LHS will do. Fit the table saw with a fine-toothed blade (often called a "veneer" blade). Retract the table saw blade enough to be below the table surface.

Cut the length of the ply to match the fore-and-aft length of the table, then tape it in place centered over the blade slot. With any luck, you can still fit the rip fence back in place.

Now, turn the table saw on, and slowly crank the blade back up. This will cut a slot in the ply that exactly matches the blade with nearly zero gap. Shut down, retract the blade again, and gently sand off any wood fuzz or scraps that are hanging around the slot in the ply.

With this new custom-made cover plate in place, you can cut almost any thickness of strips you want, in many cases less than 1/32" thick. I've made .020" square rosewood strips on my little Dremel table saw for inlay work on wooden pennywhistles, and other folks use a variation of this for making the tiny wooden tiles for the rosettes around guitar sound holes. It will certainly work for slicing 2x4's into spar stock, even on a full-sized table saw.