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jrosson
Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:37 am Post subject: Sitka spruce source |
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Hi,
One question I had when first getting really serious about building a plane was where to get the wood and plywood. These are expensive items that often require freight charges to ship. Not cheap.
As I have a pretty complete woodworking shop, complete with planer, jointer and table saw, I was not averse to buying spruce in the rough in order to save money. I searched online and found Public Lumber Company (http://www.publiclumber.com/aasitsprucve.html). Two emails to them were never answered, which made leery of ordering due to possibly poor customer service, but the relatively low pricing caused me to give them a chance. I decided to order two pieces of spruce 1" by 8" by 5 feet, thinking that if the lumber was good, I could save a ton of money. If it wasn’t, well, hopefully I could at least make cap strips out it. Or a bird house.
I called them up and ordered last Wednesday and am pleased to report that the wood arrived today in great condition. They charged me $15 for UPS ground shipping. The wood itself is 8.75" wide (not warped or bowed at all), a bit over .9” in thickness (with plenty to plane down to .75") and exactly 5' long. From what I can see, the grain is tight and straight, though maybe 2" of one side of one board has the grain running at 45 degrees, but then it quickly approaches 70 degrees or better over the rest of the span. All of the other board is at least 70 degrees. Oh, the growth rings are really tight, well above the minimum of 6 per inch. No knots or discolorations, though one board is quite darker overall than the other.
I will plane the boards down later to get a better inspection, but my initial look is that the wood is indeed aircraft quality. At a price of $4.67 per linear foot, the price per board foot (bdft), assuming it is planed to .75" and 8.5" in width, is about $8.80. The price from the supplier we all know about for finished spruce .75" by 5.75" is over $22 per bdft. To get stock over 6" requires a special order, and given that their 6" stock (.75" thick) is nearly $25 per bdft, you can see that I am a happy camper to have found this other source.
Now, I still plan on using those other guys for the spar material, as I want to use certified wood there, but I am comfortable self-certifying wood for most of the other locations. I am a Professional Engineer (but not aero) if that makes a difference. Probably doesn’t.
My only real concern at this point is how dry the wood is. The web site didn’t say if it was dried or not, and I didn’t think to ask. It does not look green by any means. My research finds the average weight of spruce dried to 12% moisture content is about 27 pounds per cubic foot, which is about 2.25 pounds per board foot. My spruce shipment weight in at 15 pounds, or about 2.2 pounds per bdft, so I guess my wood is reasonably dry after all, but I am not sure what it the ideal moisture content should be.
I won't go so far as to give an unconditional recommendation to consider Public Lumber yet. I just got the wood here at work today and I have only inspected the outer two feet, and it is still in a rough state, so there may be problems. But what I see looks good. I will report back later on how it looks when cleaned up. But, I am happy with the service I received. I will reiterate that their wood is not “certified”, so even if I were to give a recommendation, I would still have to advise caution about using it if you are not comfortable. In any case, I think this wood will be excellent to make cap strips and to use for non-structural applications for those who have the means and desire to mill it up. But, I suppose the use of wood that is not “certified” might open up a can of worms in debate.
As for a source of plywood, Aircraft Spruce seems to be the cheapest I have found, but it will still require freight. I hope to find a good source locally (Merritt Island, FL), and that will certainly be a question I will ask when I make it to an EAA meeting. Also, I have a friend traveling up to Atlanta soon and he said he would stop by the store up there and pick up some stuff for me.
Hopes this helps others. If you disagree, chime in and get a debate going.
Jeff
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ryan42
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: Sitka spruce source |
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Jeff,
It sounds like you have a good approach and if you haven't already, it's good to look throught the mil-spec document on aircraft spruce. I think it's mentioned in the manual, or maybe an EAA book for wood aircraft. Wait, maybe it's on the website...found it. I attached it. If the spruce you got matches up with what the spec says, it should be good. It just takes effort to inspect all the wood for the plane that way.
I didn't have to worry about that too much because I'm using the dimensioned, hand selected spruce from Western Aircraft. Saves me some effort, but I pay a little more for it.
-Ryan
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1Military Specification MIL-S-6073_ Aircraft Spruce.pdf |
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ogoodwin(at)comcast.net
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:12 pm Post subject: Sitka spruce source |
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Actually, I don't think anyone sells true "certified" spruce. It may meet
the certification standards, but no one actually certifies it with the
paperwork required. Since we're building experimental airplanes, the
paperwork isn't required anyway, but this is a distinction that should be
noted.
I've used Public Lumber several times and my experience is the same as
yours. I found they shipped promptly and the spruce I got was generally
quite good. It must be very dry, since I live in Colorado (generally less
than 30% relative humidity and often in the teens) and have had no warping.
Their milling services are also pretty good, and inexpensive as well. I
haven't actually had them do it, but I inquired if they could slice a 2 X 6
into 1/2" thick boards 6" wide and they said they could for their standard
ripping charge.
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