Basswood stringers in Guillow's kits.

[Deadstick Dave]

My principle objection to Guillow's kits are the flimsy 1/16" X 1/16" balso stringers that break so very easily. GRRRRRRRR!

Has anyone tried substituing basswood for balsa stringers? Please explain your success.

Thanks,

Deadstick Dave

[BillParker]

Basswood works great, but it's heavy. Adding any kind of weight to a guillow's kit is not cool if you're trying to fly em on rubber bands...

But those balsa stips are great compared to the other mfg's kits with their fancy contest balsa stringers made of sponge... You just think these are brittle.

bp

[Steve Blanchard]

I have never heard anyone call Guillow's wood flimsy. That has got to be the funniest thing I have ever read on this forum. I am not trying to be rude but if you spend some time reading back through a lot of these threads you will find one constant: Guillow's wood is very heavy and overly strong. As far as other kit manufacturers and calling contest balsa "fancy", well that too is pretty funny as well. There are a couple schools at work here I guess. Not everyone can work with contest balsa, and believe me I have snapped many stringers over the years and it is extremely frustrating, but you have to learn to adjust to use these materials if, and only if, you want a good flying model. If you want to build for static then by all means substitute with basswood everywhere. It's a learning curve and we all have to deal with it. By the way, contest balsa should not be used everywhere and the reason that the Fancy contest balsa comment is funny is mostly because there are very few kit suppliers that use actual contest grade balsa. Good balsa is just very different than what is traditionally found in Guillow's kits.

Steve

[SteveM]

Steve B. has a good point, the stringers in Guillow's kits are among the strongest and you really can't use heavier wood in any significant quantity for such a small model if it is to be flown. I know of a guy that builds only static models and always replaces the stringers with basswood and is very happy with that. I am not aware of any flying models built with a substantial amount of wood other than balsa.

Wood is an extremely variable product so perhaps all you need is to find a reliable source of light yet strong balsa. It is easy to find balsa that is light or strong, but finding both in the same piece of wood takes some doing.

[TJH]

I agree with the consensus on this as after building kits from about 5 different manufacturers in the last few years, and some scratch builds of late, the Guillow's balsa is some of the strongest I have seen.

[Xanadu]

Sounds to me that he got a bad sheet of stringers with w weak spot running through it. I had these before, makes the stringers extremely flimsy to say the least. I managed to save only shorter sections after removing the bad section. So if he is trying to use the entire length, I can relate to what he is talking about.

[Bill Gaylord]

Sounds to me that he got a bad sheet of stringers with w weak spot running through it. I had these before, makes the stringers extremely flimsy to say the least. I managed to save only shorter sections after removing the bad section. So if he is trying to use the entire length, I can relate to what he is talking about.

Yep, the key is to build enough kits so you can sort out the grades of stringers, for what you want.

As for basswood, I've discovered something interesting about it lately. It is strong, but since it does not have the same grain structure as reasonably hard balsa stringers, it will not perform as well under a sudden shock load. The basswood is more like a composite such as MDF. Strong, but has issues with being shock loaded. Gram per gram, I'm now more inclined to use hard balsa stringers, if I want strength.

[Deadstick Dave]

Thanks for the ideas on stringers both basswood and balsa.

I'm finding that basswood has different grain structure than balsa but snaps nearly as easily. Contest grade balsa is noted for it's light weight rather than it's strength.

I'm looking to build a model that will stand the rigors of RC flight so I need to do further experimentation with hand-selected stringers at my LHS. The kit provided stringer are just to fragile to make their use practical.

Though this is not my first Guillow's kit it is my first attempt at an RC conversion.

DD

[SteveM]

Though this is not my first Guillow's kit it is my first attempt at an RC conversion.

Ohhh, I had assumed this was for rubber power. With RC you can even leave off the stringers and sheet it if you like. I've never sheeted, but when I converted the 400 series P-51 to RC I certainly used the stiffer wood everywhere I thought it would matter and left the limper and weaker stiff for the tail areas. I did use all kit wood though, except the leading edge because the material supplied for that was heavy and hard enough to scratch a diamond.

With RC you have to decide if you want a light "floater" with a low stall speed or if you can tolerate a heavy bullet with a high speed, but I'm probably preaching to the choir.

[Deadstick Dave]

Advising that I've ordered the replacement parts from Guillow's to take another shot at building the fuse because I didn't like how it turned out. This time I'll go with some better balsa stringers and forget about the basswood.

Deadstick Dave

[Bill Gaylord]

These planes can handle more weight than people think, without being bricks. When I first got started in this, folks were used to the low power brushed and heavy nimh-nicd gear, and were conditioned to a kit this size having to be 10oz or less. With BL and lipo, 13oz is no problem for the P51. The long nose makes it an easier subject than the 190 and Zero, where the batt basically has to be against the motor. I have the Zero and 190 on my You Tube channel at around 13 and 14oz respectively, and they are not a terror to fly and land. For whatever reason, the videos appear to make them land much harder than they really are, which is misleading.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WTFLYR?feature=mhee

BTW, my first P51 is hanging for display, as it got a bit heavy, being fully sheeted. I'll do another someday. I could build another wing and lighter tail feathers for it. One nice feature is the oil cooler. If you sheet it, it then makes the strongest and simplest wing saddle I've ever made. Just slide the wing into place, against the oil cooler. Two index blocks on the top of the wing lock it in span wise by sitting against the inside of the wing saddle formers, and a hold down bolt in the front secures the wing.

[Phugoid]

I've probably said this before but I keep hold of the guillows stringers as they are perfect for leading edges, spars and longerons on scratch builds they are usually very tough and perfect for such applications, but occasionally I have found the odd "fuzzy" patch in the wood that leads to week spots....

Andrew

[CedarBranchFisher]

The heck with balsa or basswood, I'm going with stainless steel or maybe titanium. I tired of breaking stringers just trying to work on my plane.

[BillParker]

welding rig, or are you anuts and bolts kinda guy?

[CedarBranchFisher]

Nuts and bolts, hate to apply flame or arc to balsa, VERY counterproductive.