which wood for door frames?????

[jgerard]

I am starting the carpentry phase of my restoration and need to decide on which wood to use for the door frames. Mine are completely shot and came out in pieces all dry rotted and warped. Hemlock vs' white Pine is my question. The FAA says that pine has about 85-96% less strength than spruce and Hemlock is just a bit stronger than spruce. In this case strength is not much of an issue, I am more concerned about weight and resistance to wear. The pine boards sure look and feel better than the hemlock.

Jason
N43643

[VictorBravo]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

For what it may be worth, the STC for the Model 19 conversion, based on the factory model 19, calls out white pine for the rear side window frames.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

I don't know what kind of wood was used for the "D" window frames in my 41 (there isn't enough of it left to tell). I took the headliner out for replacement and when the staples came out the wood frame fell to pieces. Now I have a nice opening but nothing behind it. I am going to try and make new wood parts and slip the frame in place and reglue and staple the fabric. Anyone ever been successful at doing this? I JUST finished repainting the whole plane!
I WOULD be careful to CAREFULLY seal the wood. There didn't appear to be ANY finish on the wood remains on mine.
Hank

[mulwyk]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

Jason:

My experience with Hemlock has been negative...hard to work, squirrelly grain. Pine is much better.

Are you replacing wing spars? I cut down the old spars to make my door frames. See here. Lightweight and that old spruce is a joy to work with!

Bob Gustafson

[jgerard]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

wings are next winters project otherwise I would be using them to make all my fuse wood parts.

Jason
N43643

[VictorBravo]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

Thanks to Bob Gustafson for creating a very informative online archive of your T-craft restoration! I thoroughly enjoyed looking thru the photos and captions... and you shed some light on a couple of mistakes that I made on my repair work.

I have an idea that I will share, related to this, on a separate thread so as to not de-rail this thread...

Bill

[dedrekon]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

I do have a set of original wooden door frames in pretty good condition, if your interested, or need pictures or measurements.

[Robert Lees]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

dedrekon:
That would be appreciated by the group, I'm sure.

I sent my wood door frames back across the Atlantic to the USA, and after a few uses, they seem to have dropped off the face of the earth...

If you would be willing to donate you frames, that would be a great help.

Rob

[Acroeric]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

Rob and all- I just made my new frames from a set a local fellow had that were in excelletn condition. I have some extra white pine so I guess I could make a set for the club. I will leave them at 3/4" thick so they are not so fragile. Now for the hard part- who gets them 1st?

I will have them done in a week.

[jgerard]

Re: which wood for door frames?????

I got my wood boards planed down and sanded to 1/2" I spent about $35 and bought enough of each pine and hemlock to make almost 2 sets worth. Found some real nice stuff at my local "Home Depot" but had to dig through the pile of wood to find the best stuff. People were looking at me kinda funny for being so picky.

Jason
N43643