#1
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Spruce bracing
I have used a few different luthier supply companies for purchasing spruce bracing. For the most part it has been decent quality but seems to be a bit high priced for the amount you get. I found a place called: Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co. They sell top quality Sitka spruce. They have a few outlet stores and a will call in the U.S and one of their locations is about an hour from where I live so I ordered a piece online and picked it up today. They have a large list of sizes to choose from and it is all quartersawn on the thickness size when you order. I will be starting bracing shortly on a current build and will comment more about it. But just looking at it, it looks to be very high quality for a fair price.
Just as I was about to attatch some photos, I'm getting the message that I " don't have permission to upload attatchment"....hmmm, I've never had a problem in the past...I guess I'll look into it more |
#2
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It's probably not produced from split billets which would eliminate runout but it's probably still good stuff. And if the pieces are big enough then you could always split it yourself, right down the middle, and then have a nice split face to saw braces off of.
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#3
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Aircraft spruce is typically very expensive, good to see it turned out to be cheap.
In my youth, i was an aircraft mechanic and worked on many spruce manufactured wings. Steve
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Cole Clark Fat Lady Gretsch Electromatic Martin CEO7 Maton Messiah Taylor 814CE |
#4
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No , it's not. But just looking at it definitely looks to be of better quality than I have received from other well known luthier suppliers and without a large price mark up
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#5
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opinion
Steve mentions prior experience with aircraft. When I retired I went to school for a good long while and got my A&P rating. Without quoting eye-glazing parameters, any spruce meant to fly is the select of the select, there's no better structural wood available. Funny thing is that it's being sold into a discerning (and notoriously frugal) body of consumers. I'm not surprised that Aircraft Spruce's prices are friendlier than luthier suppliers'.
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#6
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When building a 61 foot sailboat mast out of Sitka, I ordered spar grade from Maurice L Condon in White Plains NY. They called back and said they were out of spar grade (certain knots and runout allowed) and would we take aircraft grade at the same price. Well, Duh. They said they had 80 foot lengths if we could ship them and of course we could not, so they cut them to 38' to fit in a 40' truck. The grain was amazingly straight and there was virtually no runout.
Those in the NYC area could try them -they must have cut-off. No affiliation, yada, yada, yada http://www.condonlumber.net Ed |