Alaskan Yellow Cedar for wing skins

[Mucksmear]

Just thought I’d share my recent building experience with Alaskan Yellow Cedar (AYC).

Previous builds were done with flat cut Poplar but I did not like the uneven areas of hard and soft wood. AYC has a heartwood and sapwood that appear very similar which makes for a more uniform veneer. The grain is relatively tight and straight.

I’ve since learned that quarter sawn veneer in general, will yield more straight and evenly spaced grain. Flat cut veneer will yield pretty cathedrals arches in the grain, but it also tends to spread the grain out along the center (core) of the veneer and compresses it towards the outer edges of the veneer. The relative hardness of the grain compared to the softer material between the grain makes this a problem if you need to sand the skins after they’ve been bonded to the core.

Anyways, it looks promising. The unbacked AYC veneer is delicate and splits very easily along the grain so handle with care - I used painters tape across the full width of the veneer to stabilize it until it was bonded to the core. I used marine epoxy and a vacuum bag powered by an aquarium air pump that’s been reversed to suck instead of blow.

The completed wing feels nice and firm. The last photo gives you a good look at how relatively even AYC grain is.

 

[Mucksmear]

Veneer with straight evenly spaced grain will also “drape”across the flat curve of the cores more easily. I found the flat cut poplar had a greater tendency to have slight twist and warps and required more clamping pressure to laminate.

 

[Dominic Bayani]

Hello, that veneer turned out looking great. Beautiful Work.

 

[Wayne]

I have been playing around with some different woods the last few years, but not to this degree. Very nice.

I'm still a sucker for some good balsa, or 1/64 plywood if I am after the durability. The Polish planes with the black poplar used to be really pretty and very functional, but seems they have a hard time sourcing that these days.

 

[Mucksmear]

Yeah, although I would not say I’m going in depth to any degree. I’ve only made a handful of foam core wings ever - I can count em on one hand!

Balsa of course is really nice to work with but is about $3/sqft for 1/16” and not as durable as 1/64” ply.

A single sheet of 1/64 x 12 x 48 ply is almost $50 or or $12.50/sqft.

This cedar veneer is about $2.25/sqft and comes as 10-12 foot long rolls, about 10”-15” wide

The Poplar is a really good deal at about $0.60/sqft if you can find the quarter sawn stock. It tends to be a tad narrower around 8”-10” wide, and has the aforementioned contrast in heartwood vs sapwood within each sheet. I might still revisit Poplar in the future. My earlier Poplar tests (Coyote and 55” Obelix) were compromised by my mistake in using flat cut instead of quarter sawn stock.