Alternative stringer material?

Hey all,

anybody used anything other than Basswood for stringers on a home-cut eps blank? What’s been successful and what’s been disasterous?

Any alternatives to wood of any sort?

Just askin cos over here in trhe Uk no one even knows what bass wood is let alone stocks it, in fact anything other than pine or particle board and we’re struggling.

Any advice, experience or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

Hi,

I’ve used plywood, spruce and pine. Good as long as you don’t get water intrusion as the spruce did swell up a bit when I got water in there, but don’t know if basswood is better or worse? Plywood should be fairly stable, but if you use wood I wouldn’t really plan for it to soak water… Greg Loehr have been using PVC sheets I think. Search the archives.

regards,

Håvard

Fbla,

PVC Sheet foam such as Sintra or Komatex in 3mm thickness. Comes in 4’ x 8’ sheets in many colors. I have also found 5’ x 10’ but it only comes in white. It is mainly used by sign shops. It is easy to cut with a razor knife or jigsaw and is the easiest stringer to plane when shaping you will ever find. I scuff it up with sandpaper and glue it with a RR epoxy and microballoons mix. Enough m/b’s to thicken the resin but definitely not as thick as for sealing a blank. A foam roller works good for applying. You don’t want any excess squeezing out as it will cause problems when shaping the blank. I wipe any excess off with DNA on a paper towel while clamping the blank. If you use white PVC you can paint each side of the stringer before glue up to get a colored glue line effect. If using colored material make sure you blow off the blank very well before sealing because the little colored specks are everywhere. Another thing I like about pvc over wood is that it will not absorb water. You can get most of the water out of eps if it gets wet but wood stringers wick water and turn to mush IMO.

http://www.kommerlingusa.com/komatex/index.htm

http://www.alcancompositesusa.com/prod_sintra.html

regards,

Dave_D

I just made a board with a custom bamboo stringer that I had made by Greenlight. It’s tough and feels like it should be pretty springy. Just glassed it yesterday, so no ride report yet. It’s kind of a pricey way to go, but then, I got the foam for free.

Cheers all for the replies. I think I might give all of the suggestions the go as I just came across a mother lump of foam which I’m hoping to cut about ten blanks from.

I’ll start a project thread when work gets underway.

Thanks again

You might want to try Luan ply if its available in your area. Cedar is also a good choice if you can find it. Being in the UK I would think that you could find a furniture maker and get some Mahogany or Walnut. In the thickness that you would use for a stringer they wouldn’t be as heavy as you might think.

A few other ideas,

Ash, very springy, maple, also springy or poplar, light.

There is the expensive source, 2mm veneer,

Or for poplar and maybe light tropical wood you could recycle some pallets,

and plane it to the right thickness.

Poplar is the light and fibrous wood that don’t smell like resin.

Thin 0.6mm veneer sandwiched with some dense foam is strong too.

Ask google for some suppliers in your neighborhood.

Last boards I made with some tropical pallet wood, light and stiff,

Don’t know what wood…

Good luck, Soul

How about MDF soaked in epoxy, cheap and easily found in any hardware store…

You could also laminate some 4 oz glass in between 2 sheets of 1.5mm and that would be super strong…

Good idea Hicksy, I might have a look in my odds box later see if I have enough carbon fibre left to do this with instead of just glass cloth. I’ve got loads of foam at the minute so I’m probably going to experiment with loads of the suggested options.