Bamboo for inner support?

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Vitamin K
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Bamboo for inner support?

Post by Vitamin K »

So here's what the kids and I are messing with for this years' builds...

Basically, we're using a design very similar to the "Stan Pope Rail Car", and then building an interior scaffolding with cut bamboo skewers.

Here's the cut-out void (the slightly-off drill jobs at the corners are the result of my kids' not-so-great accuracy with the drill press)

Image

Here's the picture with the bamboo epoxied into place.

Image

The final body is just over half an ounce in weight. Probably going to add a thin balsa sheet over the top, so that'll add a little weight, too.

Any of y'all do anything similar to this? I got the idea to try bamboo after looking at some of Laserman's posts.
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Re: Bamboo for inner support?

Post by Speedster »

A 1/2 ounce is close to 14 grams. It seems my Mid America car was 6 grams when I started. Don't quote me on that. If I remember correctly Sporty wanted to start at 6 grams. Do you need the supports? Is Bamboo light? Is Balsa lighter? Just curious. Trying to learn.
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Noskills
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Re: Bamboo for inner support?

Post by Noskills »

Looks pretty good. I cut out the wood in the nose too and just don't taper it as much. I add 1-2 balsa cross beams and a balsa cover and it it a but lighter than yours. Also that looks more like 3/8th deep than 1/4. Could lose some weight there too.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Bamboo for inner support?

Post by Vitamin K »

An uncut bamboo skewers weighs about 2 grams. I think that I used about half a skewer in each car.

The cars are indeed 3/8" thick. Since we're running lead, this allows me to put a larger chunk of lead in the back. If we were running tungsten, I'd probably drop the height to 1/4".

I don't think we're gonna be shooting for a COM of under 1/2", so I'm not certain there's any benefit to further weight reduction at this point.
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whodathunkit
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Re: Bamboo for inner support?

Post by whodathunkit »

Looking good Vitamin K.

You know the truck i'v been working on has a 3/8 thick 19 inch long frame ..
the longer the frame is the more you can twist and flex it.
It's a little stronger the shorter the frame work gets even with out all the cut outs.

Nice work with the Bamboo.
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Laserman
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Re: Bamboo for inner support?

Post by Laserman »

Looking good VK!

Yes. The bamboo skewers add a great deal of strength even when halved or quartered.

The idea is to use the grain of the wood where.
Cross grain does not add much structure.

You can do the same thing near the nose an take off more weight if you want but 1/2OZ is competitive already.

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Re: Bamboo for inner support?

Post by Scrollsawer »

Hmm... I would have gone with 1" rebar, but that's just me. :mrgreen:
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