Preparing the strips

I thought a lot about selecting the wood for the construction. Then I went to the local 'wood-shop', I found out that kind of wood wasn't available anymore (at least not at reasonable prices). So I changed tactics - I compiled a list of available woods, their characteristics, and, of course, prices...

Here's a table of some of the locally available woods (only lightweight woods are included), without prices as these are too variable. I included balsa wood just a as reference. Its mechanical properties are too variable to be of use.

Wood	Color	Spec. weight
Pino Elliotti	Yellow/ochre	0.46
Pino Paraná	Reddish yellow	0.52
Paraiso	Clear ochre	0.5
Curupí	Grey/white gris	0.35
Cedro	Reddish	0.46
Kiri	White	0.3
Balsa	White	0.15
Timbó	Dark red	0.42

Data sources: various sites over the internet. Check the links.

Finally I decided on timbo wood. Even though my friendly carpenter assured me he wouldn't want to help me cutting it because of the agressive dust it produces. Oh well, I'll have to cut it myself then - timbo has many interesting qualities though:

• It's lightweight (Specifica weight only 0.42),
• Mechanically resistent,
• It's also water-resistent - actually it's recommended for nautical use (even though it'll be protected by epoxy, some resistence to water can be helpful!),
• It's economical! Costs only about eg. 40% of cedar.
• Doesn't have (almost) any knots - little waste!

Note: The generated dust is possibly allergenic, and most certainly agressive, so a mask is a must! (the normal dust filter is enough though)

Continue with cutting and planing the strips.

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(c) John Coppens ON6JC/LW3HAZ

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