rbrochey
Well-Known Member
Looking forward to getting the plans from Ron and building even more saw horses to create another long building surface. And not to forget the Cygnet I have paced an order for the metal to build the fittings... okay so I mentioned using Douglas Fir as opposed to Spruce and asked Ron's opinion and he gave me some great resources to check out. As an aside, I build acoustic guitars (partly to help support my plane obsession) and I work with spruce and Douglas Fir quite a bit. I have noticed some things. If I lay a piece of Douglas Fir (like a soundboard) down by accident on some say walnut shavings, it doesn't pick up the little surface dings that the softer spruce (and especially cedar) will. Both pieces quartersawn, both the same thickness and drying age. The fir is obviously stronger and handles the string tension better than spruce too. The grain separation is also very similar, (tightness). I can thin the fir on the soundboard (say to 1.8mm at the edges) more than spruce without compromising the strength Both have bright tonal characteristics but but the fir seems to produce more volume. Not totally scientific but my observations. I know that fir is 'heavier' so I guess my question is does anyone know if there is a formula for how much you can reduce the fir (Douglas of course) and not compromise the integrity of the build. Of course if this is more trouble than it's worth I'll just use spruce, but I like working with fir more... Thanks!!
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