basswood or plywood

[Tedman]

i have a question im trying to answer whats better for fins basswood or Aircraft Birch Plywood?

 

[cjl]

What size rocket?

 

[outasight13]

i prefer plywood just becasue i do (no reason really)
for mid power rockets, 3/32" is the best thickness, unless you have really big fins, then 1/8" might be better.

 

[sandman]

Better for what purpose?

Low Power, Mid Power...???

It depends.

Basswood is fine for "some" mid power.

Basswood is great for low power scale when you want a thin scale fin.

Thin ply is OK but it tends to warp easily. For some, scale ply allows you to sand a nice knife edge and make it consistant by watching the amount of exposed plys as you sand.

 

[Stymye]

I've used basswood for midpower on alot of rockets.
I generally save ply for highpower.

Basswood is a very good step up from balsa.. rather than going all out with ply and it's major increase in weight.

A number of builders tend to think ply is the only option after balsa. I don't follow that thinking

 

[rbeckey]

I used to replace the finstock in a low or mid power with lite ply or basswood. Lately I have taken to laminating with silkspan and wood glue or finishing epoxy, depending on the size of the project. The finished fin is about the same weight as basswood, but stronger. Saves on replacing supplied wood in kits, too.

 

[denverdoc]

Yea, to us old timers who as kids built anything and everything that could fly, I'm amazed by the reluctance of some whippersnappers to avoid covering materials. Hell, even monokote or "Jap" tissue properly done can take a core material up 2 notches in strength and usually with considerable weight savings. Putting two layers of CF laminate over HD poly-U foam or honeycomb is no different inpinciple than rice paper on balsa.

Just an old timers view of things,
John S