With or Against Grain

[Ken Miller]

The balsam included with my kit for #503 Hellcat is not very good. I am going to recut the ribs and formers but not sure in which direction to cut them. Not sure if I should cut them with the grain or against the grain. Also what is the best way to cut the notches for the spars and stringers.

I am building this for model for display so I am not concerned with weight.

Thanks for the help.

[SteveM]

You can use the original parts as a guide of which way the grain should run. I've always seen the wing ribs with the grain running from leading edge to trailing edge and the grain if the fuselage formers running vertically.

For cutting stringer notches I tend to stick to an Xacto knife, but others make sanding sticks by gluing sand paper to wood sticks of the appropriate width or even use a Dremel with a cutting wheel. There is some good info on stringer notches and some pictures showing the gain direction in formers here.

You might also be interested in the attributes of balsa wood.

[Ken Miller]

Thanks for the info. Its all helpful.