Main Spar Capstrip material source

[Hercpilot]

Anyone have a lead on the main spar capstrip material? Airparts and AS dont stock it...Wicks is backordered!

[SpruceForest]

Summary:

Assuming you are a 4 or 5 builder and the spar cap width is greater than 1" (1/8" x 1" 2024T3/T4 for Patrol/Companion/LSA is carried by Spruce; a 13 strip set is about $772 and change plus shipping).

We found the least expensive way to do this was to buy a sheet of 12' x 4' x 1/8" and use a decent table saw to mill into strips. About $856 for a sheet from Spruce plus crate and ship. Combine that with a sheet of .063 and you'll have enough material to mill out at least one extra set of main and aft, plus a couple additional sets of aft spar caps.

Discussion:

I already had my cap strips on hand before the aluminum industry prices blew up in 2022. Carlo? Not so much. Prices for both sets of strips assuming they were available was close to $1400 delivered... turned out buying sheet stock was just a little bit more than that, and we were able to get a coupe extra sets of main spar caps and six total sets of aft caps. After selling out the spare sets, Carlo's cost was something like $400, and a number of other builders got cap strip sets that were better than anything they were going to see from Spruce (at least judging from my stock).

Should be a back issue of Beartracks that covers this process in detail, but generally, plan on a cabinet saw, good aluminum blade, plastic on BOTH sides of the sheet stock, and three folks that don't mind getting covered in aluminum chips. Nice to have an infeed and outfield platforms as well (but we used standard saw supports and did just fine), and those cool A5 grade rubber-coated anti-slip/anticut gloves plus good eye protection is necessary.

So yes - a lot more work than getting the stuff in a shipping tube, but none of the stuff I've seen sheared or from bar stock comes close, and for something like 1-1/8" or 1-1/4" width caps, there are not a lot of other options that don't involve getting 1/8" material sheared with labor and ship.

PM me if you need to discuss. My reverse group buy ad is likely still in the archived 'for sale' listings, which is one model for handing the sale and distribution of the excess material.

[Hercpilot]

Summary:

Assuming you are a 4 or 5 builder and the spar cap width is greater than 1" (1/8" x 1" 2024T3/T4 for Patrol/Companion/LSA is carried by Spruce; a 13 strip set is about $772 and change plus shipping).

We found the least expensive way to do this was to buy a sheet of 12' x 4' x 1/8" and use a decent table saw to mill into strips. About $856 for a sheet from Spruce plus crate and ship. Combine that with a sheet of .063 and you'll have enough material to mill out at least one extra set of main and aft, plus a couple additional sets of aft spar caps.

Discussion:

I already had my cap strips on hand before the aluminum industry prices blew up in 2022. Carlo? Not so much. Prices for both sets of strips assuming they were available was close to $1400 delivered... turned out buying sheet stock was just a little bit more than that, and we were able to get a coupe extra sets of main spar caps and six total sets of aft caps. After selling out the spare sets, Carlo's cost was something like $400, and a number of other builders got cap strip sets that were better than anything they were going to see from Spruce (at least judging from my stock).

Should be a back issue of Beartracks that covers this process in detail, but generally, plan on a cabinet saw, good aluminum blade, plastic on BOTH sides of the sheet stock, and three folks that don't mind getting covered in aluminum chips. Nice to have an infeed and outfield platforms as well (but we used standard saw supports and did just fine), and those cool A5 grade rubber-coated anti-slip/anticut gloves plus good eye protection is necessary.

So yes - a lot more work than getting the stuff in a shipping tube, but none of the stuff I've seen sheared or from bar stock comes close, and for something like 1-1/8" or 1-1/4" width caps, there are not a lot of other options that don't involve getting 1/8" material sheared with labor and ship.

PM me if you need to discuss. My reverse group buy ad is likely still in the archived 'for sale' listings, which is one model for handing the sale and distribution of the excess material.

Thanks for the info! I read your post and knew that it was a little more involved. Looks like it is rapidly becoming Plan A!

[SpruceForest]

Spent way more time building the crates to reship the caps than doing the actual milling. Carlo had a builder that drove in from WV and just strapped a set of main and aft spare caps to his Tacoma for the drive home, so other than some clingy protective wrap, cardboard and bubble wrap to save his paint near passenger side rearview, not much work.

For the crates, I just scarfed together 2x spruce stock to get to 12'-2" (could have bought 12' or 16' spruce - my F150 was getting a new front suspension at the time), milled a recess down the center to take the cap strips (wrap cap strip stack in plastic cling wrap, THEN in strapping tape before crating... saves the plastic coating from getting damaged from tape removal... DAMHIKT), then screwed on scrap ply left from my 50" bending brake crate to cap things. One of the guys that got one of the aft cap sets reported that his wife ran over the 3.25" x 2" x 12' crate after it was left tucked up against the garage door unnoticed... no damage.

[Gerhard Rieger]

I bought a sheet and cut all my cap strips and other parts from that sheet.

[Hercpilot]

I bought a sheet and cut all my cap strips and other parts from that sheet.

That's my plan too! Stopped by Wicks on the way home from Oshkosh and picked up most of the wing materials!