Cap strip material 4 place

[augman40]

Anybody have any leads on cap strip material? Called wicks and placed an order but it’s been a month, Nobody has it anymore , they say it’s like it dosent exist anymore.
any help would be great.

[sjt]

What is the width that the 4 place uses. Aircraft spruce sells 1" and 1 1/2"

The worst case is a table saw with a 10 inch aluminum blade and ripping the 1 1/2.


Another possibility is a 4 by 12 sheet. the 1/16 material is not to bad. Bob might be ok with two 1/16 .


The price of a 4x12 1/8 is getting up there. You would be ok if another -or two- builder split the cost of ripping it.

Probably just rip the 1 1/2 to whatever you need.


Maybe buy 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 1/8 2024t3 angle. You still need a table saw to split it but you might be able to get twice the number of capstrips from an angle bar

[sjt]

A table saw with this blade will do the job. But the chips are very hot and you need to protect your skin and eyes


51k++ThC1fL._AC_SX300_SY300_.jpg

[Redneckmech]

I cut my capstrips from a 4x12 sheet of 1/8 using a well worn skil saw with a home-built fence and an aluminum cutting blade. There is enough material to cover two sets of capstrips and two sets of attach/splice plates so if you have any other builders close by you could sell the other half of the sheet.

Pictures here: https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blprojentry&proj=7reiBV4ta&e=8EFmcfmiA&listcat=^r esearch&sid=

[sjt]

Big box stores sell straight edges. The problem is that I needed a 12 foot straight edge. I bought several straight edges and made a long MDF board that spanned several straight edges. gorilla glue then is used to permanently connect them and hold them fixed

s.jpg g.jpg

5.jpgI used sacrificial styrofoam under sheet to clean blade. I also used a smaller 5 1/2 saw with a nice blade. This was 1/16 material for patrol.

[sjt]

corner.jpg It is a bit dangerous but you can cut off the corner on angle material. Not a good picture for cutting corner.

[augman40]

1/8x1-1/4 t4

[Steve W]

There was another thread on exactly the same topic years back. Lots of good suggestions. It’s not a hard thing to do. Just tedious.

[SpruceForest]

We did caps for Patrol main and aft spar from both sheet and angle... shipping is expensive on 12' sheets, but if you set up a reverse group buy (mill it then sell and ship at cost or require local pickup), total costs get back closer to 2020 levels (before we saw these 2.5-3x increases in material cost and shipping). Costwise, sheet is the cheapest, but if you have other long stuff ordered, angle can work (search my posts for the process). Suggest finding a friend with a cabinet saw (3 hp tables) with good fence and infeed/outfeed tables or roller stands. You'll need three folks to do the job safely and with decent results. Yes - you can use other saws (track saws, etc.), but in terms of safety and efficiency, a cabinet saw minimizes setup between cuts at the cost of three bodies (infeed person, saw operator, outfeed person. I think my and other builder's previous posts and at least one article for Beartracks cover most of the rest of it.

On blades, a lot of companies make aluminum blades with that slight negative rake. A 10" aluminum/non-ferrous metal carbide blade (mine is a Freud from Home Depot) holds up and can do double duty for some plastics and laminates. Def pay to get plastic on both sides of your sheet - it dramatically reduces the chance of deep scratches from all those sharp little 2024 chips that WILL accumulate on any potential saw table, track, etc.

PM me to set up a call if you want more info on safe/efficient/economic aspects, but there is a wealth of info here on the forum as well.

[SpruceForest]

Rear Spar Cap Strip Rip Sequence.jpg

Just because someone will want the details at some point on how to mill on tablesaw:

1. Rip as shown above... hold-downs are key to making this operation safe!!!
2. Remove the sharp edge left on the cap strip from the inner radius of angle with 2" medium ROLOC non-woven abrasive pad
3. Sand edges square with P220 on block (this should remove about 0.002"
4. Polish any scratches/remaining edge burrs with fine 2" ROLOC non-woven abrasive pad


IMG_3821.jpg

The mess that one pass makes... always stop and clean up after each pass, as those strips off the ATB blade kerf and the remainder of the angle join can be nasty if trapped in blade

IMG_3823.jpg

First pass removes one side of the angle...

IMG_3824.jpg
Second pass (no change in setup) mills off the remaining strip, leaving just the square piece of waste from the apex of the angle

Reset fence and hold-down for the 3rd and 4th passes which get rid of the radiused edge.

Pay attention to the hold-downs and feather boards - you need BOTH to do this safely, efficiently, and with precision (a consistent .015-020 in oversize to allow for trimming and polishing).

[Steve W]

Try the thread from back in 2014 for additional ideas
Ripping rear spar caps?

05-27-2014, 02:08 AM

[Gerhard Rieger]

I bought a full sheet 1.2x3.6m in the thickness required, acquired a tungsten blade for my saw and cut both the main and rear spars capstrips, if you can have it cut with a waterjet it will save tons of time cleaning and deburring them. It worked perfectly, on the rear spar I made what is now totally an over killl splice.