I have done some thinking and have sided that building with plywood will be more cost effective and yield quicker results. I would love to use a foam technique but the cost of the epoxy would be too costly. Even a honeycomb material would be nice to try and save weight, but that is also more expensive. The local supply of luan (lauan)plywood is horrible with two thin plys on the exterior and one large ply in the middle. The middle ply does not look like a solid ply but some other filler material. However, the birch plywood seems to have even plys throughout the plywood.
Looking at my design, it looks like a slight bend to the panels would add strength and stiffness. Flat panels are easy to join, but are flimsy without any additional stiffing of some sort. After reading more on the stitch and glue technique, it seems feasible. The technique doesn't require any molds or special techniques. It is very reproducible by anyone, as long as the panels are cut correctly. A simple epoxy filler and fiberglass work is needed to cover all the joints for strength.
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Accidentally found your blog. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteI just finished a renovation project of 50 year old velomobile (http://web.me.com/pekkaketola/Sivusto/Blogi/Blogi.html), and now starting a new project for a modern one.
I prefer plywood in my work since it is relatively cheap (material, tools), easy to apply and repairable. It also gives very firm structure. Just learnt that you can find also extremely thin material, down to 1mm, which is pretty exciting from design perspective.
Nice work with the restoration. Looks very nice!
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