[WWI] laminated props and plywood seams

[Andy Bannister]

Hi Michael,
Your best reference for Albatros construction techniques is the Smithsonian book on their D.V restoration if you can find a copy. The plywood covering was not butt joined but tapered (chamfered?)and overlapped. I'm not sure what kind of plywood it was.
As for the props I think it varied depending on the manufacturer but possibly walnut and/or mahogany were used, probably others. I'm no expert on props. Funnily enough I have a Sensinech prop hub which has a barometer set into it.
Andy
> 
> From: "Michael Scarborough" <moscarborough at earthlink.net>
> Date: 2008/01/07 Mon PM 11:43:59 GMT
> To: <wwi at wwi-models.org>
> Subject: [WWI] laminated props and plywood seams
> 
> Hello all,    
>     I work with wood for a living and am only recently coming to serious observation of the construction of WWI planes and building models of them.
>     I am about to start a build of the Eduard Albatross W.4 and have been looking at lots of pictures of Albatrosses and the models people have made of them. I would love to know if anyone has come across a description of exactly what kind of plywood was used in the fuselage construction, and, how the pieces of plywood were butt joined, end to end. Certainly, my interest is not limited to Albatross construction, but that's where I'm starting and I would like to attempt to faithfully and accurately represent, in scale, what the original craftsmen were doing. 
>     Likewise with props. What kind of wood were they made of? It seems that most model props show laminations of two different species of wood. However, as I write, hanging on my wall is a Sensenich prop made in the 1930s, and it, and many other wooden props with which I am familiar, albeit laminated from many pieces of wood, are made from the same species of wood. I think the light and dark laminations seen so frequently on models look great, especially when extremely well executed (as they are on Tom Morgan's Fokker E.V) but were they as common as one would be led to believe considering the number of them seen in the galleries and on competition tables?
>     Please understand, I am not challenging, just inquiring because I want to get it right.
>     If anyone has any construction descriptions, or, better, photos of assembly lines showing these aspects of the construction, I would be thrilled to see them.
>     Many thanks for your patience dealing with the new guy's questions.
>     Michael
> 

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