Widget build questions

[Rob Dines]

I have just bought a 09154 HF frame and will be building a Widget. First off I build guitars and just finished a 2 1/2 year Fine Woodworker course. I have a couple of Bill of Material, BOM, questions and supplier questions. Plywood or another wood type skin, 1/4" with an interior frame good enough? I would like to build this as light as possible. I think I will start one of those free websites right now so you can watch the build. I will post questions here.
Thanks,
Rob

[larryl]

Rob:

will be watching with interest as you build. My next will be a Widget.

Larryl

[Chris C]

Rob,

Welcome aboard. Good to have another woodworker here. This will be a piece of cake for you. I make furniture for a living and the wood part of this project will be easy for you.

As far as your questions.......................just get a couple of pots of coffee and start reading. Any specific questions you have have been answered at least a hundred times. Go to the top of the page and do a search. After you've absorbed all you can stand (which could take a long time) just start asking questions. You'll get plenty of answers...............not all correct, but all worth reading and learning from. You'll definately get a lot of individual opinions. This is a good group and you'll see a lot of ribbing going on. Just join in the fun. We call it "the adult day care center".

[BILLYL]

Rob-

Welcome. I also make guitars - Lawrence Guitars - With those skills you should have no trouble making a TD (teardrop) The bracing is bigger - and the router bits are larger. You'll need a little metal working skills.

But have fun

Bill

[angib]

Plywood or another wood type skin, 1/4" with an interior frame good enough?

I will say 'yes', though you'll doubtless be told 'no' by others. If you look at the Midget plans that the Widget is based on (click on 'Vintage Plans' in the menu above), you'll see that it's made with 1/2" 'hard-pressed board' (I take it that's hardboard or masonite!) over some 1-1/8"x1-1/2" frames. Compared to this, 1/4" ply with framing is tough!

Andrew

[madjack]

...one of our famous woodwrights is Roly Nelson, who built his ultralight tear(under300#s) using a hollow core door for the floor and framed 1/4ply for the walls...so yeah, it would work...
madjack

[mikeschn]

Would it be fair at this point to notice the difference between 1/4" luan (aka 5.2mm luan) versus 1/4" birch ply that has at least 3 layers, plus 2 veneers. The latter is so much stronger, I would perfer to build using that.

Mike...

[madjack]

good point Mike...not all ply is created equal.........................