In January 2020, pre-Covid, I found one of my rear spar blanks was defective. I also drilled a hole in the wrong place on another rear spar, I ordered 2 new spars from Aircraft Spruce, not realizing 1 1/2 years later they wouldn't even be able to give me an expected date for them to have spar quality spruce. While I was at the Antique Fly-in, Blakesburg 2021, a fellow Fly Baby builder, Kurt Gubert told me about an old lumber yard in Detroit who had some spruce that might work for my spars.
Our Fly Baby is currently a Biplane, but it's licensed to switch to Monoplane wings, or back, with a log book entry. Unfortunately the wings were ruined in a hangar fire years ago. One of my projects is to rebuild the wings, but I need more spruce. I want the monoplane wings because it's easier to trailer to events. The monoplane wings fold or unfold in about 5 minutes. That was the reason Fly Baby won the EAA design contest back in 1960. The biplane wings take at least an hour each way.
Before you get crazy, Sitka Spruce is a small part of the several woods they stock and it has not been Certified as spar quality wood, that's up to you to resolve. A good reference is ANC-19, Wood Aircraft Inspection and Fabrication.
That lumber yard is
Public Lumber. They've been there
since 1927.
They're at 7 mile and I-75. I took the picture of their store form the other side of 7 Mile Rd. Look to the left 90 degrees and there is the entrance ramp to I-75 northbound. It is in Detroit, in a residential neighborhood. I met Craig and Tom, both super to work with.
It's a real lumberyard and full-service millwork facility, the smell of fresh wood, and the sounds of cutting and milling. They even make their own custom cutters for their millwork. People after my own heart
The spruce is in the lower bay of the rack at the left of this picture. The boards are rough saw, 2" thick, 6" - 12" wide and mostly 16' - 20' long.
They left me to sort out what I wanted. The aisle is about 12' wide so it takes some thought to pull boards all the way out. I had a great time examining and restacking boards. I believe I found enough wood to make my WACO Spars and rebuild the Monoplane wings for our Fly Baby. It was very fairly priced and I was dancing happy when I left.
It was cool when I got there. As I worked and warmed up I took off my sweater, Christmas present from my wife. I left it setting in the bay above the spruce with a tape measure I found laying under the rack.
I went on from there to visit my parents up by Flint. The next morning I realized I'd forgotten the sweater. Tom boxed it up and shipped it to me. Thanks Tom for saving me from some serious dog house time.
I borrowed my son's Transit van to pull the Fly Baby trailer. It's much nicer than my 24 year old Chevy van with 355,000 miles.
The weather was sunny and dry so I didn't worry about protecting the wood from the weather. It all stayed strapped down and towed very well.
The round trip was almost 1,700 miles, well worth it.
The wood is safely home in my attic workshop.
The next step is to pick out boards for the WACO spars. Then the scary part, cutting them up.
