In Veeduber wrote:

Dear Del,

'Think' or know for a fact? :-)

As a general rule the upper limit for wooden brakes is about .063 for
tempered stock but a lot depends on the quality of the wood and
workmanship.

Although the load per unit of length remains the same the overall
magnitude of the load naturally increases with the length of the bend.
It also becomes more difficult to keep the leaf in the same plane as
its length increases. There are fairly simple solutions to each of
these problems and I would have no qualms about making up a long brake
for .032 myself but I've got a lifetime of mistakes behind me :-)

Thanks for posting the info and the additional pictures. Since this
would be for the wing spar webs, the dimensional uniformity is kind of
critical so I am still going to try to pursue other options before
trying a wooden brake. I may have a line on a real 8' brake I can
possibly use, and I'm seriously considering just taking the plans across
town to Atlee Dodge and having the spars bent there. It will cost me
some labor but at least any mistakes won't be on my nickel.

If I go with the wooden brake idea, I'm thinking along the lines of a
4x6 treated beam for the leaf if I can find one straight enough.
Treated only because they seem to be less warped by the time I get my
hands on them.

----------------------------------------------------
Del Rawlins-
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