: Reading the 'Geodesic' thread had me thinking, and I'm sure some structural
: person will have a reason why this won't work, but I'm sure it'll be the
: first time EVER in this group

: How about doing the structural frame from normal S&G plywood, with various
: triangular shapes cut out, resembling a stamped piece of metal? Obviously
: laminated with glass for strength, and maybe the bulkheads, (in a place
: where the sides have the cutouts aranged for bulkhead placement), are
: structural?

: Alright, alright, shoot it down, but interesting?

Hey Mike

Well......... Hmmmmmmm!! Designing the triangles where you would get the most structural value out of them might me a trick, unless you've had some Geometry, but, There is enough strength in the ply to support the glass so I don't see why not. You would have to use some sort of support for the glass in each of the triangles when glassing the outside, and I'm not sure you would be able to on the inside, but maybe just resin the inside. ?? You'd probably want to use two layers of glass outside. My only consideration would be.... the glass would bleed off the resin that should be soaking into it from the outside. It would just soak through and run down the inside, or leave air bubbles in the cloth. I'm not an expert on glass, yet, but that might be a problem. Even on glass boats they use a mold on the inside to support the glass being applied. Interesting thought. Get you some scrap plywood and cut out the design you are talking about and try glassing with the triangles cut out and see what the complications would be. ?? Certainly would save some weight if you could do it.

Rehd