RE: Good wood for tts [TANKS]

["Steve Tyng" <STyng-at-ACPTrust.com>]

Chris wrote:
 
> I'm currently building  some TTS MkII tracks and I 
> can't find a suitable wood for the outer cleats, I was going 
> to use maple but the quote I got was $193 Aus for three 
> lengths 1220x100x25! the guy might as well just come to my 
> house and punch me in the face. So maple is out of the 
> question, cherry is out (they don't stock it) oak is also out 
> (cheap but not as strong as I'd like). So does anyone have 
> some suggestions on a suitable wood?

Any fine grained hardwood will work well.  Oak will work OK as long as
you pre-drill for any fasteners (it splits easy).  The maple and cherry
I've used in my TTS's were both from salvaged sources.  The maple from
an old butcher block and the cherry from old retail display cases.  I
have a ton of oak that was salvaged from old library book shelving.
Another source for salvaged hardwood is old shipping pallets.  These are
generally made of hard wood.


   Steve Tyng