Boomerang making part 2; a few mis-steps.

As mentioned in my previous post, difficulties in finding suitable materials has played a large part of my self-education in the practice of making boomerangs.  A secondary aspect has been the fabrication side.

My first foray into the sphere of lap-jointed boomerangs, for example. Wood would (!) seem an ideal material, light but rigid.  Since NZ is home to some of the world's largest Pinus radiata plantations I rather unsurprisingly chose to make mine out of that (radiata pine).

The lap-jointing, courtesy of some careful sawing,  went surprisingly well, and i ended up with quite a nice looking, relatively light boomerang. However in the process of planing what was a 10mm thickness down to 5-7mm (= a lot of shavings!) and subsequent shaping exposed a difficulty in maintaining a sufficient joint strength. On an early test flight, a mild crash broke the rang on a part of the joint. dang!   I'll try that again some time.

Meanwhile, the idea of moulding my own cloth-reinforced resin rang had taken hold.

I had some polyester potting resin on the shelf;  add some strips of polyester/cotton tee-shirt, a plasticine mould built on a foil-covered board in the outline of my selected plan, and presto!  ...oops, whats this?  my composite rang is a rubbery flop! not enough hardener?