I made all of my bows out of 1/8 spruce laminations and it worked fine.  No steaming required.  Remember the easiest and cheapest method is to stick with the plans.  Bowers did an excellent job in his design at keeping it simple. -----Original Message----- From: Mike Lund <crafters@elgin.net> To: Fly Baby <FlyBaby@listbot.com> Date: Sunday, December 12, 1999 4:10 PM Subject: Rudder/ Elevator bows--Spruce? FlyBaby Hey all   Has anybody actually tried making the bows of spruce laminations?   I have a few boards of "utility" grade, and getting the 1/8" strips out of them would be no problem---other than that overall they are good for flooring (which is what they were actually bought for, but at 65 cents per 8' board, I can sacrafice a few or 3 for the bows ;-)   I have just never tried making a cold-bent spruce part before. Does it tend to crack, or fairly easy to do?   Mike --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Airplanes dont fly on gas, they fly on money. The more money you throw at them, the faster they fly.   IHA