Humbrol Finally Going to Dropper type bottles.

[zenrat]

Bamboo scaffolding is amazing.  You not seen any Hong Kong action movies?

[PR19_Kit]

It isn't when there's a twin 3" 3000 psi hydraulic main hanging off it with a socking great 75 gpm pump stuffing oil through it!

It was shaking and shivering like nobodies business, and I kept well out of the way. 

[zenrat]

Well it's got to give a bit for the wind hasn't it?

[PR19_Kit]

INSIDE a hangar? 

[Mossie]

I've no direct experience but I remember a health and safety briefing where the guy went off on a tangent when they were discussing scaffolding.  In his opinion, bamboo was far superior to steel, easier to construct, lighter and stronger. Much more eco-friendly too!

[PR19_Kit]

But nowhere NEAR as stiff! 

[ChernayaAkula]

I've had chinese made stainless steel woodscrews where i've been able to shear the heads off with a hand screwdriver.
They tend to be the ones that come provided to attach the chinese made fitting I am using at the time and so were presumably sourced based on cost. <...>

This! 
The buyer/importer sets the quality standard, not the Chinese factory. The buyer/importer gets what he pays for. People will often point at "no-name, cheap Chinese sh!t" that will "only work once", but forget that the higher quality stuff they refer to by the brand name ("proudly family-owned since 19something^TM") was also produced in China.
So I think it's not so much a matter of keeping the good stuff at home, but rather what the buyer/importer is prepared to pay.

[zenrat]

I think that is what I was saying Moritz.  They didn't shear off because they were Chinese but because they were crap.
And they were crap because they were cheap.
But someone decided to put cheap crappy screws in with the fittings to save money and as the fittings were made and packaged in China those cheap crappy screws were Chinese.

[NARSES2]

But nowhere NEAR as stiff! 

But you need some "give" in your steel as well Kit.

I was once told that the major benefit of bamboo/timber scaffolding was that it gave you some indication it was going to fail before it actually did, unlike steel which just tends to "go". Thus if you were on it you did have a chance, maybe only a slim one, but at least a chance to get off before it went. I assume the indication was creaking and cracking ? Never was told exactly.

[ChernayaAkula]

I think that is what I was saying Moritz.  <...>

Regarding keeping the good stuff at home, I remember my parents trying to source good coffee locally when we lived in Kenya for some time in the late 90s. No dice. All the good stuff really was going into export. They ended up asking friends and relatives to bring along coffee from Germany when visiting us. Since their favoured brand was a blend of Kenyan beans, this made the coffee some kind of reimport. 

[NARSES2]

I think that happens a lot with foodstuffs Moritz

[Mossie]

But nowhere NEAR as stiff! 

But you need some "give" in your steel as well Kit.

I was once told that the major benefit of bamboo/timber scaffolding was that it gave you some indication it was going to fail before it actually did, unlike steel which just tends to "go". Thus if you were on it you did have a chance, maybe only a slim one, but at least a chance to get off before it went. I assume the indication was creaking and cracking ? Never was told exactly.

When bamboo undergoes stress, it starts to split and it's fibres fray, long before it breaks.  Like wood, you've got a visual indicator of how far along it is in it's life, and I assume some 'feel' underfoot.

Funnily enough I've found this out as I'm looking to by a new bike and considered a bamboo one (too pricey at the mo).  It's considered ideal material for cycling, light and strong with that 'give' that Chris mentioned.

[zenrat]

Actual bamboo cut, dried and made into a bike frame?  Or is it somehow processed into materials more consistently sized?

[zenrat]

OK, I googled it.

Found this.


Bamboo tubes with hemp fibre lugs.

As you say, not cheap.

https://calfeedesign.com/bamboo/

Now i'm thinking about a bamboo framed motorcycle.

[PR19_Kit]

As you say, not cheap.

Pah! Only $5500.00? A full-on Moulton SS will set you back £16000.00!

Ok, so none of my Moultons cost that much, but one of them looks almost the same as an SS. 

And it's made from Reynolds 531 as well.