Strong light material to be lifted by a drone?

[Pidge]

Hi, I am currently constructing a personal project, and I was wondering if anybody knew any thin material that was relatively light weight, cheap, and as strong as wood. I understand that carbon fiber exists, but this material is rather expensive. If anyone knows alternatives to using wood or carbon fiber, please inform me. Thanks.

Material also needs to be able to be lifted by a small drone.

 

[fresh_42]

Hi, I am currently constructing a personal project, and I was wondering if anybody knew any thin material that was relatively light weight, cheap, and as strong as wood. I understand that carbon fiber exists, but this material is rather expensive. If anyone knows alternatives to using wood or carbon fiber, please inform me. Thanks.

Material also needs to be able to be lifted by a small drone.

What's wrong with good old aluminium?

 

[phinds]

What do you mean by "strong" ? HOW strong? Wood strength varies quite a bit. What is the application? If you want a helpful answer, give helpful information.

EDIT: Hm ... I see you are a new member. Perhaps you don't have much experience formulating specific scientific questions. You'll find that the most informative questions elicit the most helpful answers.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I was wondering if anybody knew any thin material that was relatively light weight, cheap, and as strong as wood.

Wood is relatively light weight, cheap, and exactly as strong as wood. Why won't this work?

 

[CWatters]

Carbon fibre is much stronger than wood. How about plastic? Plastics are about as strong as wood.

 

[julcab12]

It depends on what condition of the project your working on. A great alternative to wood is wood composite. Or you want something malleable and easy to work with-- Go for flexi acrylic sheet.

 

[NTL2009]

I recall reading (I think I was looking into RC plane DIY builds at the time), that most wood had similar strength/density ratios.

Looking at this site,

http://www-materials.eng.cam.ac.uk/mpsite/interactive_charts/strength-density/basic.html

if I'm interpreting correctly (big if, I'm not an ME or materials science guy), it seems that sort of holds true for many/most materials. It looks to me that some wood has a better/similar strength/density versus the lower grades of aluminum? That doesn't seem right to me. Maybe the scales don't work that way, I was assuming that a line crossing the 10x axis intersects (going from lower left to upper right) on that chart would mean that X Kg of any material on that line would have the same strength?

 

[gleem]

If you describe what you want to build it will help to suggest possible materials and or techniques that are both light and strong.

 

[Evanish]

Fiberglass?