Maybe good ideas for D I Y guys.
MANY years ago I used square alu for a fuse, found at local hardware store for cheap.
1 was not thick enough, bent between TE F wing and LE STRUT.
So found another square alu that fit perfectly inside the other, has not bent after MANY years.
The nice thing is also that there is a line on the center of all the sides to help with on center hole drilling.
See here alu square doubled fuse on TT,BiDi
So now with alu STRUTS available from a couple of comerical manufactorers for not so much, using one in combination with doubled wall alu fuse and easy to make wings one can have a t bar with wings for much less!
The Manta alu STRUT that is being used to build for a friend is,
90 cm X 11.7 cm X 15mm
weighs 1.8K
2 X M8 tapped fuse and board plate holes.
We will use 8mm thick about 20cm X 12 cm alu plate and after assembled will dry stress test on board to see of some tig weld fillets are a good idea or not?
As a straight STRUT that is stiff in both lateral and twist can be hard to make this seems to be a good alternative, and should be very durable as long as SS,inox connections are insulated.
One can use plastic square stock to make profiled nose and tail inserts into alu.
Simple flat bottom F wing and top R wing,
one curved male mold can be used and super simple LE and TE profiles shaped, even fiber glass would work as the second I ever built (09) wing is 19 layers of 300g/m2 and flew AGAIN today!
Straight T E on wings work just fine as seen on the third below,
The last AR 4 F and R wings for beginners look like this and fly just fine.
We are working on inserts and will update when best tested options are found.
I think you could also get an Alu STRUT from Zeeko?
So with a little investment and some work one should be able to make a reasonable low cost T bar and wings, without the somewhat complecated composit STRUT and fuse.
R H