pugdog
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May 11, 2007, 5:15 PM
Post #1 of 1
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Dura-Craft San Franciscan 550
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Just got one in, the box was beat up and water stained, but the wood appears to be good (or as good as duracraft wood ever was. They used paper filler, and such in their milling, rather than good strip wood. More later.
I think I have/had another of these around somewhere. They use the milled strips of wood that notch/groove together to make the walls, then are secured in groved/milled strip basswood uprights.
This was a clever alternative to die cutting. All they needed was milling equipment to make the walls, and the shape was the same. Bits could be ordered in bulk, and then they just needed to make a jig with a hydraulic cutter to make the various lengths. It was much cheaper than die cutting, and if the bits got dull, they could be easily replaced and/or sharpened, where as new dies would have to be made.
The only problem is that the parts often warped, if they weren't put together just right there were gaps, and the whole wall on the inside *SHOULD* have had a die-cut paper form to glue over it to hold it all together. Those of you who never built a duracraft kit probably don't have clue about what I'm saying :) No problem. I'll have pictures up eventually.
Dura-craft kits like this one came with shingles, flooring (strip wood that could be laid to give a fairly good floor) and other parts. While the _CONCEPT_ of the kit was a good idea, the quality of the wood used was often too poor to give them the real quality they needed. While I haven't seen them, there are apparently 3 models of the San Franciscan with different numbers. This slat-wall-build up was the first and IMHO the best looking. There was a die-cut plywood wall version (I think) and an MDF wall version. I'm trying to verify this from pictures and old ads, if anyone knows for sure, please post! Pictures would be really nice too -- and you can upload them right into your message.
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