[travis]

Here are some useful properties of Birch (home depot grade plywood material, aircraft grade is void free with superior propeties at about 3X the cost) and 6061-T6 aluminum (all in KSI):

aluminum wood
tensile load at failure 45 10
modulus of elesticity 10,000 2,000

Here is that same table adjusted for density:

tensile load at failure 16.7 16.7 (ahhh perfection)
modulus of elesticity 3703 3333

Price of a clamp = $5, price of a square wave TIG machine = $1500. Home depot grade wood glue can acheive 80% parent material strength with much less skill then welding, and you don't have to heat treat glue joints for full parent properties. Anyone want to race me to install a new limit switch with 2 wood screws vs tapping holes? How about hand jigsawing 10 linear feet? With a rookie team (3rd in a row for me), 6 weeks, and no money, I got wood on the brain.