I am trying a new (actually old) adhesive - Weldwood Plastic Resin. I really like T-88, but it isn't available locally. I can get it in St. Paul, MN at Rockler, but they only carry the very expensive 8-oz. kit. I can currently get WPR at the local Ace Hardware store, and it is MUCH cheaper. I think the plastic resin works fine, though I can see where it would be unforgiving of gaps.
Speaking of locally (well, kind of local) available products, I stopped at McCormick's Lumber in Madison, WI this weekend to get some 1/16" birch plywood. They were out of the plywood, but they did have a very nice selection of Sitka Spruce. The quarter-sawn rough-cut boards were 1"x9" in lengths from 14' to 18'. I didn't have to go into the stack more than a few boards to find one that will make some nice longerons.
Yes, the spruce is more expensive than the lumber at the local lumber yard (we do still have a lumber yard in Eau Claire, in addition to Menards) - but I haven't had much luck finding wood that I would make a spar or longeron out of. The structural grade douglas fir at Lyman Lumber was one exception - I found a few 2x10s that I could have used. Each timber could have yielded a couple one-piece longerons or caps, maybe double that with scarfing and laminating. That douglas fir was better than half the cost of the nearly perfect spruce - not worth my time to save so little.
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