OUCH!!!!!

[Mike Griffin]

Just placed an order for balsa and the upcharge was more than the cost of the wood.   

Mike

[Gerald Arana]

Mike,

What's an "up charge"? I can guess, but I'd probably be wrong..........

Jerry

[pat king]

Also known as the "Bend Over Charge".

[Peter in Fairfax, VA]

What's an "up charge" in this context?

[Robert Zambelli]

Mike - from whom did you order the balsa?

[Dave_Trible]

Yes the balsa bill seems to be about double what it was a year or two ago but I'd bet it could be going down a bunch very soon.  Everything related to this virus should greatly lower the non-hobby demand, just like the glut and price of oil.  Something I have trouble understanding is so much of this is going to REPLACEMENT blades for the windmills.  I saw a story where many by the hundreds were simply being buried in dozed trenches for a lack of a better way to get rid of them.  What or how can these heavy fiberglass blades deteriorate and so quickly?  Must be some aggressive blade salesmen out there.  That or they just aren't designed very well.  They will dig up those blades 5000 years from now in great shape and wonder what species of animal these came from......

Dave

[Mike Griffin]

I placed an order with Bud Nosen.  They told me to add 110% to the 2019 price list.  I had approximately $200.00 in balsa that I needed to order (that is not a lot of balsa anymore by the way)  You take the $200.00 add 110% upcharge ( $220.00) and it the total cost was $420.00 plus shipping.  This is for what they call AAA select grade.  I could not afford to buy the contest grade and they could not promise me I would even get contest grade even it I specified it. 

Mike

[Mike Griffin]

Mike - from whom did you order the balsa?

Bud Nosen Bob.  Same place that RSM and Tom Morris bought from.

Mike

[George Grossardt]

I clearly understand supply and demand.  This is crazy though.  I am not a doom and gloom type of person but this sort of price point for balsa makes a hobby that really doesn’t have all that many participants in the first place more unattractive. 

My hope is that we figure out more cost effective materials to build with as I am not enthusiastic that the green folks are going to stop pushing windmills.  And the windmill people don’t care about the hobbyists. 

Enough of a rant.  I have to go count up how many sheets of contest grade wood I have.

George

[john e. holliday]

I think Eric Rule is doing some work on replacement material for balsa.  I was hoping to do some work using corrogated paper(known as card board in some area) but side tracked.   Then there is the coro-plast material that has been used in RC.   There is a thread where a plane was constructed of expanded foam.   Just takes a little thought and experimenting.

[Mike Griffin]

I had a long conversation today with Eric Rule and he is currently working on a model that he is building with standard construction techniques and also building the same model with alternative materials, ie. basswood, spruce and very thin veneers.  He has temporarily lost his work space but should resume construction in the near future.  If this continues, we will be forced to start thinking outside the box as far as how we construct these models unless money is no object to some.

Mike

[Mark Mc]

Dang!  I guess I'd better go pick that scrap out of the waste bin I threw in there last night thinking, "I don't need to keep this, I've got too many scraps as it is."

[frank williams]

Something I have trouble understanding is so much of this is going to REPLACEMENT blades for the windmills.  I saw a story where many by the hundreds were simply being buried in dozed trenches for a lack of a better way to get rid of them.  What or how can these heavy fiberglass blades deteriorate and so quickly? 

They hit bald eagles!

[pat king]

I think the problem is that the blades were not designed by aircraft people. They are suffering badly from FOD in the air. I don't know what the surface speed is near the tips, but I bet it is a lot higher than one would think. Solids in the air are eroding the leading edges a lot. I have seen pictures somewhere, the things are getting eaten. They can't afford a blade failure, it will destroy the whole machine.

Pat

[Geoff Goodworth]

You can thank the Chinese for this shortage as well.

They are using all the balsa to build Eco-crusefixes.