Table Saw

[Joe Ed Pederson]

I needed a straight piece of 1/2" balsa for a leading edge, I had some medium 1/4" sheet so I decided to use my regular table saw to cut some 1/2" strips despite the fact that ripping it on a 10" table saw would produce more waste than it would if I had a Mirco Mark table saw.

Today I looked at a Micro Mark table saw in their catalog and the kerf for the blade was listed at .070"      Out of curiosity I went on line and found a 10" Freud thin kerf blade that has a kerf of .091.    Then I went out to my shop and measured the kerf of my 10 inch, 80 tooth Irwin Marathon saw blade.     The Irwin has a 3/32" or .094 kerf.

Turns out my 10" Irwin Marathon saw blade has a kerf that is a little less than 1/32" bigger than you get on a Micro Mark table saw.  I can easily sacrifice that little bit less than 1/32" rather than buy a Micro Mark table saw.

Of course, if you don't need a regular 10" table saw and don't have one, a Micro Mark would make sense.

I sure was surprised my 10" table saw only sacrifices a little less than 1/32" kerf per cut.

Joe Ed Pederson
Cuba, MO

[Steve Helmick]

Less warpage than with a razorblade or knife cut, to boot. Thin bandsaw blades waste even less balsa. I'm not sure how thin the kerf is on mine, but it's pretty insignificant. I'd wonder which warps the strip less, but suspect the bandsaw would be the better of the two. Ted F. did a post or article about this once, long ago. Or maybe it just seems like long ago...    Steve

[Howard Rush]

Got me one of these: http://www.totalsawsolutions.com/page/10-in-micro-kerf-40-table-saw-blade .  I don't remember it costing nearly this much.  It removed far less of my thumb than a standard blade would have. 

[Dennis Nunes]

I use a 7 1/4" 60-tooth Hollow Ground Planer saw blade that are available for around $8 or $9. It's basically a blade with no kerf and makes some very smooth cuts that don't need sanding. I converted an old 8" portable table saw just to rip balsa strips. Works fantastic!

Dennis

[Dan Berry]

Less warpage than with a razorblade or knife cut, to boot. Thin bandsaw blades waste even less balsa. I'm not sure how thin the kerf is on mine, but it's pretty insignificant. I'd wonder which warps the strip less, but suspect the bandsaw would be the better of the two. Ted F. did a post or article about this once, long ago. Or maybe it just seems like long ago...    Steve

The saw blade doesn't warp the wood.

[Dave Hull]

I'm still waiting for the suppliers to grow near net shaped LE and TE sticks. I mean, if the truck farmers can grow square tomatoes, then why can't the tree people grow properly sized and shaped sticks?

The Divot

PS--With the bandsaw, it isn't just the thickness of the blade that causes kerfwidth. It's the set of the teeth. I imagine for maximum balsa economy you could use a blade with zero set. I never bought one of those....
 

[Scott Richlen]

If you have a table saw, buy a bunch of welding magnets.  Now you have a way of jigging up your plane during assembly that assures perfect alignment.

[louie klein]

Take a look at a fine tooth plywood blade.-----Louie

[TigreST]

I once used a Radial Arm Saw to cut the spar slots and the leading edge notch in a set of soft pine rib blanks. The profile was loosely based on a slightly over sized EdSouthwick Skylark airfoil, thickness of the pen aka Bob Gieseke if you will.   You could say I made a “hard copy”. 

[John Leidle]

  What Dennis Nunes said is what my suggestion would be. A smaller blade will bolt right on.

[Dan McEntee]

I'm still waiting for the suppliers to grow near net shaped LE and TE sticks. I mean, if the truck farmers can grow square tomatoes, then why can't the tree people grow properly sized and shaped sticks?

The Divot

PS--With the bandsaw, it isn't just the thickness of the blade that causes kerfwidth. It's the set of the teeth. I imagine for maximum balsa economy you could use a blade with zero set. I never bought one of those....

     Years ago I acquired a large quantity of balsa planks and set out to cut most of my own balsa. I looked at every possibility, including asking SIG for some guidance! I settled on cutting with a band saw. The blades for band saws with no set to the teeth are for cutting meat. I had one made up for the saw where I was working at the time, but it didnt work very well, it still tended to stick in the kerf in the wood. In there early days, SIG told me Glen came up with the idea of a bandsaw blade with sanding media attached to the blade and no set to the teeth. I didn't want to get that fancy. I finally gave up on the idea of cutting quality sheet stock as the only way to really do it is to rough cut the sheet then pass it through a thickness planer. I could still cut nice blocks and thicker planks with my Sears Craftsman band saw.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Fred Cronenwett]

I needed some 1/2" x 7/8" sticks to build some profile fuselages recently but you can find that available so I took 1/2" thick balsa and cut the sticks out using my table saw.

The trick is to cut everything you need in one setting so that they are all the same

Fred