What to do with heavy balsa??

[Curare]

Hey guys, a friend gifted me a pile of 1/8" 4 x 48" sheets a while ago, and I've finally taken a bit of a look at them. There's probably about 15 sheets there.

Most, if not all, are in the 9-10lb range. Considering I generally buy 5-7lb wood these feel like they're made from maple!

Balsa is becoming harder to get these days so i consider every piece worth keeping, but I really don't know what I can do with this stuff... Is there a place for 10lb wood in a stunt ship?

Greg

[Steve Berry]

I-beamer with 1/8" ribs instead of 3/32?

Gliders for kids/grandkids?

Build a durable (heavy) trainer for an unused engine?

Cut into strips and laminate with 1/32" between, and use for built-up tail assemblies (leave gaps in the 1/32" for hinges).

Built-up fuselage sides, using unidirectional carbon for doubters?

Building jigs? A bunch of right angle pieces, sanding bars?

Strategic bracing in full size stunter?

Lots of uses. Just have to think outside the box (circle?).

Steve

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[peabody]

Years ago Bob Hunt wrote a piece about really good balsa getting scarce.
Primarily he said to make the heavier pieces in thinner.
Sound advice and probably yields stronger models.

[Dennis Toth]

Greg,
This is the problem, but if we use thinner sheets you could actually save some weight. For the wood you have it would be good for spares and stabs which need the extra strength you get from the heavier wood. Could use it for fuse sides but sand alot.

Best,    DennisT

[Curare]

Greg,
This is the problem, but if we use thinner sheets you could actually save some weight. For the wood you have it would be good for spares and stabs which need the extra strength you get from the heavier wood. Could use it for fuse sides but sand alot.

Best,    DennisT

Dennis, oddly enough this is what started it, I was knocking out a 1/2a RC model (don't hit me), and after I'd put it together I noticed it was heavy.

"This thing's a baseball bat! How heavy are those sheets?!?!" Turns out theyre over 2oz a sheet.

It's going to get sanded within an inch of it's life to take some weight off it or it'll never get off the ground!

[Curare]

I-beamer with 1/8" ribs instead of 3/32?

Gliders for kids/grandkids?

Build a durable (heavy) trainer for an unused engine?

Cut into strips and laminate with 1/32" between, and use for built-up tail assemblies (leave gaps in the 1/32" for hinges).

Built-up fuselage sides, using unidirectional carbon for doubters?

Building jigs? A bunch of right angle pieces, sanding bars?

Strategic bracing in full size stunter?

Lots of uses. Just have to think outside the box (circle?).

Steve

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Steve, funny you should mention doing a beamer, that was my first thought too. I had been thinking about doing an Ares but maybe 1/8 ribs are a bit thick for a .35 model. Maybe I should follow Sparky's lead and do a Beamfire?

[Doug Moisuk]

Sell it to RC guys. 😈😈😈😈

[Dan McEntee]

  Just send it to me, and I'll ease your pain. 
     Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee
   

[PerttiMe]

Years ago Bob Hunt wrote a piece about really good balsa getting scarce.
Primarily he said to make the heavier pieces in thinner.
Sound advice and probably yields stronger models.

This.
Use it where the design calls for thicker pieces of light material.

[Curare]

Bob, seems like great minds think alike. I had been considering buying a thicknesser/sander to do exactly what you're doing. There aren't a lot of places I could use medium hard 1/8" sheets, but sure could find a pile of uses for thinner sheets.

With that said, 10 sheets doesn't really seem like a good justification for a sander... Then again how much justification does one need for new toys!!!


G

[Dan McEntee]

Bob, seems like great minds think alike. I had been considering buying a thicknesser/sander to do exactly what you're doing. There aren't a lot of places I could use medium hard 1/8" sheets, but sure could find a pile of uses for thinner sheets.

With that said, 10 sheets doesn't really seem like a good justification for a sander... Then again how much justification does one need for new toys!!!


G

   Don't look at it as just "sheet" balsa. Look at it as spars, fuselage formers for certain parts of a fuselage, strips that just haven't been separated yet!!  Lots of ways to work it into a model that is already light enough where the hardness and stiffness can be of help and still not add appreciably to the over all weight.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Tim Wescott]

This just came up in a build for the scale Ercoupe I'm working on.  Build yourself some 1/6 or 1/5 scale sawhorses and 55-gallon drums.  Then when you need to prop the plane up on your building bench use those -- it'll look like it's in a real hanger.

[Larry Fernandez]

Give that heavy balsa to someone you don’t like.
Larry, Buttafucco Stunt Team.

[John Carrodus]

Some of the balsa we get down here in NZ over the last 6 years has been fairly hefty. You gotta use what you got when you have very little choice. Many of my models are thus lightened with strategic holes as they can't weigh anything if it ain't there but still strong enough for the job. Careful thinking and use of holes can save a significant amount of weight. see tailplane of my 262 below. The rear fuselage is also full of holes and silkspaned over then grey primer applied.

[FLOYD CARTER]

Curare indicated his balsa was 1/8" thickness.. How to get 1/16 or 1/32 out of that without just sanding like crazy (even that unlikely to produce even thickness)

What tools would the average modeler have to convert 1/8" into thinner pieces?

[M Spencer]

Whack up a 1/8 undersize fancy fuselage . Varnish It , use it as a plug to mold light good thin balsa shells on . ! 



Then you can do a few of them .

[Brett Buck]

Hi Larry:

I have a bunch of balsa I'd like to send to you... 

(Only kidding old buddy!) Bob

I give that one 7/10, nice effort, but not outstanding. A little better version is just “What is your address?” and nothing else.

   Keep trying, I am pulling for you! You’ll make The List some day.

      Brett

[Larry Fernandez]

I give that one 7/10, nice effort, but not outstanding. A little better version is just “What is your address?” and nothing else.

   Keep trying, I am pulling for you! You’ll make The List some day.

      Brett

I would give Bob 8/10 for that.
It came out of nowhere and I wouldn’t expect a smartass comment like that from him.
Well played Mr. Hunt!

[Brett Buck]

By the way, Brett, what's your address?

Bob

  Jokes on you, I have plenty of that wood already!  I thought was already on the "hack list" for my airplane weights and general disregard for saving wight! 

     Brett

p.s. I will say, when I was building my Nobler, I ended up with parts of 4 separate kits sorting through he wood trying to get at least usable kit parts. I cannot imagine how people in general managed to build them at a usable-with-a-Fox-35 weights, it was too much even for me.

 

[Brett Buck]

Curare indicated his balsa was 1/8" thickness.. How to get 1/16 or 1/32 out of that without just sanding like crazy (even that unlikely to produce even thickness)

What tools would the average modeler have to convert 1/8" into thinner pieces?

   You would be amazed at how fast balsa disappears if you have 60 grit sandpaper. Or, as above, cut holes in it. And you know better than I do that 9 lb would wood have been the best Sterling or Jetco kit wood ever and would have looked like a magical weightless substance to anyone who built a lot of Berkeley kits.

      Brett

[Dan McEntee]

   You would be amazed at how fast balsa disappears if you have 60 grit sandpaper. Or, as above, cut holes in it. And you know better than I do that 9 lb would wood have been the best Sterling or Jetco kit wood ever and would have looked like a magical weightless substance to anyone who built a lot of Berkeley kits.

  " Curare indicated his balsa was 1/8" thickness.. How to get 1/16 or 1/32 out of that without just sanding like crazy (even that unlikely to produce even thickness)

What tools would the average modeler have to convert 1/8" into thinner pieces?"


      Brett

   The thing is to quit looking at it as sheet stock, but instead think of other parts that could be bade from it where you want it a little stiff and hard, but not in so much volume. There is a lot of useful purposes for that wood!.

    Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[FLOYD CARTER]

Has anyone suggested using the heavy balsa for making lightweight handles?  Of course, with a central core of Russian birch plywood.

[Curare]

Has anyone suggested using the heavy balsa for making lightweight handles?  Of course, with a central core of Russian birch plywood.

Floyd, I already CNC my handles with an aluminium core, and 3/8" hard balsa sides, similar to a hotrock. I have piles of thicker wood, all heavy stuff that I got when a large hardware chain closed down.

[M Spencer]

Here Ya Go ,

[Scott Richlen]

I'm working on a new adaptation of my "reverse composite" technique that shows great promise to allow very this, high-density balsa to be used to produce a very light and strong wing that will require very little finish. I intend to write that process up for this forum and for the PAMPA website. Stay tuned for that near the end of summer. This will be made possible by using the Jet sander to produce balsa accurately thinner than 1/32-inch.

Bob: did you get that written?  It sounds very interesting!!

[Steve Fitton]

On a Randy plane (SV) the heavier 1/8th would make good fuselage doublers.

Or you could make a LOT of model rocket fins out of it.

[Doug Moisuk]

Sell it to RC guys.

[Motorman]

Build a racing plane.

[Ken Culbertson]

Heavy balsa gives me an excuse to sand baby sand.

Ken

[RC Storick]

Or you could make Gunpowder out of it