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Author Topic: BALSA and Price Increase  (Read 1812 times)

Offline pat king

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BALSA and Price Increase
« on: March 23, 2020, 12:50:03 PM »
The guy who cuts my kits has informed me that the price of Balsa has gone up 110%. With the increase in the price of Balsa I will be forced to increase my prices.
Effective Saturday April 18 the price of my kits will increase by 15%. Any kits ordered and paid for before then will sell at the current list prices. The 15% discount for active duty Military and First Responders, and the 10% discount for prior Military and First Responders will remain.
I really hate to raise prices again, but I can not operate at a loss.

Pat
Pat King
Monee, IL

AMA 168941

Offline Jim Carter

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2020, 04:15:01 PM »
Hey brother!  Don't feel too bad … I recently received my $240 balsa, spruce and plywood order from Bud Nosen and got hit with a 50% surcharge!!  Drove the bill up to $360  :-\  Think that hurt??  You should'a felt da' right hook my wife gave me!!   %^@ %^@ LL~ LL~  I guess it could'a been worse, she could'a used 'da fryin' pan!!  H^^

Offline pat king

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2020, 02:49:43 PM »
Someone needs to buy some scrap wind generator blades then cut them up for the Balsa. Those blades are proving to have a much shorter life than they expected. They are having trouble finding somewhere to dispose of them. A good chain saw should be able to cut them up for transport.. Then peel the fiberglass skin off and mill the Balsa inside. They might be willing to give them away just to get rid of them. At this time I believe the pressure on the Balsa supply is due to the huge amount being used for those giant blades. At one time there was a lot of demand for insulation for tankers.

Pat
Pat King
Monee, IL

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Offline Jim Carter

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2020, 08:43:48 AM »
Someone needs to buy some scrap wind generator blades then cut them up for the Balsa. Those blades are proving to have a much shorter life than they expected. They are having trouble finding somewhere to dispose of them. A good chain saw should be able to cut them up for transport.. Then peel the fiberglass skin off and mill the Balsa inside. They might be willing to give them away just to get rid of them. At this time I believe the pressure on the Balsa supply is due to the huge amount being used for those giant blades. At one time there was a lot of demand for insulation for tankers.

Pat
Man, I want to agree with you, fer' shur'!!  Interesting idea but where are they located?  I'm in central Florida and there's none that I'm aware of (granted I haven't pursued searching as I write this).  Also, even if one could get one, they're so long.  I'm afraid transportation for salvage could be crazy expensive unless one could set up a salvage yard near the disposal site capable of stripping the fiberglass then milling the balsa and cleaning it sufficiently to sell to the various balsa cutters.

Online Steve Berry

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2020, 09:06:00 AM »
The main issue is, I believe, most of that balsa is end grain, and not very long. Plus, at least according to this video, completely saturated with industrial epoxy.


Offline pat king

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2020, 02:27:39 PM »
Thanks for posting the video. Using all that Balsa for something that is not economically viable is very disturbing. I strenuously object to subsidizing something for the express purpose of pushing someones political agenda. The damn windmills cost per kilowatt is not competitive with conventional power generation. We the taxpayers are subsidizing the things. They are noisy, they kill a lot of birds, and they are not pleasant to look at. Now they have found that the blades do not hold-up nearly as long as they originally thought. I believe that alternative technologies must be developed, but should not be implemented until they are cost competitive with the existing technology. Let the market decide what technology will be in use.

Pat
Pat King
Monee, IL

AMA 168941

Offline Jim Carter

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2020, 03:36:34 PM »
Again I want to agree with you in principle "but should not be implemented until they are cost competitive with the existing technology."  I believe the problem is that the cost to develop anything, in this day and age, far exceeds the financial pockets of any but a very select few corporations, much less individuals.  For example, Space-X ... I highly doubt they would be where they are as far as launching if it had not been for the government funding from NASA and its experts and engineers nor would General Dynamics with the the myriad nuclear
engineering applications and technology that comes from the submarine designers and engineers.  Unfortunately, our legislators can't seem to limit the greed and graft of the "corporate big wigs" and their boards of directors!!  :-\  I mean ... really ... $13 billion for a carrier and still climbing!!  https://thediplomat.com/2018/05/us-navys-13-billion-supercarrier-just-got-even-more-expensive/

Offline pat king

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2020, 06:31:23 PM »
I do not think that all the development must be done by private enterprise. That said, if we the people pay for the development then any patents or intellectual property belongs in the public domain. Entrepreneur spirit and risk taking is the way to significant returns. If the government (read us) pay for the R&D then the rights do not belong to the people or company who did the work. The company I worked for for over 40 years did all the development and design work of our initial products under research contract to a major corporation. The designs we started selling were our designs, all the rights and patents belonged to the corporation that paid for the development. We paid them a royalty for all product produced under the patents they owned.

Pat
Pat King
Monee, IL

AMA 168941

Offline Jim Carter

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Re: BALSA and Price Increase
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2020, 10:54:31 AM »
I do not think that all the development must be done by private enterprise. That said, if we the people pay for the development then any patents or intellectual property belongs in the public domain. Entrepreneur spirit and risk taking is the way to significant returns. If the government (read us) pay for the R&D then the rights do not belong to the people or company who did the work. The company I worked for for over 40 years did all the development and design work of our initial products under research contract to a major corporation. The designs we started selling were our designs, all the rights and patents belonged to the corporation that paid for the development. We paid them a royalty for all product produced under the patents they owned.

Pat
Yes, you're correct.  I found that by law (if it is part of the hiring agreement) anyone "working" for a company/corporation is subject to the corporation if and only if the work is related in anyway to the product of the company/corporation; obviously in a dispute it would have to be resolved under law and that in itself could be a show stopper.  For example, if one works for a baker/cooking corporation and subsequently comes up with a recipe for a new type metal alloy for model engines gained from working on the machinery in the plant or an enhanced method for accelerating the growth of balsa trees gained from working in the cooking process it is likely the corporation would have very limited, if any at all, rights to the invention/innovation based on information gained from employment.

On the other hand, Space-X, as a private contractor was able to receive access to nearly all of the research held by NASA as it related to space/manned space flight because it was to a large degree "federal public domain" yet somewhat restricted or classified from ordinary citizens and certain foreign requests which is understandable.  I found this out how the process should/could work while working for United Space Alliance on the Kennedy Space Center.

It would be interesting to see just what information one could access related to the turbine propellers, development and disposal data through the government F.O.I.A. (Freedom of Information Act) request process.  I bet it would be a load of data, some good and some worthless but still data that had to be compiled due to the government-to-contractor-to-government requirements.  The biggest headache would be trying to figure out to which agency/desk to submit the paperwork and how to precisely word the request to acquire the specific information needed.


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