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Design => Stunt design => Topic started by: Doug Burright on February 24, 2014, 12:07:24 AM

Title: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Doug Burright on February 24, 2014, 12:07:24 AM
I had just completed a couple of planes, and was "straightening up" the shop area, when I found a piece of balsa that had been stashed away. It is a 28 inch long remnant of a 1/2" x 4" sheet from SIG, and the ink stamp on it reads 65 cents.
 I've had this one for a while, huh? Do you guys have any old, good balsa in your supplies?
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Trostle on February 24, 2014, 12:30:57 AM
I have kept a few choice pieces of balsa in my scrap box.  Next to this computer screen, I am holding a 4" piece from a sheet of Sig balsa that is marked "1/4x3x36" with a price of 38 cents.

Keith
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Jim Thomerson on February 24, 2014, 06:36:32 AM
I have a good bit of Testors sheet out of a storage area.  Some of it is not too bad. 
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Howard Rush on February 24, 2014, 06:35:51 PM
I used a piece from 1962 in my latest airplane.
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: KenP51 on February 24, 2014, 07:32:53 PM
I bought a 3x3x36 piece around the mid 80s. I just cut into it for my latest airplane. now I am down to 2x3 x36. One has a split several inches deep. Still have a piece of light ply bought at the same time that is 1/4x12x36. I don't have much use for it. If i need that thickness I will usually laminate  two 1/8 pieces or use a combination of light and birch ply. I might use the 1/4" to make part of a new flight box.

Ken

Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: wwwarbird on February 25, 2014, 04:35:56 PM
 
 An old scrap I saved that sits in my shop, I think the rest of it is in my PBY.
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Steve_Pollock on February 25, 2014, 09:06:48 PM
Sig 1/4" x 3" x 36" was 38 cents in a September 1961 copy of American Modeller.
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: M Spencer on February 26, 2014, 04:29:10 AM
Was given some old sheets from a balsa cutter from his garage / tin shed roof . Been Roasted anually for over ten years - well seasoned thus nice and stiff for wing sheeting .
Was a box of Mid West by the frosted glass back door that got the afternoon sun for a similar time in a stationary ( pens & papers ) shop - some good 1/4 quater grain from that lot .
AND still have the other half of the 3/4 x 4 sheet from the Mew Gulls Tail Plane - from last century . Plus over 300 sheets of selected matched grain in any useable thicknesses from
over the last 5 years , plus the strip & spruce .
Then theres a Cap 21 R.C. kit I grabbed FOR THE WOOD , this is pretty good , as it dates back to 1980 or so - so thrirty years on it should be pretty stable . ;D

Looked on google maps at the TREES at my old house, wattles . One guyfawkes after a few beers , sharpened the axe and put the chain block on the tree and pulled it back so it wouldnt fall
over the wall / on the road . As it was all leaning over where the rest of the row were Vertical . Darn TOUGH trees - or was it something else , sharpened the axe four times , got nowhere
ecept ruining the Axe as the edge went all waveey , so ran out the extension leads and blew up the skill saw trying that . General disgust and defeat meant the chain block stayed tied off and ignored
untill next needed most of three weeks later .
After two pulls on the chain , the rope was loose - with the B#*^?y tree sitting nice and vertical , as it apears still to this day .
This tells us timber is a liveing material and the Lord works in mysterious ways .  ;) H^^
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: FLOYD CARTER on February 27, 2014, 05:32:18 PM
Well, my oldest plane still flying was built in 1962.  I'm not going to take it apart to check the balsa prices.

F.C.
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Bill Little on April 05, 2014, 06:33:36 PM
Well, my oldest plane still flying was built in 1962.  I'm not going to take it apart to check the balsa prices.

F.C.

Hi Floyd,

My oldest, still flying plane was also built in 1962, but it was a Veco kit.  IIRC, the price was 7.95.  It is a Smoothie.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Bob Hills on April 27, 2014, 12:19:11 PM
   

        !/16x3x36  testors from 1957    16 cents
     
      Bob Hills  in ct.
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: RogerGreene on June 18, 2014, 08:37:20 AM
In my wood bin I found 7 sheets of SIG Contest 1/16"x3"x36" for 32¢.

Roger
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: EddyR on June 19, 2014, 06:37:28 AM
When I opened up  a wing panel last year to my 1965 jet style stunter I found "contest balsa" written on a rib. I was quite suprised %^@
Ed
Title: Re: Found a Piece of Balsa...
Post by: Dick Pacini on June 21, 2014, 10:53:58 AM
There is much to be said for "Contest Grade" balsa and I used to buy a lot of it years back.

However, it has one drawback for me is that it is often very delicate.  Case in point, one of the many kits I recently bought from custom producers came with beautiful, light balsa.  The box was so light, I wondered if I bought an empty one.

Down the road as the airplane was nearing completion, I became aware of the many cases of hangar rash on the profile  fuselage, just from jigging and handling.  Sanding the first coat of primer off revealed many small dings, reminding me of the "death by a thousand cuts" story.

The wood was absolutely  perfect when it came out of the box.  Not so after I got my Neanderthal mitts on it.  It took so much spot putty, it reminded me of pigs in a blanket. HB~>

I really need to sand the calluses of my hands and trim my nails much shorter.