Making thin sheets of balsa?

[Grant Vanbokklen]

Hello,

I'd like some opinions of how to mill balsa down to thin sheet in my home shop.

I've currently got a 14" bandsaw, Contractors 10" table saw, Compound Miter Saw, Standing drill press, recent 1200cfm 1 micron dust collector, as far as large tools go.

What I'm wanting to do is buy the balsa in large size stock and bring it down to 1/16" thickness by 6" or more in width, and as long a length as possible. But at this point I could only resaw to 6" because I don't have the extension on my bandsaw.

Would a drum sander like the Delta 31-255X X5 on sell at Amazon help do the job well enough? Would I be able to resaw balsa on my 14" bandsaw consistently to near 1/16"? Then use something like the Delta drum sander to finish it off. Finish is not needed to be perfect.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Grant

[Pat Germain]

Gee Grant, I would think the only way to get a consistent 1/16" would be to stick the balsa to a thicker, already flat, piece of stock using two-sided carpet tape and run it through a planer. Since you don't have a planer, I'm thinking you're going to have a hard time getting the results you're looking for. Hopefully, someone else will chime in with a good answer.

[George Summers]

I think that given the 'fragility' of balsa and the power of any normal ww machine, you would be better off just buying thin balsa from a craft supplier. I can't imagine cutting thin balsa slices with a bandsaw or running balsa that thin through a planer or drum sander.

George

[Jamie Buxton]

A properly-tuned bandsaw can make 1/16th-thick sheets; mine can. A not-so-well-tuned one may make sheets which require more processing afterwards. A planer is unlikely to do that job. If you try to plane wood down to 1/16th, it bends into the knives and explodes. Double-backed tape can hold it to some substrate for the pass through the planer, but that leaves you the problem of peeling it off the substrate. Considering the softness of balsa, that isn't likely to go well. A drum sander might do the clean-up. I've never tried one on balsa.

Then again, for the money you'd spend on the sander, you can probably buy a lot of already-prepared thin balsa.

[Brent Dowell]

Even if you do get a nice even 1/16 sheet, I think you would waste more than 1/16 of an inch for the kerf of the saw. I'm pretty sure when they cut balsa into sheets, they use some sort of very thin knife type blade, instead of what we typically use on our bandsaws.

I have had some good luck making some very thin veneer type wood for use on guitar headstocks using my bandsaw and little performax drum sander.

Several years ago I ordered a large assortment of balsa sheets and a large assortment of balsa sticks from one of the online hobby shops.

Never goes bad, and I almost always have a piece to fix whatever I break on my plane.

My RC Plane mantra is,

"Make a plane, fly a plane, break a plane, fix a plane" :D

If I can get a few flights out of one before something breaks, that was a good plane!

[Grant Vanbokklen]

Thanks Guys! Yeah I figure the online sellers like National Balsa must have specialized tools. But they just don't sell wider longer pieces like I would really like.
Thanks for the input!

[Al Killian]

Grant, If you call the suppleir and tell them what you are looking for they can either make it for you or order it.