Dimensioning Balsa Wood

[Daniel Hillmer]

Hi,

Does anyone build specialty jointers and or planers for dimensioning balsa wood for model building?

I'm talking about small table top machines that would be used for dimensioning rough balsa wood stock for building model airplanes or model ship building and such, so that I can buy and plane down my own rough balsa stock, and avoid those high prices for balsa wood one sees in hobby stores?

Also does anyone have a good source for purchasing rough stock balsa?

Thanks.

[Kevin Groenke]

Proxxon makes some such machines.
http://www.proxxon.com/us/

Micromark sells some of them rebranded with their own brand. Don't expect to pay less for the little tools than the real thing.
http://www.micromark.com/

Some like the sanding flea.

I've never seen balsa in a lumber yard, though obviously it's out there somewhere.

National Balsa has planks: 2" x 4" x 48" ~$13
http://www.nationalbalsa.com/balsa.htm

-kg

[Mike Henderson]

My local wood supplier - Austin Hardwood - carries balsa in quite large pieces. Check with your local hardwood supplier.

BTW, balsa is classified as a hardwood.

Mike

[Daniel Hillmer]

My local wood supplier - Austin Hardwood - carries balsa in quite large pieces. Check with your local hardwood supplier.

BTW, balsa is classified as a hardwood.

Mike
Thanks I'll check them out.

[Daniel Hillmer]

Proxxon makes some such machines.
http://www.proxxon.com/us/

Micromark sells some of them rebranded with their own brand. Don't expect to pay less for the little tools than the real thing.
http://www.micromark.com/

Some like the sanding flea.

I've never seen balsa in a lumber yard, though obviously it's out there somewhere.

National Balsa has planks: 2" x 4" x 48" ~$13
http://www.nationalbalsa.com/balsa.htm

-kg
Thanks very much.

From what I can find so far, surface planers are available but I can't find anything like a jointer for model building. Is this pretty much the case - if I want to square up balsa stock it's pretty much by using hand tools - knifes?

Ah, I found the sanding flea, actually the correct spelling and link for anyone's benefit is the Sand-flee, it's at http://www.rjrstudios.com/ Seems quite pricey and also much larger than my needs for small projects. Anyone know if anyone makes a sander similar to this, that has a drum length of maybe 4 inches or less?

[Daniel Hillmer]

What I'm trying to figure out how to do, is dimension my own balsa sticks 1/16" square (or maybe even 1/32" square), up to a few feet long, if that's possible.

[Michael Faurot]

What I'm trying to figure out how to do, is dimension my own balsa sticks 1/16" square (or maybe even 1/32" square), up to a few feet long, if that's possible.

I've not worked specifically with Balsa, but I do a lot of smaller stuff and most of that is done with hand tools (planes, saws, chisels, etc.) I also use bandsaws for what I do. I've got both a 14" set-up for straight cuts and resawing and a 9" set-up for cutting curves and for working with smaller stuff. The combination of bandsaws and hand tools is a pretty good set-up that lets me do most of my cross cutting and ripping with a powered tool while the final dimensioning, clean-up and finishing is done with hand tools. Also when I'm working at a smaller scale, using hand tools feels safer to me, plus gives me better control over how much material I'm removing.

I've not done any work in the thicknesses you're talking about, but if I were to try and make some stock 1/16" square, I think I'd emulate what the Bamboo fly fishing rod makers do with their planing forms. Basically these forms do two things. They hold the long strips of Bamboo so they can be planed and they insure the pieces all turn out uniformly with the same size and thickness.

[Mike Heidrick]

Balsa is hardwood??!! - I just learned something! Thanks.

[Mike Heidrick]

What I'm trying to figure out how to do, is dimension my own balsa sticks 1/16" square (or maybe even 1/32" square), up to a few feet long, if that's possible.

What tools do you own? Why not cut them?

[Tom Veatch]

Balsa is hardwood??!! - I just learned something! Thanks.

"Hardwood" as a type of wood isn't dependent on the hardness of the wood. Technically, "hardwood" is wood from a broad-leaved angiosperm tree while "softwood" is wood from needle bearing trees or conifers. For most any practical purpose, you can think of hardwoods as coming from deciduous trees and softwoods from evergreens. So there are some "hardwoods" that are softer than some "softwoods". Balsa is a prime example of that.

[Mike Heidrick]

Yep. Sounds like a lesson from Earth Science 101 I had forgot. Good trivia question.

[Daniel Hillmer]

What tools do you own? Why not cut them?

An 8" Jointer, a 15" planer, Compound miter saw, Festool saw, mainly tools for regular sized woodworking projects, nothing yet for doing small detail work though.

[Daniel Hillmer]

Proxxon makes some such machines.
http://www.proxxon.com/us/

Micromark sells some of them rebranded with their own brand. Don't expect to pay less for the little tools than the real thing.
http://www.micromark.com/

Some like the sanding flea.

I've never seen balsa in a lumber yard, though obviously it's out there somewhere.

National Balsa has planks: 2" x 4" x 48" ~$13
http://www.nationalbalsa.com/balsa.htm

-kg
Thanks for that info Kevin! I noticed that Proxxon does not make any jointers, but what would you think if I used the Proxxon MICRO Shaper MT 300 as a jointer, using one of their straight bits?

Maybe there are some kinds of inlay tools that would be better to do what I'm trying to do - either hand or powered tools?

[Jim King]

You will probably have a hard time finding balsa one 4 foot log as th longer it ger the more unmanageable it gets. Twists, cracks and everything but cartwheels.

For processing it is cut down to sizes where it can be cut with a multi knife blade setup drawn thru the wood . That is the only way to get the little triangles etc.