Balsa is a true craftsman. I had the privilege of watching Terry Martin do one years ago. Chambers where just Forstner holes, and he did the rough plane work with a draw knife. Did it outside in the sun to see the surface variations when final planing and sanding. These boards are so special, we all need to make at least one during our life.
Love that mortising machine, really a wood milling machine. Common in Europe, rare in the the US. On some of the German units the head will rotate 90 degrees and wheel-type cutters can be used for making grooves. Closest we have in the US is overhead routers which cost $$.
Yes, we are lucky, we can get those machines between €400 and €800 depending on quality. You may use it either as a common drill machine or as a mortice-maker with the square chisels (or with the regular bits).
Pure gold
“The tricky part with balsa is that it does not catch light as well as a white blank of foam. Flaws in the curves are much harder to spot. And, of course, as long as you use the planer everything goes fine but when you start using sand-paper, differences in density between the pieces make for bumps and holes very easily…
Not for the faint of heart, for sure, but the end result is still worth it.”
Thank you Bill…
I mean it
Yes it is. Guilhem is a variant of Guillaume and Guillaume is William in English. But of course I do not even compare with Balsa Bill Yerkes. There is only one Balsa Bill and he was a Swaylock’s member before I discovered this site; At the time, I chose “balsa” as a pseudo because I felt it fitted well a middle-aged guy like me: balsa boards are a thing of the past but they are still being made by and for people who really care. I didn’t know about Bill Yerkes at the time and I swear that I didn’t intend to take advantage of his notoriety.
there was a kid ,a new kid in grammer school
who was from latin america.
his name was guilermo.
his nick name became gilly.
my suspicions about guilerme
confirmed, my language base has become greater.
balsa bill build threads are done in a driveway
in front of his lil shop in the sun.
its winter in the south of france
balsa is working inside.
…ambrose…
happy season balsa
and merry Christmas just in case.
Hey Ambrose, good to hear you!
Yeah, working inside with a nice 20°C temperature, thanks to floor heating. It was -2°C outside this morning… Sunny but cold.
Merry Christmas to you too!
Oh, and: “Wilhelm” in German. Comes from “Will” (will) and “Helm” (helmet, protection).
Sorry for the delay, folks, many other things kept me busy for a while; besides, the glueing process is long and tedious and I was not going to post photos of each step; here are the very last ones:
