I was up near Miramar Road today, so I decided to stop by Frost Hardwood to wander around for a little while. To my surprise there was a brand spanking new shipment of balsa! It’s been about three years since they carried balsa. The list price is $8 something per board foot. I got a discount for having my SD Fine Woodworkers card, and an additional discount for ordering more than 50 bf. It came out to about $5.50 per bf. I picked over the lot, and got 96 bf for myself. I just thought that I would pass on the news to my close friends at Swaylock’s. Have fun!
I thought this stuff felt light when I was handling it at the store. I just weighed the whole lot by holding all four boards in my arms, and stepping on the scale. After subtracting out my own weight, I calculated the total weight to be 56.4 pounds. That works out to 7.05 pounds per cubic foot! Wow!!
No wonder I was able to stack four 4"x6"x11.5’ logs on my flimsy Subaru surf racks. I was thinking about making a chambered long board. Now I’m thinking about going solid.
Great find! If your going to surf this creation. Take the time to chamber it. It is a lot of work however it is Balsa and not so bad. You will not be sorry. If you chamber it correctly you will have a prize posession. A surf craft of outstanding valule. Don't chamber it and it may not have the magic you were expecting. Why do you think the prefoam surfers chambered there boards? They loved to surf the best they could with the limited materials available to build a surfboard. By chambering and getting the board at light as possible produced the best performing boards.
Density. Well-seasoned balsa is the third or fourth lightest wood known and is the lightest weight wood with good strength. Although balsa wood weighs 4 to 24 pounds per cubic foot, the most desired and common balsa wood weighs 8 to 12 pounds per cubic foot.
7.05/CF chambered will make a pretty dreamy surf craft. As a woodworker I would take the time and advantage of your fine. You got a great deal for such a little quanity. I've seen it as high has $11.00 a BF and 11/CF. Your timbers look pretty straight. One last thing Chambering Balsa is not so bad.
Like I said, I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do. My mind is actually wandering all over the place. One minute I want to make a big wave board, the next I want to do a 10' small wave log. I'm still open to suggestions.
The one thing that I am pretty sure of is that I will add some thin redwood stringers. I really like the contrasting colors of the two woods.
WoodOgre: I thought about buying up the whole lot as well. Unfortunately, I've got two things working against me: 1) not enough money, and 2) no storage space in my shop. I don't even know where I'm going to put this board when it is finished. My house is only 800 sq. ft..
Wouter: I'm not going with removable fins. I like the all wood look for my boards.
Surfding: I understand what you are saying about chambering. The chambered balsa board that I built a few years ago was made with made from wood that was around 15 lbs/CF. If I had built the same board out of this wood -- and didn't chamber it -- it would have been even lighter.
Surfding: I understand what you are saying about chambering. The chambered balsa board that I built a few years ago was made with made from wood that was around 15 lbs/CF. If I had built the same board out of this wood -- and didn't chamber it -- it would have been even lighter.
Chambered as a lb
Non Chambered for a Gun (Todos)
I've only made 7 Balsa boards however the one I didn't chamber I sure wished I had! Making an all Redwood right now (400 year old growth)
CHAMBERING IT WILL SUBTRACT ANYWHERE FROM 3-5 POUNDS FROM A 10'0" BOARD AND IT IS DEFINITELY WORTH IT. BE REAL CAREFUL HOW YOU CHAMBER IT AND YOU WILL HAVE A CLASSIC THAT WILL LAST FOR GENERATIONS! NICE WOOD! ECUADORIAN I'M SURE. THE BEST SURFBOARD WOOD IS 4-8 POUND DENSITY 4 POUND CAN BE LIKE CORK AND CRACK VERY EASILY,SO WHEN YOU GET UP TO THE 5-7 POUND YOU HAVE SOME GOOD WOOD.
Maybe more. It depends on the chambering method that you use and how heavy the wood is to start with.
My rule of thumb is usually if a 10’ board is gonna be 30 lbs. or less, I don’t chamber. If the wood is real light to begin with a lot of chambering won’t get rid of much weight and the board will be weaker.
The last one I built, the “Waikiki Pintail” came out 24 lbs. chambered (9’11"). I think I chambered about 8-9 lbs out of it. I wanted a board that was lighter to carry the block and a half to the beach where I stay in Hawaii.
In the water a 30 lb. 10 foot board works just fine for me. If the board is properly shaped has the right rocker and the fin isn’t too small that is.
Solid boards don’t have the same “issues” that chambered boards have. I’ve had them blow up on airplanes before (twice). Also a ding into a chamber can cause some problems. I’ve had that happen and it was what caused one board to blow up on the airplane.
You must be very careful in your chambering ,after building 25-30 balsa boards a year for the past almost 40 years I can safely say I have experienced many problems in chambering. Taking 7-10 pounds out of a board that is 4-8 lb density at 10' would be very iffy, unless you braced the chambers with some extra fortification. You are doing well like I said to get 3-5 lbs out of the board,I suggest to cut out your excess wood and keep it in a plastic bag and then weigh it,when you have gotten at least 3 lbs you are doing well, I hate to see alot of effort go into a board just to come apart on a plane,on the beach or even while surfing of which I have seen them all.
I weigh before start and after re-gluing when done, on average I remove over a third and at times half the original material.
Really light wood sometimes is best not even chambered, the work for what little is gained is iffy, heavy hard wood really gives it up, but what a pain in the ass, the depth of cut is super reduced, requiring addition passes and the occasional smoking ball of shavings from the friction of the fiberous wood.
I weigh before start and after re-gluing when done, on average I remove over a third and at times half the original material.
Really light wood sometimes is best not even chambered, the work for what little is gained is iffy, heavy hard wood really gives it up, but what a pain in the ass, the depth of cut is super reduced, requiring addition passes and the occasional smoking ball of shavings from the friction of the fiberous wood.
