Balsa Jungle shaping

General Discussion
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Seems like alot of tools and materials used to make a Balsa board… Does anyone see possible ways to do it all with simple tools and materials?

I’ve attached a pic of a leaf house in the Solomon Islands that I thought would work well as a shaping bay. There are balsa trees near by and we cut one down last year and slabbed it up with a chain saw. However the Tsunami and earthquake that went through last year in April ruined it all. But I want to give it another go, the idea is to make a balsa, maybe mixed with a strong local timber for the stringer, board cut dried and shaped in the jungle…

Is air drying of balsa ok? Underneath a house with ventilation>?

My idea is to give the locals an initiative to make their own boards. They already use canoes and old bits of flat wood to body surf but no-one as yet has made a surfboard.

Cheers for any help

Hippy

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You have to be kidding? What a dream situation!

Keep you balsa Flat and stack it with straight harder boards in between to keep it from twisting.

The Hut could be transform into a awesome shaping bay.

However just shape out side with a spokeshape skip the bay.

The movie, “Surfs Up!” gives a good example.

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Howzit silentwaez, Air drying lumber is alright, but the lumber will only get as dry as the environment allows it. So if the area gets a lot of rain and has a high humidity factor the balsa won't get that dry. In other words if the humidity is 70% then the wood will have 70% moisture. That's why they have kiln dried wood.Aloha,Kokua
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Ummm, no.

Humidity is the capacity of air at a certain temperature and pressure to hold moisture.

Percent moisture in wood is quite another thing. Maybe some of the wood guys would chime in with a more specific definition. Woodogre, you there?

Compared to the capacity of wood, air doesn’t hold much in volume terms. Wood, with all those billions of cellls, can hold or release quite a lot.

But essentially, the wetter the air, the wetter the wood.

Air drying will be okay but not optimal. In your situation that’s what it is, so go with it.

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Solar kiln. But I think you need glazing and fans although I would have thought there is a design out there that moves the air without fans.

Mark

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Being something of a wood guy… on my better days…

Maybe the easy answer is this:

Take a chunk of said balsa when it’s green-fresh-outta-the-tree, measure it and weigh it. That’ll give you a weight/volume. And wet, green balsa can be quite wet indeed, it barely floats. As I recall, Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki was barely above water, even with great big balsa logs. Lets call it a specific gravity of around .8-.85 or so, something over 50 lbs per cubic foot or around .8-.85 kg/liter, ~800+ kg/M^3. That’s heavy.

Then, try simply air-drying the piece and weigh it again when you think it’s pretty dry. Crunch the numbers and see what you get. Dry balsa, hobby grade, it runs …well, let me look it up:

Quote:

The density of dry balsa wood ranges from 100–200 kg/m³ (6.24-12.49 lb/ft³), with a typical density of about 140 kg/m³ (8.74 lb/ft³) (about one third the density of other kinds of hard wood).

Thanks to Wikipedia, some plausible numbers.

Okay, see how close you come to that just air-drying it. If you can get it to, say, around 200-250 kg/cubic meter then good enough, that’s on the order of 15 lbs/cubic foot.

But the Solomons, as it’s been said, are kinda hot and humid. And balsa is maybe the most hydrophilic wood known to man or surfer. It truly loves water, as anyone who ever dinged the nose of a balsa stringer board will tell you.

So you might not be able to get it too terribly dry at first. Don’t give up, though. You can kiln dry the stuff. It’s quite possible to build a solar wood-drying kiln out of polyethylene sheet/film, some wood and a bit of good design. If you can arrange it so that the prevailing winds help you pull moist air out instead of using electric fans - maybe a ‘chimney’ of some sort - and the same sort of basic pole and lashing framing construction as your shaping shed, it could all work. Instead of using batts of insulation, a double wall of poly with a good airspace in between should work fine. It’s amazing what simple light and dark plastic sheeting can do.

And, after all, you’re not shooting for totally dry airplane model wood. Something locally available that floats well, that’s the goal. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just better than air drying in a humid climate.

A few links to maybe get some further ideas from:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1982-07-01/A-Homemade-Solar-Lumber-Kiln.aspx

http://www.appropedia.org/Solar_Lumber_Kiln

http://www.woodscience.vt.edu/about/extension/vtsolar_kiln/ ( and there’s a solar kiln forum, with people vastly more knowledgable than me)

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Solar_Kiln_Designs_1.html

http://owic.oregonstate.edu/solarkiln/plans.htm

hope that’s of some use

doc…

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Thanks so much everyone for the ideas! I’m stoked to get some inspiration, rather than the usual “Yea right – Good luck” kind of response. I will do some investigation and put something into action at the end of the year hopefully.

The people on this island are very poor $ wise, but live in a beautiful paradise with abundant gardens and rainforest. There is a constant supply of flowing water to drink from the mountain, and some nice waves that float by every so often. Just an idea to give the people a little autonomy in their choices , from relying on an old toxic chemical surfboard left there to squabble over, to making an environmentally sustainable piece of art that can be used to time travel.

hippy

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Aloha Silent,

Your project sounds fun. Except for a power planer, the shaping of a balsa board is all hand tools anyway. The electric planer is just a quicker modern way to take away wood. Drawknife, sandpapers, rasps will do great. Regarding drying, air drying is just fine IF the wood is stacked and dried carefully. Again, kilns are just quicker more modern ways of drying. When you visit museums and marvel at the furniture masterpieces from centuries ago and remember all their treasured lumber was hand sawn and air dried, you realize we are just spoiled compared to previous master craftsmen prior to light bulbs and electric motors.

Doc is right on with his wood drying facts and wisdom. I get my koa from a small mill outside Hilo. When air dried there it arrives here in Maui at about 14% moisture content. In the past when I would buy mesquite lumber which had been air dried outside Tucson in the desert, it would be about 6% moisture content. Your balsa will probably dry to around 12 - 14% there which is great. Your goal is simply to get the wood “stable” as it relates to the local environment where your finished piece will live. Realize you can build a fine piece of furniture with kiln dried lumber in the summer in New England and ship the finished piece to Phoenix and it will likely split (regardless of the finish on the piece). So it’s all about getting the wood dry enough but also in harmony with the humidity of the local environment.

I assume you will use a resin finish (varnish) as opposed to glassing it (chemicals). If so, apply lots of coats. Again, the traditional boards, canoes, and paddles weren’t glassed long ago either, but they had to be cared for and dried after use.

Have fun and enjoy the ride!

Richard

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There is always the choice of ticking over the geny/inverter for running the electric planer and saw if need be Richard.

Besides that are glues the only option to bind the planks together? Are there natural yet strong glues available? I want the board green, so i guess using just hand tools might be the go if i’m thinking all natural.

About the curing in the area where it will be ridden, is this just optimal? Surely there must be a way like the breather valve to release pressure, moisture/humidity if the board was for instance put on a plane to Australia. It would be a dream to one day have local shapers there exporting locally grown, hand made surf/art master pieces, so i guess there must be a way to see it manifested. These guys can carve works of art out of timber and stone with simple hand tools so I cant see why some of them cant learn to be master shapers in the future…

Hippy

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Hi,

Let me add maybe a little to what Richard said -

If you varnish the boards, they won’t crack or blow out or something on an airplane, the finish actually breathes a little. Just that you really want to keep up on the varnish, don’t let it get worn away if you’re going to use it in the water.

Tools- you know, the people in the Solomons made some pretty good canoes, probably with adzes and broadazes and chisels and what have you, to a nice standard of workmanship. And especially with balsa, I’d think they could show me a few things. Something I picked up during my jungle time: the local folks may not be using the tools and methods I’d use but I found that when I looked closely at what they were doing and thought about why they did it that way it turned out that they were right and I was wrong.

Glues- there are, on the market, some amazingly strong wood glues. But it’d be silly to use 'em. How come? Well, some wood glues and definitely most resins have tensile strengths over 5000 lbs/square inch. Balsa is more like 1100 lbs/square inch. Your wood will break away from your high-tech glue when push comes to shove. So, instead, use something lower-tech. For instance, if you have hide or hoofs available locally, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_glue

And again, what do the local folks use? Might be worth a try…

hope that’s of use

doc…

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I have a 9’0 and a 7’6 chambered balsa boards.

Both of which are affectionately referred to as ‘jungle boards’ as they were shaped by

a gentleman named Dan Garcia in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica in exactly the same situation

and environment you are hoping to work in.

Shoot me a PM and I can pass you his email address if you have any specific questions

for the man.

He may have some tricks up his sleeve that you can benefit from.

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Howzit RichardMc, That Arizona low humidity can really mess with lumber when it comes to drying. I did construction in Arizona in the Parker and Lake Havasu area and we had to use a sprinkler to keep the lumber damp or it would twist like you’ve never seen. I saw 2’ x 8’ boards twist to almost 180 degrees. That is why you see so many glue lam boards in use there, they won’t twist. I would think you would need to put stickers( wood slats) between each layer and then put some heavy weights on to keep the wood from twisting. Aloha,Kokua

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Aloha Kokua,

Man, you have worked in some opposite conditions. Doesn’t get much more dry than desert or much more humid than your current home there on Kauai. You are correct about stacking and stickering wood to dry. The principal and method for drying are the same no matter where the wood is being dried. Good level base off the wet ground, stickers between layers, lots of weight, cover from direct moisture and sun, allow predominant breeze to blow through the pile. Balsa dries a little different than hardwoods, but general principal remains the same. If you dry much lumber at all and especially if it is of value, a moisture meter available for as little as $100 can be a very wise “investment”. Once dried outside it’s a good idea to bring the lumber into the shop (if it’s an inside shop, not open in the jungle) for further acclimization for a month or so prior to using it. When I resaw a thick piece of dried wood (even kiln dried), I will sticker the pieces and put on a shelf for at least a few days or a week or so before using. A dry 12" wide panel can expand or contract 3/8" of an inch across its width during the course of a year in almost any environment.

Enjoy the ride!

Richard

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Howzit RichardMc, We do a lot of drying of exotic hard woods and we dry them for about a year after initial milling. With the high humidity it takes that long and we put the wood in sheds to protect it from the weather. Just cut some Phaesant wood yesterday for running through a compu carve machine, took a few cuts to get it square since there were convex sides and convcave sides and a slieght bow to it. We mill Phaesant,mango,milo, kamani, koa,etc also.Understand we will be doing a mango wood floor soon.Aloha,Kokua

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Aloha Kokua,

Haven’t used any milo, but just finished a couple of standup paddles with blades made of curly mango. Drying wood: yea the wild general rule for most wood is about one year of outside drying per each inch of thickness to the planks. I once had some balsa sent directly from Ecuador that dried much quicker than that. “Dry” usually means the moisture content as a percentage measure, equalizes to the relative humidity in the atmosphere at that particular location… a moisture contnet that reaches a level and no longer becomes any more dry in that location.

I’ll bet that mango floor will be beautiful!

Richard

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Mango wood as in mango fruit tree wood? Do you kill the whole tree? what is the wood like>?

Hippy

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Aloha Silent,

Kokua will answer your question with his thoughts. But yes it is the fruit tree. They grow very large here. There are some trees here in Lahaina that are over 4’ thick near the base and a few stories high. I’m sure I speak for Kokua, but most respectful woodworkers acquire lumber only from dead or downed trees or “plantation grown” trees. Mango is very beautiful, usually light creamy color with light brown flowing streaks, but often it can be curly with rose colors and even very dark brown. Like koa, the color and grain characteristics can vary dramatically from tree to tree.

I’ll take a pic of a few pieces later today and post them here for you to see (my tech smart wife is gone and I’m too dumb to post pics).

Enjoy the ride!

Richard

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also once a mango tree hits 30-40 years old the fruit quality and quantity drop quite a lot! however the older the tree the darker the wood (more desirable looking timber)…

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Howzit silentwavez, RichardMc said it lik eit is, we only mill trees that have fallen already. Lots of times it’s the hunters who find the trees and tell us where they are so we can go get them.We ahve enogh mango now to do a floor for onr of our clients.Aloha,Kokua

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Quote:

'll take a pic of a few pieces later today and post them here for you to see (my tech smart wife is gone and I’m too dumb to post pics).

Please do!!