Balsa Rails.....

General Discussion
1

Does anyone have any thoughts on balsa rail techniques, i,ve tried to many different methods and never realy been that happy with any of them.

Bert never gave this bit away, and the archives dont seem to go into to much detail…

Will post thread on latest board very soon… 6`2" * 18 3/4 * 2"

Any help as always very grateful

2

Try this thread: Bending Balsa

3

Hi Tommo,

This is what worked really good for me last time. Bth, I have never done it the same way twice. But I plan on using this method from now on.

  1. Lay out first layer of 1/8" (3" x 36") balsa to cover your rail profile template.
  2. Double cut the skew angles.
  3. Tape small masking tape patches to hold lengths together on the inside.
  4. Lay out second layer brick style.
  5. Copy first and second layers for a total of 4 stacks each (for ½" rails).
  6. Stack up the right side rail and left side rail.
  7. Thin Tite-Bond II to glue the balsa. Do both right and left rails.
  8. Gorilla Glue type for the Foam to Balsa connection.
  9. Set rail in place on the blank, tape clamp at mid board, near nose, and tail too.
  10. Slide it in to the bag, vac 5-7 hg.
  11. 4 hours or so later…trim (plane down) rails to match bottom of board and top rail band.

45° for swallow tail block, 30° for fat nose bock, both will be necessary.

Hope that helps. In 3, the tape stays forever. In 7, the wet glue allows sliding into position.

WM

4

Cheers guys, still none the wiser, widow-makers method very similar to what im doing, as for bending thats just to much work. Cant help thinking someone somewhere has a quick and easy method of railing their boards, and i want their brain…literally…mine just aint workin proper…could be the wine.

5

Simplest method is to get a full length, 1/4" thick, scarfed and rockered piece of balsa. Vac bag it to the rail. Balsa will bend under pressure! I did mine with clamps and it worked just fine, but the vacuum works much better.