Does anyone knows where can I buy balsa venner, with 10´long, 4" wide and 2 mm width, for Europe???
It´s for covering a 9´1" longboard side by side, with no cuts.
Any comments WELCOME!
Generally people here have been buying it in 3 foot by 6 inch sheets and putting that together on a piece of 4 oz fiberglass. Not everyone is doing it this way but many are. You get those smaller sheets at a hobby store.
3 feet by 3 inches x 1/16" or 1/8" is a standard size. You should be able to find these at hobby stores in Europe also. Search out any RC airplane, kite, and hobby stores for common stock. It will be a touch more pricey than ordering online, but it should work in a pinch.
For a solid 10’ piece your going to have to buy a big 4"x4"x10’ log and resaw it and then run it through a thickness planer.
Good luck.
I think the people from the company of the link I posted will mill you the balsa you need,I think the only reason they don’t stock it is because there is little to no demand for 1/8"x4"x10’ balsa.
We only have here the boards to make rc airplanes, but I really don´t like to see the cuts, on the boards;
is the a good alternative to balsa, not letting the weight grow up?
You can try contacting AtuaCores, who sometimes has expertly joined sheets in the 6’ x 2’ x 2mm range, but you’d still end up with a joint somewhere. You can hide it well if you are careful.
Otherwise, you’ll have to buy 10’ lumber and have it milled. In France, at least, you’ll have to import your own which is what I do, and then go from there. I can provide you with a few addresses if you’d like. You’re still looking at an expensive proposition, between the wood and the milling. You’d be cheaper to import the lumber, and carefull dry and chamber it when shaping a solid balsa board. You can come in with very correct weights if you’re careful, and if you start with good wood.
If you really want to veneer… you can also use samba or poplar, I’ve used both with some lovely results when I was building compsands a few years back. Much easier to source, and much less expensive than balsa. There are pictures here somewhere of a diamond-tailed egg in samba that we did a while ago, but I haven’t figured out the new archives just yet…
Hope that’s of some help.
There’s no such thing…just like unicorns. Why not just use some other veneer, why does it have to be balsa? I hear you can get Teak sheets for about $400.00. Or else you can get bamboo for around $30 per sheet, but balsa in veneer? What real world application would veneer balsa have?
…sometimes is used to package AC equipment and other stuff but is a second quality Balsa (like 50% of the hobby stores balsa-that come from South Asia not Ecuador)
That’s exactly the stuff. Arrange it on the glass backing so the cuts look nice. Or use bamboo. I prefer bamboo anyway.
can you get me a photo of bamboo venneer???
I believe it has a lot of nocks…
where can I get it??
I also can buy easily 10´4" 1mm cedar and mahogany, but isn´t heavy a lot???
Mahogany is heavy indeed, cedar less so. You could likely get away with mahogany if you’re going to use a lower density EPS blank, heck even with 30kg/m3 it wouldn’t be too bad on a 10’4".
How are you planning to do your rails?
For me the rails are the most simple thing to do …
I left a 2 cm cut all over the rail; then i´ll get 3mm layers of balsa glued wiht epoxy.
then its only shaping the rails as usual …
The balsa sold at hobby shop is first quality generally without knots. Best way to do it is to wet a piece of 4 oz on a table, lay the sheets of balsa on the glass and then vacuum it down making sure the balsa stays nice and lined up. Simple to do.
Yes I know, but my intention was to build a board without any cuts…
I know that there are people that can make them with cuts, but we can´t see them; is there any technique to hide them??
Veneer is made 2 ways. 1) radial cut, which means its cut around the log like pealing an orange. or 2) strip cut. meaning its cut into 4"-8" pcs then cut like slices of cheese and then glues together. The veneer companys either put these pcs of wood on a fleese backing, or they stich it together.
If you looking for a seemless peice of wood 10 ft x 2ft x 1/40th it doesn’t exist…just like unicorns. Also to find a pce of veneer 10 ft long your going to have to search a bit. I’ve sources beech wood veneer up to 110" long, but it’s made out of 4" pce and 1/36" thick. 120" veneer? Thats a big tree that they probably wouldn’t waste on making veneer out of?
Aloha luis,
If you can find a source there for balsa lumber, the veneer part is very simple. Square up one edge and face on a jointer. Then set up a bandsaw to whatever thickness you want to cut. Keep the board tight against the rip fence and carefully run it through the saw. That’s it! A fine tooth blade on a bandsaw, especially a carbide blade, will produce a surface that wil not need sanding or surface planing. You’ll be sanding the finished surface of the surfboard anyway after you do the rails, etc. I often cut thin slices 1/8" up to 1/4" thick (veneers) to space between multiple stringers on my balsa boards. Enjoy the ride!
Richard
Can you get me a photo?