I thought that I read somewhere that you could use and iron and a wet towel to raise small dents in wood (balsa in particular). I just tried doing it on a piece of scrap balsa with no success. I searched the archives, but didn’t find anything. Has anyone ever done this, or something similar? What is the proper technique?
So you must read “Field and Stream.” Just saw that trick written up in an article in the newest edition today.
The article was aimed at repairing hardwoods, which I imagine would respond very differently than balsa.
I don’t know about dents. I worked for a high end custom woodworker for a year and a half and we would always wet the wood with a damp sponge to “raise the grain” for sanding out scratches. We’d do it with each grit as we worked our way to a pretty flawless finish. It was more of a finishing technique (to get out scratches) than for getting out dents.
I finally remembered where I read about this technique. It was in a book called How to Build a Balsa Surfboard, by Eric Fassbaugh (living in Santa Monica). At the end of the book he states:
[indent]“…After drying sand smooth and coat with un-thinned varnish. Repeat 7 times. When all is dry the board is ready for use. Wax em up and have fun. Dings can be steamed out and varnished. Use a marine spar varnish with UV protection in it…”
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What does it mean to steam out a ding?
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For what it’s worth, I used to do this a LOT when I built guitars…Only on Spruce tops though. Wet paper towel on dent, set iron on, and dent usually comes out…But we’re talking about VERY small “dents”…
Howzit swied, That process was in a post a couple of years ago but it was for dents on a finished poly board. The post was originally about dents in foam and using a heat gun or hair dryer to raise the dents and then some one asked about fully glassed boards. Water is what raises wood grain. Aloha,Kokua
Also it will only take out dents. Dent’s, not cuts or gouges. Something like if you press you thumb too hard into the wood. if you run your balsa blank into a hard corner it will raise the grain, but it won’t magically make the gash disappear.
Works like magic on all soft wood. Works ok on oak, soft maple, etc. Sucks on Hard Maple, Paduk, etc. Oily wood like Mohagany, Teak, not so good either.
Try this a spray bottle w/water or a wet rag/paper towel and a heatgun.
irons work too.
Swied,
Been ironing out dents in the shop for a few years…first rule, don’t expect instant results. Wet a wash cloth or similar terry cloth - saturate it - then press it on the dent to make sure the water is able to penetrate the grain well. While you’re doing this, set your iron on high and let it heat up - hot. You can let the wood soak for 5 minutes plus. Then press the iron on…lots of steam there - drying out the terry - move to a wetter spot of terry and press some more. Keep trying this technique. It could take a few - 3+ - tries. After a few tries, you can try removing the cloth and brush the iron on the wood directly to dry out residual moisture.
One thing, always keep the iron moving. Pressing down on one spot can burn wood and foam. Keep it moving…
Hope it helps.
Pete
Like tenover, I use the technique on guitar softwoods - cedar and spruce. I use a saturated cloth and a soldering iron; more precise and controllable. Never tried balsa but I would imagine it will work fine.
AF
That’s the ticket: lots of water and high heat. I was able to completely remove a pretty sizable ding from a hammer blow on a piece of balsa.
I actually filmed my test. Check it out if you don’t have anything better to do right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwq9tlBANQY
3:34 minutes
You can get out almost any whack in a balsa board, I recently when breaking apart a balsa for chambering had about half of it get away from me and crash into the gusset of the base of the shaping racks. The 1/4" thick gusset gashed the rail really deep, I gathered up a respectible amount of loogey, wrapped my lips around the wound and planted the loogey deep into it. The next day the balsa had rissen back to the original height, it still had broken fibers where it had been axed, but by the time I had tuned up the finished product, it looked like one of those natural occuring anomolies that you find in wood.
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I gathered up a respectible amount of loogey, wrapped my lips around the wound and planted the loogey deep into it. The next day the balsa had rissen back to the original height, it still had broken fibers where it had been axed, but by the time I had tuned up the finished product, it looked like one of those natural occuring anomolies that you find in wood.
That’s hilarious! I’ll have to remember that technique.
OK, I watched your movie, and it was hilarious. Better than most of the content on Youtube. Pretty impressive, and I’ll keep that technique in mind!
–Ben
Great work Swied, definately lovin your threads… clear and well documented steps.
Keep up the good work, and can’t wait to see your board once it’s done.
-Cam