Where do you get YOUR balsa?

General Discussion
1

I’m diving in on the next board.

With a bit of luck, I’ll have the templates cut out for the hotwire by the end of the weekend and I’ll slice out the blank some evening next week.

Gonna go with the Meecrafty no balsa bottom, which I’ll shape first a la Benny1 (get ready for some questions boys)

But when it comes to the deck…I’ll need some wood.

Anybody got ideas? Where do you get YOURS? I suppose I might mail order it if I have a hard time finding it in town here in Van.

Any help is appreciated…

Cheers,

G

2

Hobby shop. You looking for select balsa, the stuff they use in models. Comes in 3 to 4 foot long sheets 4 to 6 inches wide. Your looking for 1/16th thick or 2 mils.

3

Hello,

I have yet to order the balsa for the first sandwich, but I have been searching, and found this place to be the cheapest for bulk purchases.

I was told some others here have order thier balsa from these guys…

www.lonestar-models.com

Josh

4

I just ordered from lonestar models. Includeing the $40 shipping it’s still alot less expensive than getting it mail order here in Norway.

regards,

Håvard

5

So how much do you need for a traditional 6’2-6’4 shortie???

What is also meant by 4-6lb AAA balsa sheets as compared to regular AAA balsa sheets?

Thanks guys.

Rio

6
Quote:

So how much do you need for a traditional 6’2-6’4 shortie???

you should be able to lay that out and figure materials pretty easy. Most wood projects add 30% to your list.

7

Number of strips?

  1. figure out the size of balsa strips you’re ordering

  2. divide the length and width by the typoes of strips you are ordering (inches)

  3. add in some additional width for any rail wrapping

6-8 48"x4" strips per side should be enough but you have to watch the seams. staggered seams are the best but it may or may not increase the number of strips required. Also sort out and use the most flexible strips for the rails nose and tail. So order your lengths and width’s accordingly. Figure $0.70-$1.10 per strip to factor in the cost.

Don’t forget the flat razors, tape and or glue costs as well you may need to build your lam.

AAA is the best and most expensive balsa…Unless you’re building competition model planes, I don’t think it’s warranted… Especially with the waste you’ll have in the end with all the trimmings.

Kind of like glassing in Kevlar or Carbon Graphite or S cloth versus straight E. Unless you’ve done a bunch of these like Bert I don’t think getting the most expensive source materials is worth it right off the bat…

8

I thought that I might add that Bert’s best looking boards are made with C grade balsa.

9

Thanks for all the advice gents. Now…what should I do this weekend; make the dj table my fiance has been lamenting me not yet making while I built board number 2? Or should I get down to business with cutting out my templates and risk ire on the homefront for the next week? I leaning towards the latter…;).

10

Thanks guys for the tips.

GWN,

tell your lady that the board you’ll be making can be used as a dj table. 'Two birds one stone :wink:

11

On Lonestar’s specials page they have 1/32 and 1/16 3-ply birch ply in 48" srtips. I would imagine such an item intergrated into the laminate would have an interesting effect on flex.

12

i have gotten it from both Lone Star and National Balsa… i like National better because it is not in Texas ;)… but really, if you are going to buy alot ask them to fill a standard shipping box… for the skins it is around 200 sheets… if your are buying for one board i would say buy twice what you neeed as some of the strips are worthless… the ultra light stuff is not needed for surfboards, there is info about this in the archives, not good spring… keep your cutoffs and you begin to figure how to use less and less per board…

13

im with j…national’s good…how’s this for a sorting process…

i finger grab the sheet in the middle and shake up and down letting the ends flap like bird wings…its a very simple telling test…fun too…i’ll sort light, medium, heavy…this will be obvious to some…takes less than 10 seconds per sheet and its good enough for board building