Balsa sheets

[Stephen Paterson 2Participant @stephenpaterson2]

Hi everyone…. while since I posted hope everyone is all well.

New project sort of on the go… uss Abraham Lincoln. For the hull I'll be using (hopefully) the usual ribs and skin covered in glass fibre. My problem is I cannot find local anyone with Balsa sheets 150mm width by minimum of 150mm thickness I can work with anything. Thin I'll double/triple the sheets.

[Stephen Paterson 2Participant @stephenpaterson2]

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Stephen,

Welcome back to the forum, not knowing where local is for you ? it's tricky. I have bought my balsa from SLEC in Norfolk for the last 40 years they are probably the best, Balsa normally come in 3" or 4" widths so you will have to butt glue sheets together. I did wonder if your dims were right as you have described 6" X 6" , assuming you want 1/16" sheet or 1.5mm its gone up in price almost as much as petrol at £2.78 per 1/16 X 4" X 36" sheet.

There has been a shortage in the last couple of years due to the Chinese buying up large stocks for the wind turbine blade manufacture !!

Regards Ray

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Stephen. Is it sheets for planking use you want or is it blocks of the stuff you want for carving?

Our man Richard over at Bushy uses card to plank his large galleons with, followed by glass fibre and then he “planks” the outside of the hull with balsa just to give it the look.

Styrofoam is easy to work with in block form.

Ashley

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Loads of balsa of all sizes on Ebay –

[Stephen Paterson 2Participant @stephenpaterson2]

Thank you for the replies. It's to make the ribs out of. I had thought of thin ply but I can never get a neat cut on it. Hadn't actually thought of card. Might use that and laminate a few sheets together then use card as a base to glass over. Thats a good shout. Hull is 150mm wide roughly and about 120 depth I think. That was where my guestimate sheet size was from.

[Richard SimpsonModerator @richardsimpson88330]

If you are going to cut a lot of things like ribs it may well even be worth thinking about investing in a bandsaw. They are not as expensive as you might think and they are incredibly flexible in what they can do. I bought one only recently and now wish I'd bough one years ago.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have a relatively cheap 2 wheel bandsaw, and wouldn't be without it. But if you are using balsa, a scalpel will cut it just as well –

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

Well I'm not sure how Balsa wood turned into bandsaws, but hey as it has , here's my new'ish Axminster band saw worth every penny of £220 I used to have an old Burgess for 30 years, but the fence on this machine is a joy and cutting planks is a doddle

Regards Ray

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

So easy with a small bandsaw. Buy one straight away!

Ashley

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I think a bandsaw is a bit "overkill" if you are using balsa wood!

[Stephen Paterson 2Participant @stephenpaterson2]

I'd considered bandsaws. But really sort of notion of a laser burner. Bit more expensive but less chance of a finger off……I'm careless and enjoy a beer when out in the shed 😂🙈

i actually found online big sheets of balsa plywood! 3mm upwards thick and 800×1200 sheet sizes. Only £8 a sheet!

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Stephen,

I think you have found lite ply its got it's use's but it needs good support to stop it going curly & warping

But is tougher than balsa.

Good Luck

Ray

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

A bandsaw might be more general use than a laser, as it will cut material perhaps a few inches thick, and I am not sure a home laser is that powerful?

Keeping the blade guard at a minimum height, just clear of the wood should make it safe, especially if cutting thin material.

Ashley

[Stephen Paterson 2Participant @stephenpaterson2]

Posted by Ray Wood 2 on 15/03/2022 15:01:17:

Hi Stephen,

I think you have found lite ply its got it's use's but it needs good support to stop it going curly & warping

But is tougher than balsa.

Good Luck

Ray

No Ray, I have found Balsa Plywood. 😉👍🏻

[Stephen Paterson 2Participant @stephenpaterson2]

Elite models Balsa Ply.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Balsa Ply is another name for Lite Ply. Somebody explained it on another forum, see below.. Some people like it, others don't. as mentioned below, it isn't waterproof so must be sealed or it delaminates and as Ray says, it is prone to curling unless well supported, especially in the thinner sheets probably due to absorption of moisture from the air. I have found that it snaps and dents very easily. If you Google it, quite a bit of information comes up.

SLEC sell their standard balsa in three different grades of hardness, the hard variety is similar to obeche, the medium is good for generall purpose work while the soft variety is very spongy.

The SLEC Fairey powerboat kits use Lite Ply very effectively for their construction but the hulls do require skinning with glass cloth and resin to make them impact resistant.

Colin

Liteply was first produced to make jigsaws (the sort with lots of pieces which fit together, not the vibrating saw). It is a much less dense material and is not water-resistant. The "glue" between laminations is probably acrylic or water based. It is available to the modeller but only in thicknesses up to 6mm, and the core layer is usually much thicker than the two outer ones. Where it scores over birch ply is that it is much lighter and easier to cut; it also bends easily if you steam or warm it and it retains that shape afterwards. For bulkheads there is much to recommend liteply, provided that you use a decent aliphatic resin glue and make sure you waterproof it thoroughly. For skinning, however, it doesn't have the impact strength of a resin-bonded ply unless you use a much thicker material e.g. I'd use 2mm liteply where I might use 0.8mm marine ply.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

Elite Models – AKA Modelworld at Sittingbourne are not far from me and any excuse to go to a model shop

With the shortage of balsa and the price going up I'm curious

I'll be back ! as the big man said !!

Regards Ray

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

Well I'm sort of disappointed really the Balsa ply doesn't exist a figment of the Elite Models website's imagination, You will receive Lite ply from them that's all they had in stock.

But on the bright side I did but a Beattie Well Tank 2-4-0 made by Bachman (coded message for Richard)

Regards Ray

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Going back to one of your earlier posts one of the problems with Lite Ply is that can be hard to get a neat cut if using a saw as the face easily breaks away. Fine if using a laser though as is the case with kits like the ones Colin referred to.

Chris

Edited By Chris Fellows on 16/03/2022 14:35:48

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

If you think about it Ray, balsa ply is not very feasible. You have to have two sheets of some sort of veneer sandwiching the balsa core to give it strength.

SLEC sell balsa sheet of 0.8mm and it's difficult to imagine going any thinner than that without ending up with a hugely fragile shaving. Three thicknesses of 0.8mm will give you a minimum ply thickness of 2.4mm. The thinnest Lite Ply is 2mm (3/32in).

If you want pure balsa ply I suppose you could stick three thin sheets together with the middle one 90 degrees to the other but I suspect the result would not be very nice to work with and you would be better off just using thicker balsa sheet.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned John Parker's comprehensive article on using balsa in the March issue of the magazine – lots of useful information on selecting, cutting and generally working with it.

Colin

Edited By Colin Bishop on 16/03/2022 16:39:29

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Colin,

Yes I agree totally, but drove 30 miles to check such a material doesn't exist I had the same experience with Mantua models who described Mahogany ply on the web site it's only thin Mahogany sheet.

The frames on Oldenburg were laminated for 1/16" balsa as I have 300 sheets in stock but no 1/8" sheet at the time.

I'm not sure how many folk on this forum buy the magazine ? I have only bought the one with Ashley's Tups on this year so far !!

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

In response to Ray's comments above (and I know his views are shared by others) I think it is worth pointing out that this Forum is not seen as a 'freebie' service to model boaters by MyTimeMedia but as a support to Model Boats magazine to help promote sales.

Two things follow from this.

Firstly, if the magazine ceases publication, as have some others in the MTM 'stable', this Forum will immediately cease to exist and all the content will be lost as it cannot be migrated to another non MTM IT platform. At present the magazine is being published on a much reduced budget as newstrade sales have not returned to previous levels and there is no indication they will do so in the immediate future. The current editor relies on the goodwill of regular and new contributors who are willing to accept much lower page rates for their articles that was previously the case. Many of these people do so as they value the magazine and the the fact that it is the only significant remaining publication for the model boating community. Forums simply cannot take its place. They want to make a contribution to the hobby.

Secondly, it has been suggested to me by MTM management that they could save money by closing down this forum altogether and simply retaining the Model Boats website without it. So far I have successfully argued against this but it is still a very real possibility and comments such as Ray's (and others) are just another nail in the coffin. The Managing Director does look in from time to time.

No magazine can produce issues that are full of articles that are dear to the hearts of individual readers. What excites you may be of little interest to others and vice versa so, as with all magazines, the job of the editor is to provide a variety of material so, on average, people are happy to keep buying as enough of it is of sufficient interest to them.

If you decide that there is insufficient content which interests you to buy the magazine regularly then that is your choice but don't be surprised if one day you turn on your computer and the Forum, or even the magazine is no longer there.

Personally I do get irritated when subjects crop up on the forum which have been comprehensively recently covered in the magazine or on the forum itself. Forums do have their merits but a lot of time is taken up with answereing basic questions which could easily have been answered if people were prepared to spend a bit of time in looking through the material which is already easily available before starting new queries.

We are all in this together but often divided between givers and takers!

Colin

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

Yes I agree with Colin's comments Nuff said.

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Thanks Ray, I have sent you a PM.

Colin

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