DIY Balsa Building Board

[jsknockoff]

After several years of borrowing my dad's balsa building board he finally had to repo it from me to build the Kadet Senior I gave him for Christmas. So, that left me in need of a new building surface. I looked at the alternatives other guys had come up with and decided that even though it's old school, there is something I just really like about pinning down my parts into a balsa slab. I looked online and it seems that no one currently produces a balsa building board so now I'm going to make my own. Placed an order with National Balsa and $120 later I have a pile of 1x4x48 balsa planks and some other odds and ends to restock my stick stash.

Here's the dilemma, and I've turned to you guys to help me decide. Originally I had planned to make it a 60x20" board. That is bigger than anything previously available for purchase and would accommodate any build I can see in the future. 1/3 scale Nieuport 28 being the biggest I have planned. To do that it requires me to cut and stagger the planks leaving end joints in the middle of the board, and allowing the chance for error during assembly. The other option is to build it in a 48" length and not have to cut the planks. I'm now leaning toward the shorter board for ease of assembly and storage.

Any thoughts?

 

[jsknockoff]

Here's my big fat stack of balsa slabs.

 

[Joker 53150]

Ease of assembly is nice, but if you are certain to outgrow the smaller size soon, I'd bite the bullet and build large. Spend the extra time and effort now instead of doing it all over in the future.

 

[jsknockoff]

Well, I wimped out and decided to build the shorter board. I still have all the material, less the planks I'm using to build a 48x16" board, so in the future all I'll have to do is replace those planks and build a second larger one. The idea being that I can get this one done in a much shorter amount of time. The larger one I'll build this coming summer or fall and use a biscuit joiner for a nicer end product.

So far I have 2 pairs of planks glued and ready to run through the planer. Once they are finished I'll join the remaining pieces.

 

[TexMechsRobot]

What are the benefits of using balsa as the base? I have been using acoustic board material and it seems to be working well but I'd like to hear your argument for balsa.

 

[jsknockoff]

I've seen the acoustic board used before and it does work pretty well. I think it's more just a matter of preference, and also what you're used to using. The only down sides that I can see from using acoustic board would be that after time it does start to delaminate a bit, and also it requires a backing if you plan to move it with a project pinned down. My dads balsa board has had well over 100 airplanes built on it and is still a flat true surface to work on. Another bonus I would say is that they handle glue that seeps through really well without damage. I'd say one big perk to the acoustic board is that if you're building something 1/4 scale or larger it's nice because you can get it in 4x8' sheets, so as long as you have a flat surface to put it on it will handle much larger builds.

 

[jsknockoff]

Finally got around to finishing up my new building board. The fall build kinda forced my hand. Anyways, I planed both planks down to the same thickness and glued them down onto a slab door. I’m really pleased with the result, the board is perfectly true and I doubt I’ll have any sort of warping issues with the door. I might try to knock out a quick stick and tissue build before the build off to break it in, lol.

 

[jsknockoff]