Grades of balsa?

JOhn M Oshust · Post by **JOhn M Oshust** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:43 pm

Since, until recently, I haven't played with balsa in almost 50 years, I have a question for our forum. Watch D Ducket and others add extra stingers to wings and fuselage prompted me to do the same with my Camel. THe Guillows plan had only one stringer on bothe the upper and lower wing. I used up the extar 1/16 x 1/16 balsa that came with the kit so I traveled to my local hobby shop and depleted his suppy of balsa this size. This balsa seems to be a much, much better grade of wood then that supplied with the kit. I know I purchased balsa not bass. Also I purchased a Mosquito from Easy Built. The laser cut balsa is wonderful and the quality of the balsa seems better. Am I imagining this??

Xanadu · Post by **Xanadu** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:55 pm

Nope, there are varitions in the balsa wood due to cut, size and age of log, and where abouts on the log it was cut from.

See this link for helpful info about it.

http://pldaniels.com/flying/balsa/balsa-properties.html

JOhn M Oshust · Post by **JOhn M Oshust** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:09 pm

Thank you sir. I guess if you buy your own from a shop you can pick better quality than comes in a kit. I must remeber for the next build.

Xanadu · Post by **Xanadu** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:17 pm

I have purchased quite a few kits, from different eras, and they do vary thats for sure.
Some great, some bad, some so-so..........but could be only what was available to them at the time and what was sold to them.
No excuses, only reasons.

The Guillow kits are great value for what you get, considering what other kit mfgs pricing is.
I have built my share of Guillows, and some other brands, and I will continue to build the Guillows as well.

You get what you pay for more or less, all said without trying to be harsh towards anyone mfg.

lennyz · Post by **lennyz** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:26 am

I completely agree with Xanadu about the value of the Guillows kits.
Also the variety of kits available is great. They also seem to be the only
manufacturer that has a large selection of military airplanes which is my personal passion. The issue of the wood quality only becomes another
opportunity to express your personal creativity and imagination, which
I believe is one of the great outlets this hobby has to offer. Not much seems to offer as much satisfation as making a project "yours" when
you can add your own personal touches. Guillows kits offer plenty of
opportunity to do this.

JOhn M Oshust · Post by **JOhn M Oshust** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:33 am

I agree fully. I love the open endedness of stick building. Guillows do offer a wide assortment. I have looked at some Dumas planes. They have a wide variety. Have you guys ever built a Dumas plane! I think when I built my next Guillow plane I will purchase stringers from my shop as the seem true in dimenson, very straight, and of a stronger quality.

kittyfritters · Post by **kittyfritters** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:48 pm

For the last year Guillows has been trying to produce their kits with medium (9 to 11 lb/cu ft) balsa. This is a good combination of buildability (not to soft) and flyability. The problem is large number of old production kits still in the wholesale pipeline. I bought the Rufe that I am building for the "G" Challenge at a popular hobby shop in Burbank California last December. When I looked at the back of the decal sheet I found the kit was 2004 production! When I weighed the balsa I found it was 17 pound (Heavy!) stock. (Needless to say, it went through a drum sander!)

People ordering directly from the factory have been reporting kits with 10 pound stock, quite flyable and still strong. Now, if they can either sharpen those dies or move more series to laser cutting... We can hope.

Howard