World Wide Balsa Shortage

kittyfritters · Post by **kittyfritters** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:13 pm

Guillow is not the only company that is having trouble getting good quality balsa. A couple of natural gas tankers are under construction, which always hits the world supply of top quality balsa hard, (I wonder what they do with all that high-grade balsa when they scrap one of those things?), and the Chinese are buying up the balsa plantations in Central America.

Why the Chinese are doing this is a good question. I think, as in other places in the world, it's going into other uses than models, like the cushion layer in laminated flooring. I know that many of the ARFs are made in China, but they can't be making that many, can they?

Anyway, the model manufacturers, here and in the EU are the hardest hit by the shortage. They are even looking at sources in Asia. (I guess someone took some seedlings and started plantations in Indonesia.) Shipments of what was supposed to be 10 pound wood has been coming in at between 13 and 24 pounds. The stuff that is coming in at 10 pounds or under is a bit crumbly. This puts all the model kit manufacturers in a bind. Do they put out kits with heavy wood, light wood that is difficult to build with because it is fragile, or nothing at all? If this keeps up, we stick and tissue builders may be back to pine or basswood and cardboard like in WWII although some models of that era flew amazingly well.

kittyfritters · Post by **kittyfritters** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:20 pm

Oh, Yes! I forgot the other big use of high-grade balsa wood that has emerged lately. It is used as the core of the blades in wind turbines. Alternative energy effecting our hobby. Who knew?

SteveM · Post by **SteveM** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 7:04 pm

Add to that Lone Star Balsa burning down and the good stuff becomes legendary. The Midwest Aero-Star Poppy gave DD and DD gave me was from about 1985 era and had some amazing pieces of balsa in it. Light but yet firm and straight grained, you can be sure that I have squirreled away every unused scrap.

thymekiller · Post by **thymekiller** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 8:22 am

Greetings Guys,
I have no idea what in the world you are talking about. This is the first I'v heard of a balsa shortage. "Natural gas tankers". Do you mean ships?
Could someone please bring me up to speed?
Theres always carbon fiber and monokote.....

thymekiller

supercruiser · Post by **supercruiser** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:24 am

Balsa flies better.

SteveM · Post by **SteveM** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:02 pm

LNG ships:
http://www.sw-mc.com/eng/business/lng.asp (Under "Techniga type")
http://books.google.com/books?id=7P_OlH ... #PPA328,M1

WW2:
http://www.theplanpage.com/Months/2804/ ... 0Flier.pdf

thymekiller · Post by **thymekiller** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:51 am

Thank you, SteveM

thymekiller

Greyhound · Post by **Greyhound** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:43 pm

I never knew that there was a shortage of balsa wood!

Do you think It will get any better?

Socketassault · Post by **Socketassault** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:51 pm

Greyhound wrote:I never knew that there was a shortage of balsa wood! Do you think It will get any better?

Trees grow.

Yeah, I felt like being a jerk. lol. I went to my local Michaels (the only decent hobby store around here), and basically all they had was bass wood.

I actually thik basswood is very pretty though, so maybe after Im done with my weird idea, Ill make something out of it.

Socketassault · Post by **Socketassault** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:52 pm

Greyhound wrote:I never knew that there was a shortage of balsa wood! Do you think It will get any better?

Trees grow.

Yeah, I felt like being a jerk. lol. I went to my local Michaels (the only decent hobby store around here), and basically all they had was bass wood.

I actually thik basswood is very pretty though, so maybe after Im done with my weird idea, Ill make something out of it.

thymekiller · Post by **thymekiller** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:16 pm

I dont think its all going to disapeer. Besides, You can build out of many other things. Foam, bamboo, basswood, spruce, pine, certian plastics, ect. Also carbon fiber and fiberglass. I use alum. tubing for my rear pegs. That stuff is very light for its strengh. Theres more than one way to fly.

thymekiller.

MikeTaylor · Post by **MikeTaylor** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:21 am

Hi, guys

I ran a hobby shop in the 70's, about the time they started building the super LNG tankers. Balsa is used as insulation since the end grain is great in compression and a good insulator.

Back then, ALL the kit makers had rock hard balsa - Guillow's, Sterling, Carl Goldberg, Midwest - everybody. My scale 96" Sterling Schweitzer sailplane weighed close to 6 pounds with the early radio and ballast

Luckily, at least one of those manufacturers has survived

We had to experiment with corrugated board (surprising strong until it is crushed, by the way, and cheap!) which worked well, but really soaked up the engine's oil. Coroplast is the modern incarnation of that, and people are still building from it.

I had to take a fiberglass class to learn how to vacuum bag GRP fuselages and other parts. I got a selection of lithographic plates so I could build aluminum rat and mouse racers. I learned how to make and use a foam cutter. Spruce and basswood became my friends, as well. CF became affordable, and we sucked it up. We much later found Depron, and Bob Hurd invented Durobatics - both excellent building materials.

As much as I use the newer, non-sustainable materials, and as much as I like using them, there really is a warm feeling when using balsa...

thymekiller · Post by **thymekiller** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:28 pm

Thank you Mike. Its good to hear from you. Glad you signed on. I was concerned about spreading bad info. I am too knew to know about shortages, but I know there is always a way to get around them.

Problem solving is the key to this hobby.

thymekiller