Re: Who or what uses balsa?

From: nick <nickaikman_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:05:09 -0000

Hi Tim and Tom,

Alas, I can whittle that 0.01% down still further.

Over the last few years, I've processed many many blocks of sub 5.0lb density balsa into billets to cut into indoor sheet wood. I reckon that I've then rejected half of them due to stress fractures/twisted grain/mould/worm holes/knots/hard spots/poor grain structure etc, etc.

So, if accurate, the 0.01% should be halved to 0.005%.

Anybody got an Ecuadorian balsa plantation in the garden???

Nick.

--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "thb248" <tim.haywardbrown@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Tom
> Thanks for the interesting balsa stats.
> I've been getting some of that .01% stuff from Nick Aikman (thanks Nick) - it's beautiful.
> Turns out... it grows in the southern hemisphere and gets processed in my part of the world. It then makes the long journey to the UK where Nick very carefully cuts it into little see-through slivers...
> And then he ships it all the way back to me here in Oz...
> So my plan is to glue it all back together into the shape of an F1D ...and bring it back to Europe in 2012...
>
> it makes perfect sense to me anyway.
>
> cheers
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Thomas" <parkreation@> wrote:
> >
> > Having come from an industry that dealt in Balsa, here's some humbling numbers...
> >
> > 90% of havested balsa is used in industry as a sound insulator and a heat insulator. Of this ratio, 70% goes to lining large Cryogenic tanks on ocean tankers that transfer natural or liquid gas around the globe. It is NOT pretty/nice/white/c-grain/no-worm holes/4# pound wood so no need to salivate. IT is the crappy commodity stuff that drives the market. BTW, GM toyed with using a balsa and aluminum sandwich in the floors to quiet road noise in Vettes.
> >
> > .99% goes to the craft and hobby industry. More rare in the grand scheme
> > of balsa production mostly do to the labor to just find and grade the wood.
> >
> > .01% is good enough to be considered for an F1D. Obviously the rarest and just another layer of labor cost to locate and process.
> >
> > Wanna get into the kit business? To be competitive, you have to order a "Container" at about $10K for "decent" wood. It still needs to be graded, cut and sanded down to .020.(To go thinner is really special tooling). Of that maybe 30% you would be proud to be in your kit that features 8# wood. So you have to market the other 70%.
> >
> > Without the industry usage of crappy comodity balsa, our sport & hobby wood prices would rise- exponentially.
> >
> > Tom Sanders
> >
>
Received on Tue Oct 19 2010 - 11:10:49 CEST