subarubrat

My Feedback: (1)

Of course there is no absolute. I have seen Guillows kits with brittle balsa that were less than 10 years old. I have opened kits from the 80's with reasonably fresh balsa. Given the difficulty of determining the original condition of the balsa, it is hard to tell if your balsa has deteriorated or if that is about what it was when the kit was made. And of course storage conditions mean a great deal. Given all of these uncertain conditions, has anyone observed an overall trend of balsa's aging?

oscar2005

if it is stored properly and it was kiln dried to begin with should have no expiration time.brittle could be a sign of storage in a damp area or in direct sunlight,high temp.

kdheath

I have a few kits around that are pushing 40 years old, with perfectly usable balsa. I have a couple from the 30s and 40s that you could certainly build, although the quality of the wood wasn't the best to start with. Room temps and moderate humidity seem to be all balsa needs.

Strat2003

My Feedback: (1)

Wooden instruments, like guitars, need to be maintained at a certain humidity or they shrink and crack. Maybe the brittle balsa you encountered was just dried out.

Alternatively, since Guillow's didn't use real high quality wood, maybe it wasn't any good to start with!

build light

I would think that moisture would be balsa's enemy after it has been prepared for our use. That and insects.

Here is just a little info about balsa from the AMA's website. The URL is here too so you can all bone up on it if you want. http://www.modelaircraft.org/602_12.asp

" To give a balsa tree the strength it needs to stand in the jungle, nature pumps each balsa cell full of water until they become rigid—like a car tire full of air. Green balsa wood typically contains five times as much water by weight as it has actual wood substance, compared to most hardwoods which contain very little water in relation to wood substance. Green balsa wood must therefore be carefully kiln dried to remove most of the water before it can be sold. Kiln drying is a tedious two week process that carefully removes the excess water until the moisture content is only 6%. "


Guillows is notorius for having heavy, brittle wood in thier kits. There are some that have good wood but you can't open each kit to examine the wood before purchase... Not in any hobby shop I know of!

As porous as it is I imagine it can absorb all kinds of odors yet still be good for building. So far I have not run into any stinky wood!

Robert

50+AirYears

If I remember what I read about balsa in Thor Hierdahl's book, Kon Tiki, balsa trees at that time could only be cut down with axes. The wood would clog saws. Also, fresh cut balsa logs were so saturated, the workers had to lash each log to two cedar or other logs to float downstream. Fresh cut balsa logs were too heavy to float until dried. his from a guy who used the logs to build a boat to sail across the Pacific Ocean!

Kwigen

I have a Livewire Cruiseair that my dad bought in the mid-fifties that is still fresh and straight. I'm building a Sterling Stearman from the mid-sixties that is okay. Time is not as important as humidity and light.

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

I have a supply of balsa planks, all sizes that came from a ship building company on Long Island in the mid forties. I purchased 13,000 board feet about twenty years ago for $750.00, and at the time, it was worth close to $26,000.00 wholesale. This wood is as good today as it was the time it was cut from the forest. It is white, straight, dry, and shows absolutely no signs of deterioration. After 60 years, I would conclude that balsa will last forever, if you keep it dry.

build light

Hi Jim! Ol'e buddy! Ol'e pal! Heh heh!

I think the biggest enemy would be moisture but as Kwigen pointed out:
"Time is not as important as humidity and light."

This makes me think that a lot of exposure to ultraviolet light might be detrimental as well. Look what it does to paper which is made from cellulose(wood fiber). That said you may come across someone who would say that time would do balsa in if this person had kept his balsa in a spot which got some sun during the day. I have always kept mine in a box in a corner well out of the way and the sun.

Robert

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

Well if it isn't my old buddy "build light". Where have you been all my life?

The balsa that I purchased filled a one car garage, 9 ft. wide, x 7 ft. high x 24 ft. long, filled wall to wall, side by side, front to back, and floor to ceiling - with no place to walk. It had been in that garage for about 30 years, in NY state, so it was subjected to all kinds of weather, but it was kept dry.

I restored it in the trusses of my son's garage, pilied in all of the V's. Here it is dry, but still subjected to winter cold and summer heat. Doesn't seem to hurt the balsa one bit.

I have a lot of it stored in the trusses of my house here in FL, and it does get hot here in the summer, but again - we see no signs of deterioration.

Too bad that you don't belong to our club here in Sebring, as I design big airplanes, cut kits, and give them away "free" for other club members to build. So far, we have built over 60 giant scale planes from this lot, and there's enough balsa left for at least 600 more.

What a buy!

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

WOW!!! [X(][X(][X(]

cyclops2

The higher you fly Balsa, the faster it deterioates.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

What he said. I have balsa from the thirties and forties, I use it all the time.
Seen very little "stale balsa". If it was stored someplace very wet, there might be problems. The same problems you might have with wood you bought last year if you got it wet.

I got some big planks from a sailor, it was insulation from a tanker, many years ago, but it is heavy stuff! I answered an ad in the local papers and got many big planks for fifty bucks. As far as I could tell, he had stolen the stuff from a ship he worked on! I don't have the machinery to cut it down, like Jim does, though!

Whenever I see balsa at a swap meet, I buy it all. It's pretty much always a good deal, I can always use it.

build light

Thanks Jim!

By the way I have planted balsa yet none seems to grow!

Robert

build light

I could hardly decide where to put this. Here or "another rediculous e*ay purchase.
Since I could not tell if anyone has bought any I figured I would put it here

GROW your own Balsa trees!!! Yes that is what it says...

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Balsa-Wood-Tr...QQcmdZViewItem

Robert

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

Robert: How in the dickens did you ever find such a thing as balsa seeds? Since I am of the belief that balsa trees only grows in Ecuador, what is it that allows them to grow in another climate - say here in Florida for instance? I'd be willing to bet that buying the seeds is a little like flusing money down the drain, even though the price isn't all that much.

Mike Denest

My Feedback: (1)

During the war (II that is) balsa was a stretegic commodity, being used to manufacture life rafts. That's why Cleveland, Joe Ott and others used substitutes. I think Sterling, Guillows, Berkeley, et al used them for their kits.

build light

Jim I have been laughing about that ad since I have seen it. Go back and look again! They even go so far as to suggest that it would be a good bonsai! Imagine that if you would!

quote "A handsome specimen for sunny tropical climates. Makes a great house plant or even a bonsai. Indoors needs lots of sun. One of the fastest growing trees known to man. ...and young trees may grow 12 feet in their first six months."

Can you see someone trying to 'tame' one of these things in a little funky shaped clay tray/pot with a some 6 inch gardening tools? What a scene that brings to ones mind!

My,my...

Robert

Jim Thomerson

Balsa is so 20th century. Take a look at the next wave. http://www.paulowniawood.com/vsbalsa.htm

Paulownia is a hardy tree with beautiful flowers. Need one, or several, in your yard?

Joe Nagy

My Feedback: (3)

AH Yes; to my bestest Pal, Jim Messer in Florida, ole Buddy, ole Pal'o'mine.....[gotta lay it on as thick as I can or dare].

Hi Jim;

Greetings to you from the sunny & dry, [127 days and not a drop of rain, a record for sure here in Phoenix], 'Valley of the Sun'.

Humidity here in Phoenix, rite now about 3>15 %, and even in our monsoon season, apprx June thru August, the humidity rarely gets above 60%....so liken if you want to, you can store the rest of that balsa stash a way out here in my garage, & I recently got a great big Laguna 18" X 12" depth, 3 HP Bandsaw with the resaw kit ......Hmmmmm, see where I'm going......ah yes!

Just kidding, of course Jim, but AZ is real dry, and I have huge balsa stash myself, not as big a yourn, but a lot, some of it, at least 35 years old, + I have some a neighbour gave me about 53 years ago, several packing planks of same used to protect a big aluminum storm door he installed in his store back in Canada, and I still have a bit of that left, and it is AOK. Like everyone else has said, just keep it dry, out of sunlight and the stuff should last forever.

Also, what's going on over in FL? I've been grounded here in Arizona, since mid Jan., undergone minor shoulder surgery, [& Wifey Shirl is a Nurse], but am almost mended up now, and should be getting back to Homesteading my FL home soon, possibly late next month or so, and maybe meet up with you and your brother at the regional FL meets......then we can talk: tah-dah....Balsa! and the benefits thereof!

I Don't know about the rest of you, but BALSA, and the destruction thereof, by myself over the past 1/2 century or so has had a most benificial and lasting effect on my life, and I simply do not know where I would have ended up without it....model building, gee wow, what a hobby; I just love it, what else can I say?

So, until I get back to Florida Jim, keep that balsa stash safe, and remember my big new saw above, ho-ho-ho, [Santa in Feb no less...], best regards to you and all from sunny, warm and real dry Phoenix, I remain,

Jim Messer's bestest, and greatest Pal for sure,

Joe Nagy.

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

Hello Joe: Been out of the system for a few days, so late getting to you a reply. Do plan to come and see me when you get to FL. I can't travel much anymore, as my wife had a stroke in Sept., and that has changed our lives a lot.

Still, I get to fly 2-3 days a week now, as we are all done with therapy, and she goes with me to the flying field. A couple of weeks ago, Nick Ziroli came to fly with me. We have known each other for a lot of years, and as usual, he is still cranking out new planes and cutting up lots of balsa in the process.

I have a 40% J-3 Cub ready to fly with a DA-100, and hope to get it in the air very soon. I have been saying that for six months, but Peg's stroke set us back a lot.

There are now 8 big ones hanging in my garage, and still I want to build more. Used up a lot of balsa in the 40% Cub, and if it performs as good as I think it will, I may have a go at another 40% something. My 30% scale Stinston SR-10 is almost the same size, within 6 inches on the span. It flies beautifully on a Fox 5.8 single cyl

After I build a big plane like this, I look at the balsa pile, and you can't tell that anything has been taken from it. I like it that way.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Hey, have any of you guys every gotten some balsa that was just so sweet and so light you just had to take a little bite out of it?

Or should I not have confessed that?

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

No - never thought of doing that. That's a new one on me.

subarubrat

My Feedback: (1)

I have a stick of 3/8 by 1 in x 24 or so that is so hard and sturdy that you would swear it was old growth maple, I think I have had it for 10 years, used it as a straight edge, razor guide, back scratcher etc.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Well...maybe it IS maple!

I have lots of balsa, though, that is too hard for airplane use, and goes for boats and such.