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Inches to milimeters

Old 12-23-2003, 05:14 PM
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serendpt
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Default Inches to milimeters

Was about to try my hand at building from a plan, but immediately ran into a problem. So far, all of the balsa sheets I have found in the local (bear in mind, 'local' to me means Malaysia) hobby shops are measured in millimeters, and aren't really as close to the specified thicknesses as I'd like them to be (eg 1/16" is 1.5875mm, but I can only find 1.5mm) and was wondering whether it was still safe to substitute the thicknesses.
Old 12-23-2003, 05:54 PM
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parabellum
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Default RE: Inches to milimeters

probably safe.

or mail order from American source.
balsa is light, so shipping shouldn't be a huge problem.
Old 01-03-2004, 05:12 AM
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Willdo
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Default RE: Inches to milimeters

I don't think that 0.1mm is going to make much difference, you could hardly even see that measurement! and I'm sure that the quality control people would have trouble keeping it inside that tolerance. ( forget about the third and fourth digits past the decimal point).
Also you could easily get different quality and strength between sheets of balsa which would probably be much more significant, but is usually overlooked, I say go for the stuff you can get easily.
Old 01-03-2004, 10:53 AM
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CafeenMan
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Default RE: Inches to milimeters

You can substitute the closest size wood with no problems. I was stationed in Germany for a few years and ended up with a large stack of metric wood. I keep it separate from my other wood, but I use some of it in most models I build. I just make sure I make symmetrical parts from the same wood.

In other words, if I sheet one aileron with 1.5 mm then I do the same to the other.
Old 01-06-2004, 01:43 AM
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serendpt
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Default RE: Inches to milimeters

Thanks, everyone. I guessed as much it would be ok, but it gives me peace of mind to get the go ahead from experienced builders such as yourselves.
Old 01-06-2004, 05:57 PM
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Gaui
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Default RE: Inches to milimeters

Here in Iceland we usually get balsa in millimetres and most of our plans come in inches, so here are the substitutions we make:

1/32" = 0.8 mm
1/16" = 1.5 mm
3/32" = 2.0 mm
1/8" = 3 mm
1/4" = 6 mm
1/2" = 12 mm

As you see these are very rough approximations, but since I have built models along these lines for many years, I can assure you this works. Most of the times the millimetres are smaller than the inches (3/32 is actually 2.38 mm) so there may be some saving of weight, but sometimes we substutute a thicker sheet, like we may sheet a wing or a fuz with 3 mm balsa instead of 3/32" and then feel free to sand as much as we like.

gaui
Old 01-06-2004, 08:49 PM
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Grumpy Monkey
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Default RE: Inches to milimeters

Here is great utility to DL. It does all the conversions you would need and then some.
The program is called convert....http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/

Warren

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