is SIG on it's death bed?
 

I called Sig today to order wood, and the lady who answered the phone said they were out of balsa and were no longer carrying spruce. I remember trying to order a 4*120 kit last year and was told kit production was on hold due to them getting a shipment of bad balsa. I'm putting the 4*120 together now and I'm not impressed with the wood that came in the kit. I understand that China's buying a lot of it up and it's going into windmills and that nobody's balsa is what it was 5 years ago, but I had to replace several balsa pieces in the kit...some of it was softer than butter! I've built and flown several of their planes over the years...hope they get things worked out. Anyone else have any info?

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Been discussed ....
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10..._1/key_/tm.htm
John

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Just do a search and read about it. It isn't just SIG but SIG just keeps getting mentioned all the time. With the number of planes in there line up and how many kits they sell they do require more wood then most places. You also mentioned a number of the reasons wood is har to find, even places where I get my bulk wood has problems.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Every year about this time of the year I start calling around to all the bigger companies as we're getting ready for our Toledo coverage. Hobbico, Sig, Horizon, Balsa USA, Aeroworks, Dubro, and many others. I basically give them a call in order to get a feel for any new products they are going to have at the show, and to see if there is anything special we need to plan for when we do our coverage. I usually spend quite some time with them on the phone as it usually turns into a chat session. I'm friends with a lot of these people and it's good to get to talk to them.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. As I talked to the reps from Sig (about a week or two ago) the overall attitude was very positive. They had a very good "vibe" going and were very positive about where Sig was going. Does the attitude mean anything? You bet. This time last year they were all worried about the state of things. This year they are positive. I take that as a good sign.

I learn something all the time, and I picked up an interesting bit of info that I didn't know when I was talking to them. We got to talking about the balsa supply and availability of wood around the world. The world basically breaks down to 2 major sources of wood, Indonesia and Guatemala. All the wood going to Asia and that part of the world comes out of Indonesia and all the wood going to our part of the wood comes from Guatemala. They said that they can get wood from Indonesia but the shipping costs are prohibitive. Also learned that there is so much balsa wood available in Columbia that there wouldn't be any shortage if we could get wood out of there. And they can get the wood, but by the time they finished paying all the drug lords to get it out it would be even more expensive than anything else in the world. Though that was interesting.

Ken

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

You saying balsa is good to smoke???:D

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Yea, but it makes better brownies :D

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Damn, Ihope not!!!That's all we need is for something like that to get out and then there would but one more drain on the precious wood we use in our hobby!!!!!! :D

It's bad enough now hearing that we can't get wood because of the windmills going up. Just imagine what it will be like if we can't build a plane because somebody is smoking it!!!!!!!

Ken

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Next thing you know they'll start sniffing airplane glue

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Besides windmill usage, it also goes into ocean going tankers, in their "holds" to insulate the products they carry. That takes "bunches" of balsa to perform that task.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

"Also learned that there is so much balsa wood available in Columbia that there wouldn't be any shortage if we could get wood out of there. And they can get the wood, but by the time they finished paying all the drug lords to get it out it would be even more expensive than anything else in the world. "

Sorry, but I have to call bullsh** on that one...my wife's from ColOmbia...been there 5 times...people are very nice (unless they're behind the wheel of a car!) and the country is nowhere near the lawless hellhole with blood flowing through the streets as is portrayed by the media. Tourism from USA and Europe is up due to the markedly increased security situation, Bogota is one of the financial center hubs of South America, their currency is doing well in the world market, and the place is crawling with the hottest women on earth. We already get most of our fresh flowers and coffee from Colombia, so there's no reason we couldn't get balsa from there too. I'm not meaning to turn this into a political rant, it's just that if Colombia is flush with our precious wood then someone should look into that. (maybe me...LOL!!!)

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

PS: never intending to railroad SIG either...I love their products, but if it started in 1951 the founders I am sure are long since retired and people these days just don't want to work. People often buy a business thinking they can write someone a check, then sit back and watch money roll in. It just doesn't work that way. Also, we have to be sympathetic to their situation: kids these days just want to sit on their ass, play video games, and get fat. When I started flying 15 years ago, I was one of the youngest guys in my club of 120 members. We now have 80 members and I'm 38 now and STILL one of the youngest members...and this in a city with decent growth.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochroma_pyramidale

Sounds like Columbia would be a real possibility.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

<font size="2" color="#00265e">psgugrad</font><font size="2" color="#00265e"><font color="#000000"> </font>

I<font color="#000000"> can only tell you the story that was told to me by the people from Sig. I'm not saying it's right, or wrong. But they have much more experience in buying and selecting balsa wood than I do. I use their wood in a lot of my builds so I can't argue with their judgement.

Ken</font></font></p>

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

fair enough

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

A+ Thread so far.;)

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

I thought I heard that the employees of Sig bought the company.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

how about all you AMERICANS start buying AMERICAN products and maybe then the AMERICAN companies will be here to service us AMERICANS?

everyone is qucik to start a death thread, but you overseas supporters are the reason for these threads.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Well, Sig might be right, it depends where the wood is growing. As you know the Colombian government really does not control ALL of their territory (the guerilla and the drug lords do). There is a big part of the Colombian territoty their government does not control, and the area that sorrounds that part is also extremely dangerous. One of the good things of the balsa wood is that it is fast growing.

Gerry

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Anyone know where I can get some American-Grown balsa?

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

I, for one, am glad to hear that SIG has a positive attitude going. One of my all-time favorite modeling companies and I've built many of their planes over the years. Am building two Kavaliers (one from the kit and one scratch build from the plans), and a scratch build Astro-Hog (could not find the kit at the time) and have the plans and misc. parts sitting in the wings (he-he) for the Spacewalker II, Kadet Senorita and the profile Ultimate. The Kouger and Citabria kits are on the stash shelf. All this to say I love those SIG products. Let's support this long-time modeling supply company and let them know we want them around! Having lost so many kit maker companies in this time of ARF models (which have their place in the hobby too) we need SIG to keep the doors open.

Soft landings,

Joe

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

I wouldn't worry about long term balsa supply. Most balsa is plantation grown under conditions that encourage very fast growth and light weight. It's not like oak or other hardwoods that would take generations to grow. With the increased demand for new uses it may take a couple years but suppliers will get up to speed because there's money to be made. We may end up having a much better and more consistent supply in the near future.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Sig is literally only a 1/2 hour from my house. Haven't driven by there in a while but it is old school. I would say most employees are 50's and up that work there. I toured it last year. It is pretty neat. They still have the old presses to stamp out the old kits, but laser cut the new kits. At any rate, they are not on their death bed. They have an old shed where they store there balsa, I could drive by and see how full it is.

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

You beat me to it... I was thinking the same thing.

Some things just won't be found here. It will not grow here.

I wonder what Cuban balsa would go for.. now that we're smoking and sniffing it all now.... :)

Brian

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

Oh, I don't know ! I have this DREAM scenario :D

I go to the local botanical garden I convince them they need to plant about 5 balsa trees, after the 4 years or so it takes to make them JUST right, I volunteer to cut them down and haul them out..they will just be in there way after 4 years anyhow ! hahahah

RE: is SIG on it's death bed?
 

If they wont let us buy cuban cigars i dont think we can get cuban balsa.joe