Getting ready to start on my first model in ten years. What would you all recommend for a bulding board? At one time I thought a cheap hollow door would be a good building surface but after looking at a few it doesn't look like they are very straight. What else would be straight and easy to poke pins into?? Anyone??

Try Drywall.
Make sure you cut off few inches from the edge as it tapers slightly.
George

i use a ceiling tile yo uknow one of the soft ones u see around they are straight and they work great

Get a large sheet of 3/8 glass. It heavy......but perfectly flat. I use that and a GP magnetic building board. No pins.

Bob

I covered my workbench top with ceiling tiles, flipped face-down.
I also covered the front edge of the benchtop tiles with packing tape to keep them from crumbling when I leaned or rubbed against them.

I use a solid balsa building board (1" thick) which I purchased several years ago from Hobby Lobby. I think they are still available.

I just use a straight smooth sanded 3/4" x 2' x 8' wooden board and have applied on one side 1/8" thick cork. That let's me flip it around as needed. Straight hard surface on one side and soft straight surface for pins on the other.
You can order cork from www.craftsetc.com
Just my $0.02

You can get a nice strong, straight door for about
$20. Frame it up, to make a bench, amd support it
in the middle also.

Then get a sheet of this "sound-board", at Home
depot. You've seen it....it's a real soft fiber board
painted white on one side. It's a 4X8 sheet, and
costs about $15. You can get 3 or 4 "pin-boards"
out of it, depending on how you cut them.

It's the only type building board I've ever used.

Dave.

Best building board money can by is a piece of drywall. 3/8thickness 4x8' sheet $5.25

Texas3d,

How is the CG Extreme 330 flying. Did replacing the aileron servos fix the problem?

My building board is a hollow core door covered with a an old glass shower door. The shower door is safety glass and has a metal border. This is great for either building or providing a good surface to cut covering material. When I build I usually use a piece of the acoustic ceiling tile on top of the glass.

The best thing I have found to build on is a piece of cork board. If you go to any building supply or office supply store you can buy them in different sizes. I have been using the same one for the last ten years. It was a three by five board but can easily be cut to size with a skill saw. After its used for a while you can just flip it over.

Mitchell

FIND an old wooden "teachers desk"...man this thing works great ! Take some 1x2's and band the outside of it, projecting 5/8" above the top, cut your ceiling tiles to lay INSIDE of the 1x2's. Use the tiles when building and remove them when you are merely working on your plane; keeps the model from rolling of of the desk ! the drawers come in nice for your building tools also.

I have part of a crate that some equipment came in where I work that I hope to use, 4x8 ft sheet with 3 layers of 3/4 ply. So what is that a little over 2 inchs thick? Bit overkill but it was going in the dumpster anyway...

Got some good ideas here tho for the top layer

All good ideas...

I use a 2" slab of laminated particle board covered in laminate with smooth surfaced acoustical tiles spray glued to the top. When I'm not framing I cover it with a piece of masonite.

A hollow core door makes an ok workbench but beware because they are built on cardboard frames and are not alwasy flat(hang quite a few of these, experience tells all). Just make sure that what ever you use to push pins into that it is mounted to a stable warp free and warp resistant surface.

Dave Platt AKA Mr. scale uses 1/2 sheet of glass for building board. He believes that you glass top always stay flat, no chemicals or moisture harm it and cleans easy with single edge razor blade and a wipe. You can draw lines on it He uses a tack of CA instead of pins or lead weights for holding things down.
I bought a 2.5x6 feet 1/4 inch glass for $80 (could not afford 1/2) and gave a try and got to tell you I love it, no more warped wings for this guy . Last week I was at city dump and in the aluminum section of recycles they had these beautiful panel doors and windows with 1/2 inch tempered glass intact. You can guess the rest, well a good first place to look.

I have limited space available to me, so I build on the Kitchen table. (Boy, the wife loves that!) I went to Home Depot and bought a sheet of the foam insulation you would use under sheet rock but over a block wall, as in a basement. It costs about $6.00 for a 1" x 24' x 96". It holds pins like concrete and is perfectly flat. It is not affected by temperature or humidity so it will never warp. If I have to stop in the middle of a process, I can just pick the whole thing up, say with a partially constructed wing panel pinned in place, and just lean it against a convenient wall. If you want to get extravagant, buy the 1 1/2" thick stuff for about $8.50 a sheet. I cut mine in half, but you could use the full length sheet and have room for 16' ( 8' per panel) wings and it comes with pre-formed tongue and groove edges so you can make your board wider very easily.

I like cheap!