All,


What is the best building board material for securing pins.

...."soundboard" at the local builders supply. It's a soft fiberboard, painted white on one side.

FBD.

Agreed. Or plain old lay-in ceiling tiles.

I use ceiling tiles with a sheet of 3/32" cork laid over that. Perfect!

Dr.1

the best thing I have found over the years (40) is good ole "drywall"--aka sheetrock. It lays flat over your workbench--stays flat--can be secured with drywall screws--accepts needles and pins--cleans up easy and makes a good reminder pad to write yourself construction notes--oh did I also say its CHEAP!!!





SO MANY KITS--NOT ENOUGH GLUE!

Homosote.... Comes in 4x8 sheets. Made from recycled newspaper, used for sound deadening in walls. Should be able to find it at your local (larger) builder/lumber supplier. If you use construction adhesive and glue it onto a hollow core door, it makes about a perfect building surface. Use a 24" wide door and get TWO building boards from one sheet. You can never have too many building boards...

Good old narrow hollow core door. apply layer of ceiling tile - smooth side up- to one side of the door, for pinning balsa to. apply layer of paper to other side and use it for drawing plans on. it's light and can lifted and stored real easy. dick

All,

Thanks for the great replies. I'm glad to see there are a couple options that sound rellatively inexpensive. I will definatly have a new board for my next build.

Eddym

Another one for drywall / sheet rock / gyp rock wall board...

The bad thing about drywall is it will dull the point on your pins and after the first use it is hard to push them in. I use the balsa building boards.

Dry will also take the chrome finish off T-pins making it harder to push through wood. However, T-pins are cheap.

Sheetrock and plenty of of t-pins. I also have a sewer's "thimble" on hand to protect the finger and drive the stubborn or dull t-pins through the wood, wax paper and plans into the sheetrock.

Great Planes makes a nice little T pin tool for T-pins when they get dull. I use drywall and don't buy new T pins until I have bent or loss enough that I run out in the middle of building.

AHH. the joy of blue foam scratch building.

I use 1/2 inch of cork glued to 5/8" masonite. Holds pins nice and tight.

You can build without pins if you spread out waxed paper tight and lightly mist it with 3M-77.

Hey digital_trucker, where is the best place to find 1/2" cork? None of the home centers carry it anymore around here. I found some thin stuff (3/32) at a craft store but thats about it.

Question for you drywall fans - doen't it crumble over time so you can't get the pin exactly where you want? Or do you just move the plans around to get clean areas?

I have been using the same piece for three years. I did tape the cut edges to prevent them from crumbling. When not in use it spends it time standing on edge in the garage. I did cover it with wax paper on the business side so the plans don't stick if a little CA blleds thru the top layer and into the plans.

I actually use 2 layers of 1/4 inch cork. I googled around and found a school supplies outfit that sells it by the roll.

Thank you! I'll start checking school suppy companies.

I just picked up an accoustic ceiling tile 2' x 4' at the local big box building store for about 2.50 and that has worked well. It is very easy to push the pins into and the back is very level and smooth.

Hi, I have heard about using dwsheet rock for a building board from several post and every thing about it sounds great, but I have a question about it holding pins, if you push a pin in, especially one of the larger ones and it gets bumped or other wise disturbed then the hole gets a little larger so you have got to push the pin in a little deeper. Now I,know this is nit picking and there is a lot of surface area but I like for the pin holes to kind of go away or at least shrink a little bit and not get larger every time they might get used again.

I very well could be missing something or making something out of nothing ,I have mastered both.

Thanks, Glenn.

see next post.
Don't look at this picture.
You looked, didn't you?

I taped 8 pieces of accoustic ceiling tile 2' x 4' to a hollow door (using packaging tape) over 12 years ago. I stacked them 2 deep.
The edges are starting to show some wear now but no matter where I stick a pin, it holds. It has some nicks and dings in it but that can be expected over a 12 year period.
I bet I could take the tiles off the door and flip them over and get another 12 years out of it.
I build a lot. I have a couple of dozen in the hanger. I like kits and scratch builds. I do have two arfs and I have found out that they are really a lot cheaper than building a kit. BUT, the kit is entirely MY build and any changes I make are for my gratification.
It's nice to have a lot of planes but I sometimes wonder if I will ever fly them all.
It's good to hear that someone else is getting ready for a build. Attached are a couple of photos of my building board.
Resting on a table, it can be spun around like a Lazy Susan for ease of working both sides from the same spot thus keeping your tools handy.
Good luck with all your builds,
Ron