wonwinglo
SMF Supporter
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 6,754
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Barry
Ever wanted to remove areas of balsa for lightening your model ? well there are various ways of tackling this but by far the best way is the simple punch.
To make them all you need is a selection of tubing,stainless is best but softer metals will do the job even plumbers pipe,cut off the end straight across and clean up the edge dead flat,now take the tube over to your grinder and carefully bevel the outer edge,leave a bit of metal so that with a half round file you can internally clean up the edge and effectively sharpen the tool,you can do this at any time as the tool becomes blunt after a bit of use.
Set the balsa parts onto a self healing cutting board ( an old worn out one will do the trick ) and with a sharp blow strike the tool,with practise the cut will be clean depending on the density of the wood.
Always remember when lightening a structure to way up the strength against weight removed,sometimes it is just not worth the effort in terms of weight saved,tail areas can nearly always benefit from a little weight loss.
A set of balsa punches are always a useful standby for your model building kit.
Also look into leather punches with larger diameter holes for similar tasks,the only restriction is the size of the hole which tends to be a little small.
To make them all you need is a selection of tubing,stainless is best but softer metals will do the job even plumbers pipe,cut off the end straight across and clean up the edge dead flat,now take the tube over to your grinder and carefully bevel the outer edge,leave a bit of metal so that with a half round file you can internally clean up the edge and effectively sharpen the tool,you can do this at any time as the tool becomes blunt after a bit of use.
Set the balsa parts onto a self healing cutting board ( an old worn out one will do the trick ) and with a sharp blow strike the tool,with practise the cut will be clean depending on the density of the wood.
Always remember when lightening a structure to way up the strength against weight removed,sometimes it is just not worth the effort in terms of weight saved,tail areas can nearly always benefit from a little weight loss.
A set of balsa punches are always a useful standby for your model building kit.
Also look into leather punches with larger diameter holes for similar tasks,the only restriction is the size of the hole which tends to be a little small.