| Title: | Welcome To The Radio Control Conference |
| Notice: | dir's in 11, who's who in 4, sales in 6, auctions 19 |
| Moderator: | VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS |
| Created: | Tue Jan 13 1987 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1706 |
| Total number of notes: | 27193 |
I went thru the tool section and could not find information on the
following subject:
What I'm looking for is what kind of machinery does the balsa industry
uses to transform balsa from the lumber form to a 4"x1/16"x4' piece.
I know that with a band saw you can cut the lumber in square pieces,
but what is the downpat from there. Does any one knows the process used
to go from :lumber to sheet of various size
or
lumber to special shapes (ex:leading edge shape)
Does anyone knows company (name,addess,phone,fax) that sell this type
of machinery. I have contacted a few woodworking companies a month
ago but so far nothing has turn out.
The intention of all this is to get lumber from the source and
transforming it into marketable balsa shapes.
We looked at using a planer to get the balsa to the thickness but
because of the sizes we want to attain and the softness of the wood the
blades would tear the balsa into pieces.
We also wondered if the planer could be modified to change the blades
to a sanding drum and the steel pressure roller into rubber pressure
rollers. We are not quite sure if it would work and/or what RPM should the
sanding drum turn to in order to get optimum surface quality.
Unfortunately, we have no company around here who transform balsa, so I
can ask for a tour of a facility in order to take notes.
Jacques
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1361.1 | process the entire block in one pass | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Thu Sep 19 1991 14:05 | 15 |
Check the noted::woodworking_and_tools notesfile for machinery. One thing
to look into would be a thickness sander (as a replacement for the
planer). The cutting into sheets is done by a gang saw which looks like
a bread slicer and cuts all the sheets in a given block in a single
pass. This is like a series of scroll saws with the blades separated
by the desired sheet thickness. The block height determines the sheet
width. A thickness sander would then be used to "dress" the sheets and
there would probably be a step to cut the sheets to exact size
(although Lone Star ships sheets longer than specified with ragged
ends). Blade thickness is kept to a minimum to reduce waste due to the
saw kerf. This is also why 1/32" and 1/16" wood is similarly priced
since the actual wood removed equalizes the overall cost.
Lone Star might be able to provide some of the information you're
looking for. They're listed in one of the manufacturer/supplier notes
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| 1361.2 | How are you going to dry it? | TLE::SASAKI | Marty Sasaki ZK02-3N30 381-0151 | Thu Sep 19 1991 14:48 | 9 |
One of the critical pieces of equipment is a way to dry the wood. If my
memory is correct balsa has a lot of water in it when it is green.
Drying without warping, checking, or cracking is probably tricky.
Some balsa is cut using a knife, or a very sharp plane blade. Some
indoor guys insist that balsa that is sanded isn't as strong as balsa
that has been cut with a knife or saw.
Marty Sasaki
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| 1361.3 | Here's How Its Done | PEE47::COX | So Speedy, how do we get zeez brains? | Mon Sep 23 1991 16:01 | 41 |
I had the opportunity to visit Superior Aircraft Materials (SAM) in
California recently. This company was founded by Sal Taibi and is
currently run by his son Mike. Their quality is in my estimation the
best in the industry! While I was there I had some special sizes of
balsa and spruce cut. Here's the basic process:
They buy balsa from a supplier in random sizes, mostly large rough sawn
timbers up to 10"x10"x6', and smaller sizes, most of it is cured but
they continue to age the wood in their shop.
The rough blanks are cut to several stock sizes using a large band saw.
Care is taken to make sure one side is true, this is done on a joiner
table. The stock sizes are then stored (for further drying) then cut
into sticks and planks to maintain inventory. The stick cutting is done on
gang saws but SAM has built custom ones using very thin radial saw
blades, probably 6" in diameter. An example - to produce 1/4" sticks,
a stock plank is sanded to 1/4" thickness, then run through the gang
saw to produce 6 sticks at once. There are gang saws for standard
widths - 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, etc.
Planks are simply ripped from stock blanks using a large band saw, then
finish sanded to the final thickness. Custom shapes are cut on sa
shaper table with a router-like bit.
A very important note - during the process the balsa is continually
graded for weight, knots, twists, cracks, etc. I would say that less
than 50% actually makes it into mail orders from customers like myself.
The rest is either sold in bulk to kit manufacturers (the good ones
come to the SAM factory and hand pick their own for their kits, mostly
sailplane and small kit manufacturers), or sold as grab bags at hobby
shows or discarded.
Surprisingly, this work is all done in a relatively small facility of
about 50'x50' with a joiner, band saw, sander, shaper and a custom
built gang saw table that was designed and built by Sal Taibi about 30
years ago! Half the space is for balsa storage and order fulfillment.
Hope this takes some of the mystery out of the process, I spent an
entire afternoon with them, even helped fill some orders!
Scott Cox
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