Looking for balsa plywood

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#1

I understand it is used in airplane interiors among other places. Need about a half sheet of 1/2" material. Anyone know if it is sold locally?

#2

Possibly HobbyTown USA, balsausa dot com and sigmfg dot com, and maybe even take a long shot at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. Here’s a link after searching: specializedbalsa dot com for custom balsa plywood and other specialized balsa applications. Might it be possible to make your own by gluing thinner sheets?

#3

A half sheet is awfully huge for a hobby store. Someone affiliated with DMS dropped off a bunch of aviation interior veneers. Perhaps his company could suggest a source. It was posted here on Talk.

#4

That was @coloneldan …

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#5

The drop off was for donated samples from Gulfstream. I don’t know about them using balsa for any purpose.

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#6

I don’t know of a local distributor, but for a search term, you may see if there are any ship building companies.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/product/product-detail/1590
I have seen it referenced as Balsa Core or as an alternative I have also seen people using urethane cores as they are not going to ROT like Balsa will if it gets wet for an extended amount of time.

#7

By half sheet, do you mean four feet by four feet or a smaller “hobby” size?

I do not recall ever seeing balsa ply in any hobby shop and I have visited many of them. They carry birch for those applications needing strength beyond sheet balsa.

I understand balsa is used to construct blade for wind turbines, so you might check into that.

#8

Thanks Bill. I was referring to 4’x4’. It is available online, but there’s that shipping thing for awkward sizes! I have gone back to my customer to propose this as an alternative. It’s to be used as a core for a carbon fiber build and these seem to be made for such.

#9

This is what I’ve seen on boat construction where it is sandwiched between layers various fibers/composites. End grain has more compressive strength than long grain and fibers in resin have the tensile longitudinal strength.

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#10

Roy’s Hobby Shop in Bedford might be able to point you in the right direction.

#11

Roys has been closed since March 7th. Redirecting...

#12

:scream::pleading_face: OMG. How did I not know about this???
Thank you for the update; geez, that’s a blow I wasn’t expecting.

#13

I should have marked this solved before now. Customer approved the material linked to above and it’s on order.