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?
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?
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.
That was @coloneldan …
The drop off was for donated samples from Gulfstream. I don’t know about them using balsa for any purpose.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Roy’s Hobby Shop in Bedford might be able to point you in the right direction.
Roys has been closed since March 7th. Redirecting...
OMG. How did I not know about this???
Thank you for the update; geez, that’s a blow I wasn’t expecting.
I should have marked this solved before now. Customer approved the material linked to above and it’s on order.