I’m here from breaktime and figured this would be the place to ask. I’m a kitchen/bath installer, but I have a passion for surfing. I’m pretty good with wood working and am interested in building a balsa surf board. Nothing fancy, and not to sell of, just for personal use and just to see if I can do it. I’ve shaped and glassed foam boards before, but want to try this out. If anyone knows of a source for large balsa stock, preferable ten foot long lengths, I’d appreciate some help with this. I’ve searched everywhere. Nothing that I could find on the net, hobby shops can’t get it that large, and lumber yards laugh at me. Someone has this stuff because people are making these boards. I just cant find it.
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Replies
I am certainly no surfing dude, but I thought that the core of a surfboard was made of Styrofoam core with a fiberglass exterior 'skin'.
As a old radio control airplane pilot, three sources that have balsa are Sig Manufactoring, Midwest products and Balsa USA, don't know if they have it in the size you would need for a surfboard, but they may know where to find such an item if they don't carry it..
Edited 8/12/2008 6:24 pm ET by BOBABEUI
About 85% of all surfboards are constructed as you are familiar with. Newer boards are foam core with an epoxy coating, but traditionally, boards were constructed from balsa because of it's strength to weight. Foam/glass boards are cheap and easy and I'm comfortable shaping them. I'm also pretty comfortable working wood with both hand and power tools. So naturally the next step for me is shaping a wooden board. I'm also considering other wood like cedar and just chambering it, but I think it would be too weak with the amount of material you need to remove to make it a practical weight to carry to the water.
After spending 15 years building 1/4 and 1/3 scale R/C aircraft, I am pretty familiar with balsa's strength to weight ratio. It's amazing how strong a balsa skinned (with 1/16" Balsa sheeting) foam core wing was..Ever consider Spruce?
hadn't considered it. Is the strength to weight similar to balsa? I could probably chamber the spruce to shave some weight.
If you can get the search function to work at Breaktime (good luck with that!), there was a thread a few months ago started by someone who made a hollow wooden board.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
PS: I just tried the search but came up short. If you post over there and ask for a link, you'll likely get a reply from someone who saved it.
I just searched it and came up empty.
There was a thread in the Knots gallery recently with a beautiful wood board. You can see it at 41964.1
................................................
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
Edited 8/13/2008 7:35 pm by dgreen
"There was a thread in the Knots gallery recently with a beautiful wood board."
That's the one I thought I had seen in Breaktime.
I'm old and easily cornfused. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Have you tried balsacentral.com ? They ship internationally and advertise surfboard supplies.
Jim
I have not tried them, but I will look into it tonight. The problem I'm having is that alot of companies only sell "kits". I could buy a board for as much as some of the kits, and I'd like to try a few things on my own like custom stringers and nose and tail pieces rather that be tied to their design. I'm going to check them out, and keep searching on my own.
I'm not saying it's impossible (that's dangerous when it comes to lumber - somebody, somewhere will always have a piece that proves to be an exception), but balsa trees don't generally get very large before they're harvested. That's fairly typical of tropical trees that grow extremely fast and are lightweight. Sort of a different take on the "live fast, die young" thing.
But, if you can find it, Paulonia would be a good substitute. It's very lightweight, very strong, and can be found in bigger pieces.
I'm sure that you are correct about harvesting balsa, however These board do exist, and can be purchased so I know it exists. The problem I'm having is that any balsa I can find is packaged as a kit which severely limits what I can do with it, and is in some cases as expensive as the boards them selves. I'll keep searching and I appreciate everyone's suggestions.
dk,
Didn't Heyerdahl build his raft Kon-Tiki out of big balsa logs? 'Course, that was back in the days when men were men, and logs were logs.
Ray
Indeed. Course, that was during a time period when you could get 15" wide Brazilian rosewood boards at your local wood yard. I'm not saying that balsa doesn't get large, just that it's usually cut long before it gets that way.
However, I did find this company on the web - They have balsa as large as 5" x 5" X 10' long, which ought to be enough to laminate up a surfboard (and I'd think a laminated construction would be necessary for a surfboard - a solid chunk would move too much):
http://www.specializedbalsa.com/products/index.php
Perfect. Thats exactly what I was looking for. I appreciate everyone's help. I'll be sure to post pics of the process and final product.
Hi
Balsa is great for boards, but Paulownia is better IMHO. If you are keen on building a board (and I hope you are) go to this site http://www.grainsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=349&sid=e78d04bb4bd52ae1afdf7c33a1497c43 and make a donation to Rich Blundells tree planting program and he will send you a PDF template of a board of your choice. The forum will take care of the construction details. I have been surfing mine for a while now, trust me you won't be able to wipe the smile of your face.
You will see me as kiwijohn look forward to talking on the forum soon.
I checked out Grain and tree to sea and I love their boards, but I'm not going to attempt a hollow board on this one. I do have experience in shaping, and I'm pretty proficient in Auto Cad, and I own several large format plotters. If the basla board comes out well, I'll try out a hollow board next. Also, I think that the Paulownia would be even more difficult to find, however I have never tried to actually find it.
I think Most guys shaping balsa boards buy balsa blanks, get the plain shape they want and then rip/chamber and re-joint them, and that's a fair enough method the down side is weight(which may not be a factor in a long board) and the fact you could build 2-3 hollow boards from the amount of timber it takes to make 1 solid. the hollows are a lot easier to make then they look.
There are guys in the states making boards from Paulownia.
I don't know if you have checked it out but you can easily shape your own hollow board in AKU shaper and use the free software available on t2s to produce the fishbone from your plain shape.
Good luck and i look forward to seeing your progress.
I don't know if they still carry it, but the last time I was in Cut and Dried Hardwood in Solana Beach, California, they had lots... 12/4 and 16/4 stuff...
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