Great tool and simple too, I had an old pasta roller that was good for shaping soft wood. I used to soak the wood in watered down pva glue before rolling, and lay it on greaseproof paper to fully dry.
Cheers Colin.
Great tool and simple too, I had an old pasta roller that was good for shaping soft wood. I used to soak the wood in watered down pva glue before rolling, and lay it on greaseproof paper to fully dry.
Cheers Colin.
some of the irregularities in the finished section will come from the differences in the structure of the the balsa with the grain being harder in places as you progress along the piece of wood, so this has to be be expected, and sanded where necessary to achieve final profile.
As I said a good tip
MT
some of the irregularities in the finished section will come from the differences in the structure of the the balsa with the grain being harder in places as you progress along the piece of wood, so this has to be be expected, and sanded where necessary to achieve final profile.
As I said a good tip
MT
Hi MT, this was just a quick 'prototype' but as I was doing it I thought it might have been slightly better to have tapered the groove (slightly wider at the leading edge) to draw in the balsa, as it just caught the edges and flattened them minutely in a few places. Wasn't perfect but worked reasonably well, and once undercoated and painted will look better. We used to be able to buy very fine American mouldings (1/4 rounds 'D' moulds etc) from the LHS but unfortunately no longer.
John B
Hi MT, this was just a quick 'prototype' but as I was doing it I thought it might have been slightly better to have tapered the groove (slightly wider at the leading edge) to draw in the balsa, as it just caught the edges and flattened them minutely in a few places. Wasn't perfect but worked reasonably well, and once undercoated and painted will look better. We used to be able to buy very fine American mouldings (1/4 rounds 'D' moulds etc) from the LHS but unfortunately no longer.
John B
I was trying to think of how I was going to shape 2mm wide x 1mm thick balsa strips into 'D' mouldings for my ST wheelhouse side reinforcements, without sanding and probably breaking them. I came up with this simple method which can be done on or off the model. I had already glued the strips on but it still worked well like that. I used a piece of ply scrap to make a simple tool with the required shape filed into it at about 45 deg, and the end radiused to run on the board/model. There is only enough shape to make the moulding, with the radius touching the board as support (and a sort of stop) see drawing.
The photos show the tool (top R) and the top moulding done (bit hard to see but you can see the square side has gone) All you do is rub the tool along the moulding to shape it, and it can be coated with thin cyno to stop it returning slightly to original shape.
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I was trying to think of how I was going to shape 2mm wide x 1mm thick balsa strips into 'D' mouldings for my ST wheelhouse side reinforcements, without sanding and probably breaking them. I came up with this simple method which can be done on or off the model. I had already glued the strips on but it still worked well like that. I used a piece of ply scrap to make a simple tool with the required shape filed into it at about 45 deg, and the end radiused to run on the board/model. There is only enough shape to make the moulding, with the radius touching the board as support (and a sort of stop) see drawing.
The photos show the tool (top R) and the top moulding done (bit hard to see but you can see the square side has gone) All you do is rub the tool along the moulding to shape it, and it can be coated with thin cyno to stop it returning slightly to original shape.
