Alex Gibbs Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 hi guys, recieved my april issue this morning :P i really like the biplane inclluded in there thing is... ive looked at the parts and some of it i cant find anywhere on the net for instance, one of the parts is a 20x 4mm Trailing Edge. the closest i can find to that is 5x19mm another one is a 10x3mm balsa strip, and noone supplies 10mm wide strips its either 9mm or 12mm there are alot of these instances i have found, so my question is... should i buy parts just a little oversize and cut them down to size? (with great difficulty haha :P) or should i go for just under and keep with that and be a little off with the plan? im a first time plan builder, ive built a kit before but not from a plan and my school has a laser cutter so im going to try cut parts out on there :P any help/tips will be a treat :D thanks guys :D Gibbo Edited By Alex Gibbs on 05/03/2012 23:16:10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daithi O Buitigh Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 All you can do really is round the measurements to Imperial (working that .8 mm is 1/32" so if you go on the basis that 1/32 is 1 mm, 1/16 is1.5 mm and so on, you shouldn't be that far out 3 mm would be equivalent to 1/8, 4 mm should be close to 3/16" (you can always sand it down a bit if needed) Edited By Daithi O Buitigh on 05/03/2012 23:31:24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Gibbs Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 ahh i see, just spotted something... are balsa strippers any good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daithi O Buitigh Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Mileage varies really - I've one that's pretty hopeless and another that is reasonably good (but you have to set it up with a piece of wood of the correct thickness to get it accurate. There are expensive ones that actually have a scale on them. However - that's fine for stripwood - but not much use for sheet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Gibbs Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 ohh right, i think ill purchase one and just a tad bigger balsa parts and attempt to make them the right size :D thanks daithi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly P Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Alex - A laser cutter at a school! You lucky begger! Well spotted on the sizes though. A lovely looking bipe, but my list is already too long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Gibbs Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 yeah i know haha :P wheres the best place to buy balsa sheets and strips for thicknesses of 1 1.5 2 3 5 mm sheets from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly P Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 I have always found SLEC to be a good price and very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daithi O Buitigh Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Here's a quick reference chart (I'd use the closest approximation for building) 1/64” 0.4mm 1/32” 0.8mm 1/16” 1.5mm 3/32” 2.5mm 1/8” 3.0mm 3/16” 5.0mm ¼” 6.5mm 3/8” 9.0mm ½” 12.5mm ¾” 19mm 1” 25mm 3" 75mm 12” 300mm 24” 610mm 36” 915mm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly boy3 Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Hi Alex, when building from a plan, sometimes you will not get the exact size you require, then a few ,changes may be required. Re L/E you may have to buy a slighly larger thickness and sand down to size. Believe me it is not difficult to cut to size, we all have done this when building from plans. Don't forget its only a bit of balsa after all. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daithi O Buitigh Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Balsa sizes are nominal anyway - but even if they were 100% accurate, 0.5 mm isn't a lot to shave off (in fact you'd probably take that much off with one skim of sandpaper) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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