Balsa shortage

[thunderstreak.keith]

Hi guys/gals, just been looking all over for decent wood sheet. balsa cabin state theres a shortage and looking for new supplier. apperently the chinese are buying it all to make wind turbine blades. also slec are only supplying hard sheets. b/cabin reckons prices will be up 150%!!!!!. will that mean A/ all kit mfctr will increase their prices by 150% orB/ produce kits with hard balsa as in the old days? as far as i have seen all wind turbine blades are polyester laminates/kevlar and mainly metal. what is going on? next delivery to slec(after speaking to them ) wont be until february. your thoughts people

keith

[Alan Gorham_]

Maybe there might be another thread on this already started months ago?

**LINK**

[thunderstreak.keith]

sorry all didnt look my apologies, but the main point was about what wind turbine blades are made of. balsa core?

[Nigel R]

Yes, balsa core... currently.

Point to note, Ecuador shut down due to Covid, which would seem to be a temporary state of affairs, or like other countries may well be in and out of restrictions for the near future.

Edited By Nigel R on 18/11/2020 17:01:19

[ken anderson.]

off topic....slightly. We have been waiting since march for a Hotpoint freezer to become available to order..nothing, they are made in Poland and Spain....down to CV also.

ken anderson...ne..1...freezer dept.

[Nigel R]

ken, why Hotpoint?

[ken anderson.]

hello Nigel, we want the same as what we have now...same model, we've had it for 20 years and it is suffering from old age....didn't realise that Hotpoint is now owned by Whirlpool(American)...we had a look a few different brands/models...we took a shine to a Bosch one...then found out that they are now owned and made by Beko(nothing wrong with Beko mind)...our washer is made by them and is a goodin…...Sorry everyone for going way off topic.

ken anderson...ne..1..off topic dept.

[Nigel R]

Hi ken. I believe bosch are still owned by bosch group. Not beko.

We have some bosch kit, washer, tumbler and dishwasher. Would buy again.

also have several beko units, oven and fridge freezer, not sure i would buy those again!

[Cuban8]

Do a YouTube search for wind turbine blades and you'll find that they're made from a hollow composite structure - the ones I've seen are huge and have nothing to do with balsa. One example here.

Something not ringing true about the balsa shortage?

Edited By Cuban8 on 19/11/2020 09:16:34

[Ace]

Even the Yanks use Balsa to make Turbine Blades

[Nigel R]

 

see @40 seconds, a big carpet of balsa flies into the composite shell.

Edited By Nigel R on 19/11/2020 10:34:25

[Brian Sweeting 1]

Nigel, thanks for that video.

I think that the definition of "core" was not quite what I was thinking.

[Denis Watkins]

The Vintagemodelcompany

**LINK**

Get this 10 sheet bundle of 1/16" balsa for just £4 - you never know when it might come in useful!

[Piers Bowlan]

STOP PRESS:- Sarik Hobbies email said that they had Balsa Sheet and Strip back in stock .

[kc]

Sarik website certainly seems to show it's available - a 1/16 by 4 sheet costs £2.40 while that size used to be £ 1.33 at Balsa Cabin and it's £1.40 at SLEC but in stock only in hard.

[Phil McCavity]

Posted by kc on 02/02/2021 18:52:05:

Sarik website certainly seems to show it's available - a 1/16 by 4 sheet costs £2.40 while that size used to be £ 1.33 at Balsa Cabin and it's £1.40 at SLEC but in stock only in hard.

Looks like an 81% increase based on that?

[kc]

The average D box wing uses 4 sheets of 3 inch 1/16th just for the D box. so that's about £3 per wing extra for that part alone.

See my thread about D box construction and perhaps comment.

[Matt Carlton]

Conversely, we pay a fraction of what we used to for our radio gear, motors, batteries etc. Yes, some things are going to be more expensive in future, but that's how it is. Maybe we just have to be a bit more careful about what we use and waste. Maybe build less models in a year, but appreciate still being able to build at all.

[Robin Colbourne]

Posted by Matt Carlton on 02/02/2021 20:18:57:

Conversely, we pay a fraction of what we used to for our radio gear, motors, batteries etc. Yes, some things are going to be more expensive in future, but that's how it is. Maybe we just have to be a bit more careful about what we use and waste. Maybe build less models in a year, but appreciate still being able to build at all.

With all that money that hasn't been spent in pubs, restaurants, cinemas and everywhere else we're banned from, not to mention all the entertaining that we didn't do over Christmas, there should be a bit left for some Ecuador (or Papua New Guinea) gold.

[kevin b]

Has anyone costed out what percentage for the cost of building a model is taken by the balsa used ?

I would say at a rough guess it is probably less than 20%, maybe even 15%. It will be interesting to see what effect it has on kit prices when supplies return to "normal".

[Matt Carlton]

As a rough idea, the last model I built cost about £40 in balsa. The ply, UC wire, wheels, control linkages, hinges, engine mounts, glue, covering and everything else was probably another £50-£60 all in all. Then about £130 worth for radio gear, motor etc. I reckon £250 altogether if I'd had to buy everything from new.

So 16% roughly.

So even if I doubled the price of the balsa, that's only an overall increase of 16% for the whole model.

Multiply that by the 3 models I might build in a year takes my building expenses from £750 to £870.

Put another way, the price of balsa doubling would cost me about 32p a day.

[kevin b]

That's the way I looked at it Matt.

Also SLEC said that prices could go up about 40%, so that would reduce your increase by more than half.

To go off topic slightly. Many years ago we bought balsa and it was "saw cut". these days it all seems to be a sanded finish. Isn't this wasteful of wood ? After all most of us sand the model before we cover it anyway. Not only that but it is an extra process that involves cost and produces sawdust that has to be disposed of (unless they sell it on to the local pet shop). I found some really old Solarbo wood in my collection a while ago, which certainly wasn't sanded and was fine.

[Nigel R]

Agree with the 20% estimate.

[Frank Skilbeck]

Posted by kevin b on 02/02/2021 23:23:47:

To go off topic slightly. Many years ago we bought balsa and it was "saw cut". these days it all seems to be a sanded finish. Isn't this wasteful of wood ? After all most of us sand the model before we cover it anyway. Not only that but it is an extra process that involves cost and produces sawdust that has to be disposed of (unless they sell it on to the local pet shop). I found some really old Solarbo wood in my collection a while ago, which certainly wasn't sanded and was fine.

Or it could be down to improvements in the cutting technology. You only have to look at laser cut kits compared to the old die crush kits to see how technology moves on.

[Nigel R]

Typed a long post and lost it earlier.

Last model, £25 of £250 was balsa - 17%

The one before, £70 of £450 was balsa - 17%

Before that, £50 of £250 was balsa - 20%

So as Matt says, even if balsa was double the cost it isn't a deal breaker... at least for me as a scratchbuilder. Kit producers will have different sums and priorities.