What is the best building board base to use?

[GARY BLANDFORD-HULL]

Hi everyone,

I am about to commence the building of a Cambrian Models ELAN 100, which is in most respects a traditional balsa wood glider.

 

My query is what is the best material to use as a building board for the traditional type of balsa model build bearing in mind the need to insert T pins or similar to hold things in palce while the glue sets etc;

 

Be interested to hear what others use as a building board?

 

Many thanks,

 

Gary

[leccyflyer]

My preference is for Sundeala, to provide a superb surface to take a pin, securely mounted to a stable blockboard base. However Sundeal on it's own is not dimensionally stable, warps easily and is currently prohibitively expensive.

[David P Williams]

Lots of thread on here about this - but my recommendation is a sheet of plasterboard on a flat worktop.

[Outrunner]

I'm with David on this one; plasterboard. Cheap, pins push into it and it's generally flat. I often cut project size plasterboard to suit what I'm building. When it gets worn out just turn it over. My main building board a piece of worktop that has plasterboard stuck to it with parcel tape, when it's a bit holey I cut the tape and turn it over.

Oh yes and you can draw a 'plan' on the plasterboard to build directly onto. Also I've made a hinged plasterboard setup where I built a wing with the board set at the correct dihedral. I could go on.

[kc]

Plasterboard is the thing and it's cheap, available anywhere.  Buy a large sheet from B& Q, take your Stanley knife and a 4ft batten and cut into suitable size that will suit yet fit in your car.    Or look for offcut from builders.   Several small pieces are handy for wings, tailplane etc so you can let the glue dry and work on another part.

Spars can be held down to plasterboard or anything with little clips and plasterboard screws ( or modern sharp pointed screws)

 

[kc]

 

 

[Piers Bowlan]

B & Q do smaller pieces of plasterboard too apart from the 8ft x 4ft sheets. Plasterboard takes pins no problem, just make sure it is supported properly with something flat like an old door on tressels, if you don't have a large bench. Cover the board or plan with florists cellophane to stop the adhesive sticking to it.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I use thick MDF topped with cork tiles but one of my clubmates swears by a sheet of plate glass with the plan below it. I understand that rather than pins (that would be rather silly!) he uses CA to tack parts to the glass and cuts them away afterwards. Not sure if he uses scrap pieces, extended spars or tabs…or tacks direct to the actual components though. 
 

A quick scrape removes the old glue for the next build. 

[GARY BLANDFORD-HULL]

Many thanks everyone for your responses and advice.

 

Looks as though its going to be plasterboard on 18mm MDF bas for me.

 

G

[Martin McIntosh]

6mm light ply, or at least 3mm. Cheapish and easy to stick pins into.

[Wilco Wingco]

Plasterboard off cut from local builders merchant. Cheap, flat and takes pins easy. ?

[John Stainforth]

On 13/07/2021 at 16:46, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

I use thick MDF topped with cork tiles but one of my clubmates swears by a sheet of plate glass with the plan below it. I understand that rather than pins (that would be rather silly!) he uses CA to tack parts to the glass and cuts them away afterwards. Not sure if he uses scrap pieces, extended spars or tabs…or tacks direct to the actual components though. 
 

A quick scrape removes the old glue for the next build. 

This is method I use, a la Dave Platt. A picture speaks louder than words: here is one of a fuselage under construction on a plate glass worktop.

A single straight line is drawn onto the glass for the fuselage alignment. Then a keel template that conforms with the lower profile of the fuselage (cut from 1/4" balsa sheet) is glued straight onto the glass on top of the line with CA. The keel longeron of the fuselage is placed directly onto this template, to which it is attached with masking tape. The outer sleeve of the wing tube sits on small balsa crutches to ensure horizontal alignment. To maintain alignment during fitting of the tailplane and the sheeting of the top of the fuselage and fin, additional crutches are added to support the lateral longerons of the fuselage.  (This is very similar to full-size aircraft construction methods.) To answer Martin's query, these crutches are glued straight to the glass worktop with CA, but not to the longerons themselves. The whole fuselage and wing tube is then sitting very firmly on the glass worktop, correctly aligned in all planes, without any rocking whatsoever. A plumb line can be hung from the ceiling to check the vertical alignment of the fin/tailpost. When the fuselage is removed from the work top, the balsa crutches are simply knocked down and the residual CA is scraped off the glass with a modeling knife. The glass top is then cleaned with meths to remove the marker line and any remaining glue. This only takes a few seconds and leaves the glass absolutely pristine and shiny, ready for the next building operation.

 

I used to use plaster board to build model planes when I was young, but a glass top is now my much preferred method. Of course, you can't use pins with this method. As Dave Platt says, amusingly, in one of his videos: "Don't trying using pins, it's hell on the thumbs"!

[Andrew Calcutt]

Plaster board every time

[John Stainforth]

If it's plaster board every time, there's obviously no point in trying alternatives.

[Stuart Z]

On 12/07/2021 at 13:50, kc said:

Plasterboard is the thing and it's cheap, available anywhere.  Buy a large sheet from B& Q, take your Stanley knife and a 4ft batten and cut into suitable size that will suit yet fit in your car.    Or look for offcut from builders.   Several small pieces are handy for wings, tailplane etc so you can let the glue dry and work on another part.

Spars can be held down to plasterboard or anything with little clips and plasterboard screws ( or modern sharp pointed screws)

 

For me a 4x2 of 1/2 inch ply to which I glued plasterboard the same size.  Very heavy, very flat and easy to push pins into the plasterboard. Hard to beat.

S

[Steve Withnell 1]

Just about to start building after a very long lay off.   Never in a million years would plasterboard or plate glass have crossed my mind!   Power of the crowd...  Looks like I won't be going to the wood shop then 😁

Steve

[Naval]

What do you think of using 2 in. x 48 in. x 8 ft. R-7.7 EPS Rigid Foam Board Insulation?  I have some, and it seems pretty rigid, super light, and would easily take pins.  I'm planning on building a large balsa kit RC Air as a newbie.   

[kc]

Nobody has said that this would be satisfactory, so maybe it isnt rigid enough or not hard enough to support the wing spars properly.    It may not be worth taking a chance with an expensive kit - a warped wing is a disaster.   Building board must be dead flat.  Plasterboard is very cheap and works well - a piece just big enough to take a wing half is all you need.    Several smaller pieces too for tailplane etc.

 

Also if this is your first build for a long time perhaps consider a small model first to get the hang of things again.   And of course it's important to build a model which suits ones flying skill.

[Sam Longley]

I was given some plastic faced plywood (1200 * 800) which I cut into 2 halves. On one half I fitted self adhesive cork pin board material (1100 * 400* 6mm) at cost of £ 28 from amazon. The whole lot lays on a work bench which I have checked for flat & true

The other half I scribed a centre line & drilled & taped lots of 6mm holes.

I  got strips of 120 W X 3mm ply 1200 long & glued them in pairs with 6.5 * 6.5 strip of softwood along each edge.

When I did the wing I joined lots of A4 photo copies of my plans then laid them over the cork.

I then got wide laminating paper & heat shrunk it to the board over the plan. This overlapped & covered both them & the cork to make a covering to protect the lot from glue drippings & keep the plan in place.

 

Once glued I cut then into an "L" shape & the front of the L hold vertically to the fuselage. The leg takes a bolt that fastens into one of the holes

I can also use the holes & pieces to clamp sections together on the board by layng them flat & pushing them between the clamps.

This works well with flat stuff like tail pane |& fin

Edited January 19 by Sam Longley

[kc]

Have you considered fitting these insert nuts into the holes?   Better than T nuts as they don't push out.   They fit flush from the top.  Fitted with an allen key in the hexagon recess.