Lightest fuselage possible?

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For competition rockets I have seen people use very thin vinyl sheet. At least I think it was vinyl. Of course, you only get one or two flights out of the rocket, if that many.
 
What size of airframe?

The lightest I've seen are Frank Burke's foam skinned rockets, but that kind of construction only scales down so far.

Our upscale Dragonfly has a 12.75" CF airframe that weighs just under one pound per foot. For the weight it would be hard to imagine a stronger tube.

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For any given fuselage length which would be lighter, homemade balsa ply or carbon fiber tubing?

You are asking about a fuselage stick for a glider?

1) Why are you comparing balsa to CF tube instead of CF plate?

2) What are you proposing to use to adhere the laminated balsa plies?

3) Are you going to laminate anything between the balsa plies?

4) What weave and thickness of CF?

5) What are the requirements of your design? Why kind of failure are you trying to prevent?
 
For any given fuselage length which would be lighter, homemade balsa ply or carbon fiber tubing?

Custom carbon tubes are by far the lightest. Next closest would be a tossup between a tapered cf tube sanded down and a piece of really light balsa clad with thin cf laminate. Bear in mind that this is a comparison of "strong enough with no extra" to "strong enough with no extra". Most of the rocket gliders out there are quite overbuilt and therefore the comparisons aren't so go. A well chosen pultruded carbon tube is frankly the best option for most of what we're doing.
 
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