Fear of Balsa...

Before Odo out's me,

I'll confess, I've had a long time fear of balsa... Balsa nosecones that is. I want something to look like:

View attachment 146288

But a lingering fear that due to my skills with balsa, I'd end up with...

View attachment 146289

Actually, even my worst attempt wasn't that bad (barely).

However, I've spent hours using aerogloss and sand paper to try to get nose cones looking awesome, only to find out later that I sanded a flat spot into it. Besides my LHS is almost an hour away by bicycle, and nearly 2 by bus depending on time of day. I've been making 1-2 trips per week lately. Aerogloss has been out of stock for some time now, and when it's in, I'm broke. I needed another solution.

Thanks to the responses to my cry for help, I'm now over my fear of balsa. I'm using thin CA to seal and protect the balsa. I only wish I had tried it earlier.

So that said, the nose of my Phantom version of the Cherokee D (Upscale) [EDIT] Clearokee D [/EDIT] is here for your viewing pleasure (again).


(nose cone is RO Sunrise Red directly over the sanded CA).

It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it (dents from handling the raw balsa while I took my time building confidence), and have made tremendous progress on 4 other builds... I see spray paint in my near future. Now if I can only conquer my fear of decals...

Pointy Side Up!
Jim.

Yay!

Congrats. I've loved the CA-seal-and-harden technique for a while now. Your "Cheroclear D" looks beautiful, by the way!

Marc_G said:

Congrats. I've loved the CA-seal-and-harden technique for a while now. Your "Cheroclear D" looks beautiful, by the way!

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Thanks!

However, it's a Clearokee D...

Nice work! The more you do the better you become at it. The thin CA is a great method for finishing balsa. Can be messy, but take your time. In fact eating can be messy, but we have to do it.

I've heard of rockets that'll disappear on a D engine, but yours looks like it'll disappear on an empty motor mount!

AfterBurners said:

Nice work! The more you do the better you become at it. The thin CA is a great method for finishing balsa. Can be messy, but take your time. In fact eating can be messy, but we have to do it.

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I learned thin CA can be messy a while ago... I have the scars to prove it.

As I was using it to protect the edges of some papered fins, two drops went unheeded on my bare belly... Unheeded until they started to cure. It felt like a bee sting, and yielded a 2nd degree burn. (Glad I was wearing pants... Ouch!)

Pointy Side Up!
Jim
.

That ls a sweet rocket! It has to be one of the best "clear" rockets I've ever seen. I especially like the fins! Now, a clear Fat Boy...

sooner.boomer said:

That ls a sweet rocket! It has to be one of the best "clear" rockets I've ever seen. I especially like the fins! Now, a clear Fat Boy...

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There's assembly instructions on my Wrong Brand of Clear Paint thread...

For the Fat Boy, you'd probably need to find a (I'm guessing here) BT-80 in clear... Something is made in that diameter, but I can't find a source of single lengths of it for purchase.

Clear tubing gets expensive very fast as you go up in dia.
At least with regards to tubing that won’t flex simply by picking it up.

For those who are looking for a photographic tutorial on dealing with balsa, I created the Photographic Tutorial: Making Balsa Nosecones Look Like Plastic... thread.