a good balsa wood striper

[woundedbear]

Can anybody recommend a good balsa wood stripper," no stripper jokes please ", I'm talking about a balsa wood stripper that can be adjusted to make fine balsa strip stock. I'm going to be building my first box frame fuselage model kit soon and will need some odd size strip stock and want to cut it myself from balsa wood sheet that I already have. It doesn't have to be the sort of thing, " Howard Hughes would have" But I do want a good one .I saw one of some youtube video, there was a guy," with an English accent" who was cutting one side at the time then flipping the piece over and making the rest of the cut. That looked like a good one but I can't remember what brand it was or even if it can be bought here in the states. Anybody who has had experiences with these tools please let me know what you've used and what works best. And thank you for your replies, your experiences with the tools that make working with the expensive wood that we all know makes the best model planes, like the old Guillows sales slogan, "says Balsa Flyes Better"

[Steve Blanchard]

Master Air Screw balsa strippers are available all over the place. They are simple, cheap, and work well with the right balsa. It uses Exacto #11 blades as well.

The Jim Jones style stripper now being sold online at A2Z is another very good, but expensive, stripper. This is definitely the better of the two ( I have them both and use them both) but you will need to buy extra blades from A2Z as they are a special shape to fit the stripper.

Now, as far as my comment about the right balsa. The best balsa to strip needs to have a straight grain. This is most evident with the Master Air Screw stripper. Because the cutting blade is attached only at one point the tip is free to wander with the grain of the balsa. The Jim Jones has two attachment points which makes it more stable but can still wander if you are cutting hard balsa.

I hope this helps.

Steve

[pedwards2932]

I take my Master Air Screw stripper and clamp it to a piece of plywood. I also take a exacto knife and make a slot on the plywood that the Air Stripper blade can be inserted into. This makes it so the blade won't wander. I also clamp a piece of plywood as a fence to hold the balsa against the side of the stripper and this seems to get me the most consistent strips without the wandering.

[David Lewis]

I've never found a balsa stripper that worked well so I just use a single edge razor blade and a metal straight edge. It takes practice to get good at it but you end up with a better job. The strips will not be exactly the same size but plenty close enough.

[davidchoate]

Master airscrew balsa stripper. I cut a lot of my own stringers now that the LHS closed.

[Bargle]

I built my own based on other people's ideas. Here's a link to a thread about strippers over at Stick & Tissue with some pictures.

http://www.stickandtissue.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1395856527/17

[NcGunny]

No such animal as a good one Wounded...just some are better than others. Master Airscrew is the cheapest and hardest to keep consistent. Best bet is to use 2 passes with it instead of one. I make a almost clean cut with 1/8 balsa..then use a Xacto to just barely finish the cut. But for overall speed..I use a straight edge and blade. It all depends on how much you want to spend on a stripper.--- LOL!! Lap dances aint cheap!!

[woundedbear]

Well, guys, thanks for your suggestions. I found my old copy of Don Ross's book "Rubber Powered model airplanes", in his book he recommends the stripper designed by Jim Jones. And it looks like a good choice. Unfortunately, it isn't made anymore," must have worked too good , can't have a product like that available to model builders ". I did find where a company called A2Z got permission to reproduce it and for 73 dollars plus shipping it is just too much for my budget . Besides, I also read where the A2Z company is taking orders for this handy tool but they don't ship them ,"at least that's what's on the internet ".
The master airscrew company makes a tool that will work but the prices for this tool are all over the place! Micro-Mark wants over 11 dollars for their's and there are sellers on the net who will sell you one for much less but then they make up the difference with the shipping cost that is more than the cost of the tool itself !
There are some good stripping tools available in the UK but for some reason, you can't buy them here in the states , so what's a guy to do ? Make his own ? There are some guys on the youtube who show how to make one but the designs are pretty much the same . So I guess the best thing to do is buy the Master Airscrew tool and hope for the best .

[Mfezi]

I don't post here much, but thought I may be able to contribute. I have been building everything from peanut scale free-flight models all the way through to large, scale radio control models since I was about six year old - so for almost 40 years. By far the majority of my models are either my own designs or built from plans (but I do build the occasional laser cut kit as a nice relaxing project). The only dedicated balsa stripper I have used in all that time is the Master Airscrew one. I find I can cut consistent strip wood from 1/32" through to about 1/4" thick with it, very consistently and very accurately. My strips are usually much better and consistent, for example, than the pre-cut strip wood that you get with Guillows kits.

Like all tools in your toolbox, it takes practice before you will get consistent results. I find a few things that help me:
1) Use actual X-Acto brand number 11 blades, since these are thicker and stiffer than surgical blades (which I use for just about everything else).
2) If the strip you are using is not very wide, use some sort of support behind it (like a metal straight-edge clamped to the table).
3) Adjust the blade properly before you use it (goes without saying)
4) Don't try and cut too quickly: Concentrate on holding the cutter with some pressure against the straight surface of the wood you are cutting.
5) Make sure that the edge of the balsa sheet you are going to cut is actually straight (use a ruler and a long sanding block if that is not the case).
6) Make sure the edge of the balsa you are going to cut is smooth - otherwise the stripper may get stuck or "jump" over bad spots. The same goes for the top and bottom of the sheet.

I find that a wavy cut has nothing to do with the blade wandering due to bending, but much more with the blade wandering because you are not properly holding the stripper against the sheet you are cutting. This usually happens when you try to move it too quickly.

Although I am sure the more expensive balsa strippers work fantastically well, I really do not see much need for anything more expensive than the Master Airscrew one, unless you really are building models at a really high rate. If you can afford it, by all means buy one of the more expensive strippers. Personally, I would rather buy another kit or material for another project...

On the other hand, I do have a pretty expensive razor plane that use traditional razor blades. Now, let me tell you: THAT was a good investment!

[NcGunny]

I agree..just get yourself a M.A. Wounded and some decent #11 blades and call it a day. Also using good wood makes all the difference. I root through our local AC Moore balsa shelfs once a week..its surprisiing how much C grain sheets I can pull out of there. Also I buy up all the broken sheets when they get around to clearancing it.

[woundedbear]

Thanks, NcGunny,
The Local Hobby Shop supports a model's club, I use to go every month . Kit Kringle can get Guillows kits but for the most part, he sells plastic model kits and some collectibles. Asheboro can bearly support his business to tell the truth but he does support the Model builders club . Asheboro is kind of a strange town . For a lot of years, it was a dry county there is the mall but JC Pennies is gone along with Belks and I have heard that Sears is on their way out . The economy is changing, even old geezers like me own computers now and that's how we buy things. OakHollow Mall over in Highpoint has already closed, and Randolph Mall is next . The folks of Asheboro and Randolph county for that matter are very religious and said that Randolph county would always be dry . Well, Now you can go to one of the restaurants and get a mixed drink or a beer with your meal . The times they are ah' changing, there is talk of Highway 220 bypassing Asheboro . We did have a Hobby Shop over in Archdale but he couldn't compete with the internet sellers. I order all my balsa wood from SIG their prices are good and for a small fee, I can get the grain and density (weight) I want . The plane I have ordered was going to be a Blue Bottle Squadron kit, but they went belly-up . I lucked up, however, the guy who did the design work for them is a Texan and he is sending me the kit . It uses the box type construction which is why I need a balsa wood stripper. I going to build it as a rubber powered airplane, but I am going to use the plans sheet to do a redesign . I going to double the size and make a few other changes. It will be my first twin and the enlarged one is going to be my first twin-engined RC conversion with retractable landing gear and flaps . Oh yeah, one more thing about the MA stripper is there more than one? With the prices of them all over the place, Micro-Mark sells theirs for over 11 dollars and there are some internet sellers who sell theirs for around 6 dollars I was wondering if there might be counterfeit copies of this tool out there .

[Mfezi]

Gunny does make a very important point that I left out: When you make your own stripwood, your results are certainly going to depend very much on the sheets that you select. Different applications will obviously require different hardness/density of wood, but all of them will require good A-grain sheets with nice straight fibres. Occasionally B-grain can also be used (selectively). If you don't have nice, long, parallel fibers in your sheet, it will be both difficult to cut and it is going to have weak spots. It goes without saying that very hard balsa will be difficult to cut, but except for large R/C model wing spars, I seldom use such hard balsa anyway.

Luckily, A-grain is not very difficult to find; usually C-grain is the tricky one to find in hobby shops. I occasionally go visit my local hobby shop with my little scale in hand and go through all their sheets one by one. The owners know me already and often bring me some additional stock to go through. Over the years I have collected quite a large selection of balsa for various applications. Normally when I get home I weigh my sheets again, calculate the density of each sheet, and then put a sticker on with its cut and density. Once you start to cut parts from a balsa sheet, it becomes difficult to calculate the density, so I always do it immediately when I get home before starting to use the balsa.

[woundedbear]

Thanks, for the info Mfezi! I buy all of my balsa from SIG. They will, for a small fee get the grain and density you want. The hobby shop where all of the folks here in Randolph country did their business, went out of business about three years ago , and I don't think the Hobby Lobby store sells balsa anymore . Most people just buy a RTF or a transmitter ready or a receiver ready foamy and just start crashing until they get the hang of flying a RC airplane. I own a foamy myself which is more scotch tape than anything else now . But there's something about building that a RC airplane before crashing it that has a strange appeal to me . How can a person crash a RC airplane that just required installing 2 screws and charging a Li-Po battery and feel any sense of accomplishment? Personally, if I haven't spent all winter building and modifying a balsa wood model kit,"I hope to one day design a plane of my own". But there's something about seeing a winter's worth of TLC slamming into the ground and becoming a cloud of balsa wood dust that is strangely gratifying to me . As far as making my own balsa wood strip stock I have about come to the conclusion that it's best to buy a small hobby table saw and rip my stock that way. Of course, a good balsa wood stripper for the small stuff like 1/16 x 1/16th-inch square is a must have tool. I have seen some good youtube videos that look like they are within my capabilities and will work. My plan is to buy the Master Airscrew stripper and build a fixture to use as a guide to keep it cutting straight . I agree with you 100% about using good quilty A or maybe C grain wood to start with, personally, I don't understand why they cut balsa in this B grain to start with it seems to me to be a waste of the wood . Cutting the 1/16th-inch stock in two passes with a MA stripper is the best way to do any cutting with that tool. Well, guys, thanks to all of you who have given me a little of your time on this subject. Your advice is always appreciated and I will take what I have learned from your combined experiences and I think I'll do OK .

[davidchoate]

Just like they all said. Take Your time, and mostly support the wood so it won't wander, and keep the tool against The edge. Once You get the hang of it You will not need to buy stringers which break easy.

[NcGunny]

Wounded...just looked on Amazon and they sell Master Airscrew for $8.59 with free shipping. Cant beat that price. Think I paid 10.00 for mine from someone. I just wish they were designed to adust the blade depth instead of cut width. I dont like to keep loosening and tightening my blade to adjust depth. Lets face it..they are cheaply made and I just know it will strip out sooner than later. I may order a spare while I am thinking about it. If you get decent wood, you can strip off like a crazy man. I did a 1/8th x 4" x 36" sheet a few days ago in like 10 minutes.