How Easy Is It To Cut Balsa Wood

Use a drill to cut wood.

How easy is it to cut balsa wood. Saw-kerfing or grooving the back of the wood so it will bend easily without danger of splitting or cracking. Thinner or less dense woods such as balsa wood are best suited for cutting with an Exacto knife. Routers make light work of wood cutting.

Before cutting draw your pattern on the using a ruler curve or other stencil and a sharp pencil. Chisels are a satisfying way to cut wood. Guide on how to cover model planes along with how to build a model plane fuselage coming soon.

If you plan on staining your balsa wood project then you should probably prepare the wood first by applying a pre-staining finish of Wood Conditioner. Exacto knives can cut wood but this can dull them easily or break the blade. Use the blade lightly applying minimal pressure to the material surface with it.

You can use anything you like to cut balsa however using anything other than sharp tools will result in burning or a fuzzy rough cut. In this video I will show you the process of making a simple airplane out of balsa wood. Thin boards of many thicknesses are available in most hobby and hardware stores.

Place the ruler under the cut line. Sort out all the pieces into pairs. Apply some epoxy resin to the back of one piece and attach its mirror image to it.

The top line is the scoring with the utility knife. It accepts paint and other finishing products well. Use a sharp machete to split wood.