balsa?

[tb01kid]

hey guys. i am kinda new to boats. my uncle has been building them forever so with his help i am building a boat out of of balsa wood. He says that it will be a strong boat but i dont know. i am kinda worryed that after all this work i hit a submerged stick and rip the bottom out of my boat or punch a hole in it. is balsa wood a good material? is there any kind of coating i can put over the wood to make it stronger? i dont have much of a budget so take it easy on my supplise list. please help me!

[tb01kid]

also what if your boat flips over or fully sinks? how do you retreve it? sorry for the stupid questions.

[RickE]

Your balsa hull can be covered with a thin fiberglass cloth that's held in place with epoxy resin, and the result will be a tough hull that's up to most onwater crashes. A marine store will have the materials you need as with such R/C airplane companies as Sig and Tower Hobbies. As for keeping your boat afloat you can add such floatation bits as bubble wrap, pool float noodle or the foam wrapping used on metal plumbing pipes to the inner hull, but you'll also benefit from picking-up a kid's fishing rod and tying a tennis ball or de-hooked fishing lure to it's line to use to recover your boat.

As for the fiberglass cloth, use the lightest weight possible and also thin your epoxy resin with denatured alcohol to improve it's flow onto the hull.

Hope this helps,
RickE

[tb01kid]

thanks rickE, you have been a big help. i dont quite understand how to aply the fiberglass clothover the hull. dose it come in strips? is the finished product smooth and can you sand it if it is not smooth? also can yor paint it?
thank you so much:)

[tb01kid]

is this what you are talking about?http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDR26&P=7

[RickE]

Go to www.sigmfg.com and then to their coverings and finishing products section under top quality glass cloth. You'll see a listing for 38" by 36" packages of fiberglass cloth, and the ultra or lightweight types should be okay for your balsa hull. The hull is first coated with epoxy, then you lay the cloth over the wetted surface. You can use either a bondo spreader or an old credit card to combine the cloth to the epoxy and then once it drys it might require another coat of epoxy to get a smooth surface that is both sandable and paintable. I'll look for a website that goes into more detail on this process and post it as soon as I can.

RickE

[tb01kid]

Dude you are the smartest man alive! thank you so much i will order this weekend