Thread: Building home made balsa hones

wow man, those are really really nice. great work on your part. I would love to be able to make something like that for myself

Andrew,

I very much admire your woodworking skills. What pastes and or sprays did you treat the surface of the balsa with?
And how do they perform for you?

Again, very nice work. That would make a nice mounting platform for j-nat stones.

JERRY
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Originally Posted by mrsell63

Andrew,

I very much admire your woodworking skills. What pastes and or sprays did you treat the surface of the balsa with?
And how do they perform for you?

Again, very nice work. That would make a nice mounting platform for j-nat stones.

JERRY
_____

Thank you Sir and thanks everyone On the left is Norton #1/4 diamond paste (0 - 0.5 micron range so 0.25 average micron) and the darker gray on the right is 0.1 micron cubic boron nitride spray. As to how they perform hehe I'm not really sure. I'm not quite there yet with my honing. I'm sure they'll work but someone more experienced in this type of set up would be able to comment better than myself.
Diamond Sharpening Paste, #1/4 micron grade, 5 gram
JENDE: Ken Schwartz CBN Sprays
These were my sources for the paste and spray.

Those look great.

If you want to experiment, try using much thinner balsa. When I started making them I was using thicker balsa like yours. But one problem I found, balsa tends to swell and contract depending on atmospheric conditions. So I would lap the balsa 100% flat, but then later find it was higher in the middle. The wood had swelled slightly with humidity?

Anyway, I switched to thin sheets and the problem went away. Flat all the time. When you think about it, if the balsa is bonded to a flat surface, it does not need to be thick.

Originally Posted by Legion

Those look great.

If you want to experiment, try using much thinner balsa. When I started making them I was using thicker balsa like yours. But one problem I found, balsa tends to swell and contract depending on atmospheric conditions. So I would lap the balsa 100% flat, but then later find it was higher in the middle. The wood had swelled slightly with humidity?

Anyway, I switched to thin sheets and the problem went away. Flat all the time. When you think about it, if the balsa is bonded to a flat surface, it does not need to be thick.

Thanks Yea I realized after I had made them that this might happen lol. I haven't even used mine yet but one of these days I'll put a straight edge across them and see. Hopefully it's not an issue with the humidity here but you're right, better to be on the safe side and use thinner sheets. With thinner sheets I would imagine it would be very important to spread the glue evenly because after whatever weight is removed from the setting and drying process, the wood could decompress unevenly which could translate to the surface. Not sure though.

I've used balsa for years, and have found that the balsa on the thin side works better for me. The nice thing about them is that they get better with age due to the continued loading and the diamond grit working it's way deep into the balsa. So, even if you have to relap down the road, you don't lap all of the abrasive away. Very Best, John