Show me your building board

[jsesere]

What are you building your wings on?

[Surfer_kris]

I used to use "tretex" which was a fibre glass board for house constructions, it made you itch and is no longer made (still have some though).

There is now a very nice type of soft board, which is used to make notice boards etc., that works very well and doesn't make you itch.

[Kim]

I build on a the back-side of a piece of un-insulated ceiling tile, laid white-side-down on my table. The tile presents a smooth, hard, flat surface to the project, but will take "T" pins easily, and hold them tight.

[andrew]

EDIT: Kim posted while I was typing -- looks like great minds think alike. I see he also uses teflon tubing for his CA -- I do the same. It makes application so much easier -- controlled amounts and you can reach those hard to glue joints.

------------------------------

I use a piece of 2'x4' fiber ceiling tile cut back to about 18" wide. I go to Lowe's and pick one that's fairly flat where the backside is in good shape. I use a long sanding bar to knock off any bumps on the finished side, flip it over on my board and true up the backside. Usually, I'll hit the backside with some brushing lacquer -- this hardens the surface a bit and seems to hold pins better. This makes my building surface -- cheap and replaceable when needed.

My actual board is two pieces of 3/4" MDF (also fininshed off with brushing lacquer sanding sealer) laminated together and is 2'x4' in size. On the bottom side of the board, I've attached two rails of perforated steel channel running lengthwise. I did this to cut down on any possible future warpage. It's heavy, but I tried to build it for the long haul. The channel I used has round holes instead of elongated and is very stiff.

[Kim]

Yep !!!! Or...like amoebas being trained by electric shock...the various jolts along the way tend to lead us to the same destinations !!!!

Good idea on the coating...I may have to try that on the next one! My flying buddie, Kevin Eugene, came up with this idea in the 70's, and we used the same boards we built on to also mix batches of epoxy, cut and slice wood, paper, plastic and anything else that drew our destructive our attention! By the time I decided to replace a board, it had a definite pock-marked Lunar-Surface look about it. Could help explain the aerial antics of some of my early wings....

Also forgot to mention that the board's surface can be instantly cleaned to dust-free status by a careful pass with a wide-nozzle attachment on your faithful shop-vac.

[RknRusty]

I use 4 pieces of 24"x24" drywall and tape them together with blue painters tape. It's a little tough to stick pins into but makes a good durable surface. It's good for making notes and drawings on with pencil or pen too. When I mess up my working corner, I spin it to the next clean square.

[ZACATTACK]

http://howtomakercairplanes.com/rcblog/category/building-tutorials/magnetic-building-board

Nice Idea!!

[ozmo]

I use the cieling tiles as well, However I invest 99 cents on a can of wally world white pray paint and saturate 1 or 2 tiles per can. NO MORE DUST OR CHALKING. I get used cieling tiles at the recylced building supply store for .50 each.

[ekitten2]

i use several sheets of canex...(that soft non itchy board yas was talkin of)

[Ivanhoe]

I built on a piece of, what is known in the UK as "Plasterboard" it's the stuff put onto walls before they are plastered, consists of a layer of plaster sandwiched between two pieces of very tough paper, this is glued down onto a piece of board to hold it flat.



I have to bind the edges with gaffer tape because the plaster interior breaks up. One advantage is that I can cut it to any size I need, and it takes pins very well. The one thing I have to remember is not to do any cutting on it!

[Ivanhoe]

On this subject of building boards, back in the day, when balsa was cheap, and available in numerous sizes, we used to buy sheets of 1/2" x 6" x 48" medium grade, glue them edge to edge, and build on that, be an expensive board these days!

[Kim]

On this subject of building boards, back in the day, when balsa was cheap, and available in numerous sizes, we used to buy sheets of 1/2" x 6" x 48" medium grade, glue them edge to edge, and build on that, be an expensive board these days!

If I come across it again, I'll post a scan of the ad Guillows used to run in the 1960's. He offered a "Building Kit" that included a balsa building board, and other accessories !

[SuperDave]

Kim:

I've never had any luck obtaining an building board from Guillow's so, about ten years ago, I got one from Great Planes (Tower Hobbies)which is every bit the equal. Mine is the 48" X 16"model comprised of laminated hard balsa panels.

It has served me very well as a portable building surface for a large number of model aircraft at a reasonable price. I wouldn't build without it now.

[jsesere]

I ended up getting a Great Planes board.

[SuperDave]

Colonel Klinck:

Ya, das est goot building board.

[Sponsored content]