![\"toolsa\"](\"http:\/\/www.balsaworkbench.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/toolsa.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFirst and foremost is the X-Acto knife, more specifically a #11 blade and holder.\u00a0 There’s no sense fooling around when it comes to this basic tool. \u00a0Get a knife handle like the one in the photo, where you turn the end of the handle to clamp the blade instead of turning the part right next to the blade.\u00a0 This knife also has a six sided collar that keeps it from rolling off the table. \u00a0If you can imagine yourself enjoying this hobby for a long time in the future, go ahead and get a box of a hundred #11 blades.<\/p>\n
The X-Acto knife’s best friend is a metal ruler. \u00a0There’s not much to say about that other than you won’t regret getting one.<\/p>\n
The next most basic tool is the sanding block.\u00a0 You can build a plane with just sandpaper, but when you get a block you’ll wonder how you ever built anything without it.\u00a0 You can see two blocks in the photo, a wooden one that uses a quarter sheet, and an aluminum one that uses adhesive strips.\u00a0 They’re both good.<\/p>\n
One of the greatest innovations ever made in model building is cyanoacrylate (CA) glue.\u00a0 It allows you to build a good straight airplane without even pinning anything to the table.\u00a0 Most things I build in .20 size and smaller don’t involve any adhesive other than CA.\u00a0 Realistically, both CA and epoxy are stronger than the materials they are applied to, so don’t sweat it.\u00a0 CA sometimes has a hard time penetrating into hard plywood, so I tend to use epoxy there. \u00a0I recently started using good old fashioned Titebond Original, and I like it. \u00a0I built a Cloud Dancer with about 60% Titebond and 40% CA. \u00a0It’s cheap and a bottle of it lasts a long time.<\/p>\n
Of course you’ll also want a square.\u00a0 For my first 12 years of building airplanes I used CD cases, but I just recently discovered something even better: \u00a0an expired debit card. \u00a0 I wish I had been using these all along. \u00a0They’re small enough to fit into tight spaces, and the corners are rounded. \u00a0You might not think of it at first, but rounded corners are quite convenient. \u00a0The square in the photo is a pretty nice little unit.\u00a0 You can get them in hobby stores, and they even have balsa thickness and wire size gauges built in.<\/p>\n
The other thing you really need is a saw to cut plywood bulkheads.\u00a0 If you build only square airplanes to start with you can use a razor saw like the one in the photo, but as soon as you build a plane with a rounded top deck you’ll need a coping saw or power scroll saw to cut out a firewall and bulkheads.<\/p>\n
The only other truly necessary tool for building a plane is a drill.\u00a0 Mine was a bit large for the photo, so you’ll have to use your imagination.\u00a0 (You know what a drill looks like, right?)\u00a0 Anyway, you’ll need one.<\/p>\n
Once you officially become an airplane building enthusiast, you’ll want to expand your tool collection.\u00a0 Here’s my best bet for your second stage tool list.<\/p>\n
Whoa! \u00a0Hold everything. \u00a0I got tired of the shortcomings of my little blue razor plane shown in the above photo, so I did a little bit of research and ended up buying the Stanley 12-101 wood plane. \u00a0This is a really nice little unit that I recommend highly, and the price is very affordable. \u00a0Use it for trimming off big strips of wood from the leading edges of wings and control surfaces before moving on to a sanding block. \u00a0This saves tons of effort and sandpaper. \u00a0Here’s what the Stanley looks like. \u00a0You should get one.<\/p>\n The Dremel tool should be pretty high on your list.\u00a0 I don’t use mine for much besides cutting off landing gear wire and drilling 1\/16″ holes for servo mounting, but I wouldn’t want to do without it.\u00a0 Now that I think about it, I also use it for installing strip ailerons, elevator joining wire, and probably a few other things….<\/p>\n You would think that instant glue is fast enough, but sometimes accelerator comes in really handy.<\/p>\n Foot-long drill bits are more useful than you might expect, especially for wing mounting holes.<\/p>\n The strange looking tool next to the planer is a T-pin pusher.\u00a0 My preference for a building board is a hollow core door, and this tool is the best way to push those pins into the semi-hard surface.\u00a0 It has a magnet in it for holding the pin, and little slots for pulling them back out.<\/p>\n If you’re going to build balsa airplanes and you want to buy a really useful\u00a0tool, get a power scroll saw.\u00a0 A lot of guys use them to cut out wing ribs, and you just can’t beat it for cutting out plywood parts.\u00a0 But the point of this article is to assure you that you really don’t need a lot of fancy gear if you want to try your hand at building a plane. \u00a0Believe it or not, when I built my first airplane kit I had only a very old X-Acto knife with one blade, a bottle of glue, and a piece of sandpaper with no block. \u00a0I used my mother’s clothes iron to install the covering film. \u00a0Just start small and work your way up.\u00a0 You can do it, and it’s a lot of fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having nice tools is a good thing, but it doesn’t take a lot of fancy tools to build a balsa airplane from scratch.\u00a0 This is especially true if you’re building a simple airplane, which is convenient because that’s what you … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n