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  #1  
Old 10-12-2020, 08:09 PM
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astronwolf astronwolf is offline
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Default Balsa shortage 2020-2021

I contacted Randy at eRockets hoping to learn when some of the Semroc kits might be back in stock. Randy's answer was, "There is no telling at this point. The balsa wood shortage in the market has gone from bad to severe. Of our 6 suppliers no one has any balsawood that we can use."

And so it goes again.... I learned that the covid shutdown of Ecuador, who supplies something like 95% of the world's balsa, is to blame. I don't keep a close eye on this industry. I checked out National Balsa's site - I can buy sheets of balsa there. Balsa USA, Sig ... same... I think there was an ongoing high-demand caused shortage of balsa because of wind turbine manufacturing going into the covid crisis. But now.... looks like it could become worse than the past shortages. Could get downright scarce!
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Old 10-12-2020, 08:48 PM
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Wolf,

Thanks for the update. I was completely unaware of the current additional strain on balsa supply. I knew that the wind turbine blade manufacture had caused a real shortage of larger balsa blocks but the current problem is just really aggravating. Again, thanks for letting us know.

Steve
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Old 10-12-2020, 09:00 PM
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Yes, thanks for the heads up. Thankfully for at least for some number of rocketry applications, basswood or even fiberboard can fill in for a decent number of applications.

Earl
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Old 10-12-2020, 09:24 PM
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So glad I've got a big stash of balsa. Learned that lesson n the early 90's when my LHS had a shortage of good light balsa that I was used to just go in and buy as I needed it. After that, when they got in the god stuff, I began to hoard..... I mean "stock up".

Might be tempted to go to the best LHS in the area and check out their current contest grade wood. But my hoard...uh, "stock" is about as big as it's ever been, and not anticipating building many models with balsa the next year or two.
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Old 10-12-2020, 10:46 PM
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I haven't swept up all the good balsa out of the shops for a while. I go with an electronic scale and a table of masses on an index card. Found some choice wood this ways - contest grade and C-grain, sometime both in the same sheet, as well has the very dense stuff. Time for a foray!!!
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Old 10-13-2020, 01:13 AM
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This is going to cause more impact to R/C aircraft prices than rockets.
RC uses far more balsa than rockets. Basswood is fine for rocket fins, but way too heavy for general RC construction.

That said, I'm going to raid the balsa supply at my 3 LHS.
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Old 10-13-2020, 06:58 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by georgegassaway
So glad I've got a big stash of balsa. Learned that lesson n the early 90's when my LHS had a shortage of good light balsa that I was used to just go in and buy as I needed it. After that, when they got in the god stuff, I began to hoard..... I mean "stock up".

Might be tempted to go to the best LHS in the area and check out their current contest grade wood. But my hoard...uh, "stock" is about as big as it's ever been, and not anticipating building many models with balsa the next year or two.

Same here. I started accumulating a bunch of 4" and smaller blocks for turning NC's way back before Carl started offering upscaled versions of NC's at SEMROC. While I don't do competitions, I do have a good selection of sheet balsa all the way up to 1/4". I've got a lot of balsa scrap from building R/C and rocket kits that I don't have to touch the good sheets for fins on smaller models.
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Old 10-13-2020, 08:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by georgegassaway
So glad I've got a big stash of balsa. Learned that lesson n the early 90's when my LHS had a shortage of good light balsa that I was used to just go in and buy as I needed it. After that, when they got in the god stuff, I began to hoard..... I mean "stock up".



"When you find a good piece of balsa wood, buy it. You never know when you might need it"

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Old 10-13-2020, 11:11 AM
s1lence s1lence is offline
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I was wondering if that was going to happen, hopefully it will turn around soon.
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Old 11-16-2020, 07:03 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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I did some Google Fu research and it seems that China has almost bought up the entire market of balsa wood worldwide for Air Wind Turbines....If you go on EBAY you will final NUMEROUS Chinese selling balsa wood but no data on density.....or grain type.

I also checked Australia, UK and Canada....same difference.....

They all expect balsa prices to double a minimum over the next year.....AT A MINIMUM! and the shortages to continue into 2023.....

Also , Ecuador which produces near 90% of the worlds balsa had some major flooding earlier this year and guess where? right smack in the middle of the balsa plantations.....and then COVID-19 hit Ecuador really hard.....

it's going to get worse before it gets better.....
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