Building Boards

My building board is knackered (for those not familiar with English slang, just read "unuseable"). A good building board is an essential piece of kit for the free flighter. The requirements are simple, it must be:

• flat
• easy to pin and grip pins well
• big enough for your needs - long wings, bigger board

Some people are lucky enough to find a suitable fibreboard, blockboard, soft timber board or other ready made sheet in their local DIY shop or hardware store. I searched all over and could not find anything suitable. So I decided to make my own and here is the build sequence. It did not take long and cost me less than £10.




I used hard 15mm balsa planks, 4" wide mounted on a flat chipboard backing (an old bookshelf).

The planks and the chipboard were evenly coated with contact adhesive.











After 10 minutes, the planks were glued down to the chipboard. In addition to the contact adhesive under each plank, PVA glue was used between the edges of each plank. The excess PVA was wiped off with a clean damp rag.








The whole thing was weighted down overnight while the glues set.












Here is the finished board, trimmed and sanded flat. It takes pins well with good grip.


Now, what shall I build on it....?