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Say you wanted to bend a long piece of balsa, if you were to fill a tube with hot water, place the stick in, and after taking it out bend it into a desired shape, how long would it take to completely dry and set?

that would really depend on your wood, density and how much water it has absorbed, in combination with the relative humidity and ambient temp in the room.

so yea, too many variables there?

get a spare "tester" and weigh it dry, weigh it wet, and let it dry enough, weigh it again when dried, and when you're close, i guess you can decide that it dried enough?
have a moisture meter for wood but balsa is too soft to get any reading without damaging the structural integrity of it.

People go to great lengths to design bracing systems to do exactly opposite what you are asking about. If you take a piece of balsa and place one end on the scale and put your finger on the other end and push down, you'll find that it takes considerable force to get the piece of wood to bend. Once it has bent, it takes very little incremental force to extend the bow to a break.

However:
I doubt you can get a piece of balsa pliable enough by simply soaking it in hot water in a tub. (It's been tried before). but if you must, try wrapping a piece of balsa in a paper towel and wetting it. Now pop it in the microwave for a minute. Take it out and work it slightly and repeat. Once it gets pliable enough, wrap it around a form that you want and tape in place. Now bake it at low heat (set the oven as low as it will go, and even leave the door cracked a bit).to drive off the excess moisture. The balsa will lose a little of the bend, but it should be close to the shape you want.

With a 2 piece column design you can predict the exact point where the tower will want to implode... at the connection of the 2 columns (more accurately, at the top of the bottom portion of the column) and brace accordingly. With a single column that is gradually bent, a single "ladder" to resist implosion will just move the impending reaction higher and / or lower on the column to an area that is not supported with a ladder.

...At least that was our determination of that design.

I tried something similar for wind power. Its not exactly consistent though, so idk why people are attempting this for towers:

All you have to do is soak the wood in water for about 30 minutes, dry off the surface, and bend it next to a hot surface (we tried a lightbulb). I think some guy posted a video about it on youtube.

dholdgreve wrote:People go to great lengths to design bracing systems to do exactly opposite what you are asking about. If you take a piece of balsa and place one end on the scale and put your finger on the other end and push down, you'll find that it takes considerable force to get the piece of wood to bend. Once it has bent, it takes very little incremental force to extend the bow to a break.

However:
I doubt you can get a piece of balsa pliable enough by simply soaking it in hot water in a tub. (It's been tried before). but if you must, try wrapping a piece of balsa in a paper towel and wetting it. Now pop it in the microwave for a minute. Take it out and work it slightly and repeat. Once it gets pliable enough, wrap it around a form that you want and tape in place. Now bake it at low heat (set the oven as low as it will go, and even leave the door cracked a bit).to drive off the excess moisture. The balsa will lose a little of the bend, but it should be close to the shape you want.

With a 2 piece column design you can predict the exact point where the tower will want to implode... at the connection of the 2 columns (more accurately, at the top of the bottom portion of the column) and brace accordingly. With a single column that is gradually bent, a single "ladder" to resist implosion will just move the impending reaction higher and / or lower on the column to an area that is not supported with a ladder.

...At least that was our determination of that design.

Have to say, I agree on all counts. Been there, done that, have the T-shirt. The bending can be done, but you're not going to beat a tower with 2 straight leg segments. An alternative to the ... treatment to get stick bendable is to set up a steam chamber; about 10 min of steam going through it.

JojoCho wrote:Say you wanted to bend a long piece of balsa, if you were to fill a tube with hot water, place the stick in, and after taking it out bend it into a desired shape, how long would it take to completely dry and set?

An easier, and more safe method... is just to cut the wood in the desired shape.
Go to specialized balsa, send them an email for custom order and like draw out a blue print of the cut. Works fine.

Be careful with wood, it works very similarly to paper, especially at lighter densities, u might ruin it. Also, bending in general, ruins the formation of the grain itself. I recomend against this, but give it a shot.

The person running the Wright Stuff/Heli events at Coaches Institute suggested a 20% ammonia and 80% water solution for soaking (he was talking about making cambered ribs, but I guess it applies). After that, you put it in a sort of mold and (not sure if my memory recalls correctly) bake it in the oven? But either way, you would leave it out for a bit. Personally never tried it, but the hollow motor stick he made this way looked really nice.