Baking Balsa Wood

[CreganTur]

For a diorama I\'m making, I want to create a frame with balsa wood, and then use Sculpy to sculpt over the frame.

Now, balsa wood has an ignition point of 392 degrees F, and no measurable flash point (yes, I\'m geek enough to look up the MSDS for balsa wood ). Sculpy has a baking temp of 275 degrees F. That tells me that there should be no problem at all with this plan, but I just want someone to double check me on this; make sure I haven\'t overlooked something.

 

[Donga]

Balsa will deform like a bugger when baked, it will not catch light though

I would use a more heat resistent material for a sculpey former. Depending what you are intening to make there\'s lots of options for construction/framing under sculpey.

Personally I prefer Miliput (grey/yellow) for surface detail on large projects. No baking and very easy to detail. Cheap too.

 

[CreganTur]

Personally I prefer Miliput (grey/yellow) for surface detail on large projects. No baking and very easy to detail. Cheap too.

That was my original thought, so I\'ll go with it.

Didn\'t know about Balsa wood deforming- thanks for the warning!

 

[Shawn R. L.]

For doing large diorama stuff, you might want to do paper mache\'. Instead of flour and water I use white glue and water. Comes out very strong.