Balsa Weight Chart

Correct material selection is a crucial part of building light models, and building light yet strong airframes is a crucial part of enjoying successful flying with electric powered models, especially with smaller and lower powered types.

Balsa wood, whilst one of the most used and most useful materials, is also one of the most variable — in a typical model shop balsa rack you might well find 1/16 x 3 x 36 sheets weighing anything from 7 to 50 grams each — unfortunately, usually many more heavy ones than light ones! Just imagine the difference in weight — and hence difference in performance — of identical airframes built from wood at each of these extremes.

It is worth carefully selecting your wood, and the easiest and most certain way of doing this is to use a small electronic postal scale which weighs to an accuracy of 1 gram and the weight table below.

Another good tip is not to wait until you need some balsa for a project before you buy it — check through the rack of any model shop you happen to visit and buy good wood for your stock.

These weights are in grams for a 3 x 36 inch sheet.
For a 4 x 36 sheet, multiply weights by 1,33 — for a 100 x 1000 mm sheet, multiply by 1,435
To get weight per dm² (100 cm2) divide by 7 — for weight per m² multiply by 14,35

		ultra light	very light	light	medium	medium hard	hard	very hard
thickness		65 kg/m³	95 kg/m³	127 kg/m³	160 kg/m³	192 kg/m³	225 kg/m³	320 kg/m³
in	mm	4 lb/ft³	6 lb/ft³	8 lb/ft³	10 lb/ft³	12 lb/ft³	14 lb/ft³	20 lb/ft³

1/32	0,8	4	5	7	9	11	12	18
1/16	1,5	7	11	14	18	21	25	35
3/32	2,4	11	16	21	27	32	37	53
1/8	3,0	14	21	28	35	43	50	71
3/16	4,8	21	32	43	53	64	74	106
1/4	6,4	28	43	57	71	85	99	142
5/16	7,9	35	53	71	89	106	124	177
3/8	9,5	43	64	85	106	128	149	213
1/2	12,7	57	85	114	142	170	199	284