My Uncle is a keen Radio Control Model Aircraft enthusiast both indoor indoor and outdoor and he asked me if I could make him a Balsa Slicer, to be honest I'd never heard of a Balsa Slicer before but looking them up online they looked like something I could design and print.

To be honest it looked a lot easier than it actually was but as the saying goes we got there in the end!

This particular model is designed for standard Swann Morten blades again which I've never heard of but I purchased a pack of 5 for very little layout, with these to hand I carried on with the design.

I wanted to design this Balsa Slicer with 3D printed screw threads for both the blade clamp and screw turn thread but soon found out that this wouldn't work, so the outcome is this, you will need some hardware to make this model.

The items I had to hand were 2 x 5mm flat head Allen bolts which I cut down so there was 10mm of thread for the blade clamp, these fasten into 5mm nuts which are pushed up into the slider recess's, for the screw turn there is a 5mm nut which can either be pushed into the body from top or bottom, this can be lined up easily, the screw turn hardware is a 5mm countersunk threaded screw length 60mm, a 5mm locking nut and a standard 5mm nut.

Please take a look at the photos showing how its put together.

The idea with the screw thread is to insert the threaded screw into the turn knob, the secure this with the 5mm standard nut, then insert this into the end cap for the slider and then use the 5mm locking nut and screw this up to the end cap, ensure the end cap is in the correct orientation, push the slider onto the main body and insert the threaded screw into the block on the main body, screw this up until the end cap meets the slider, I had to cut 5mm of the threaded screw so it fit in correctly, make sure all fits ok before backing off slightly and apply some CA Glue to the cap before holding the end cap in place while you screw up the thumb turn, leave the glue to dry, then the only thing left to do is fit the blade, then clamp it, the Main body and slider are slightly recessed to accept the blade.

To use the slicer you set the width using a steel rule or similar, then adjust the blade length to to suit the thickness of the balsa you are cutting and most importantly be careful, these blades are sharp!

The stripper is adjustable up to around 10/12mm.

Great little tool.

Thanks for looking.