Hobby Lobby carries a good selection of balsa blocks, including a 3" x 3" x 12" one that is ideal for making many noses and other parts.
My intention with this part of the project is to make all three pod parts one at a time in series from the same piece of balsa stock.
Since the pieces are intended to match a plastic cone that is BT-50 size, I will mark out a block that is 1-1/4" square. This gives me enough edge margin to turn the blank to a cylinder that is close to finished size.
Once the block is marked on all sides and ends, I mount it in the wood vice and begin carefully making the cuts with a dovetail saw. The initial cuts are made at an angle at all four corners of the piece, carefully following the marked lines.
At this point, you might be asking, "Hey, BlastFromThePast, why are you cutting the stock this way? Wouldn't a power saw work better?" Probably faster, yes. I do have a bandsaw upstairs in the garage on which I could very well accomplish this operation, but, being a hand tool woodworker, I simply prefer using hand saws.
Next the stock gets placed on a bench hook (another archaic 'Neanderthal' fixture) and the final through-cut is finished. Note that the photo shows the cut seemingly going off the line. It was 4 a.m. when I marked out the piece, and one of the ends was accidently measured out a couple of millimeters off. I noticed it in time and drew a new corrected cut line.
Here is the finished piece of stock, ready to be mounted on the turning face plate of the lathe. The two pieces at the right are the leftover cutoffs to be used on a future project.
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