Gliders (balsa & styrofoam) // How-To

It's REALLY easy to make gliders using Easel and the X-Carve, and while you COULD do the same with a knife, where's the fun in that?
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Here's what you'll need:
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Balsa Wood strips 1/16" -
Balsa Wood strips 3/32" -
For more details check out
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I started a design, purely out of my head, in Illustrator, but there are free design software options, like Inkscape, as well. I just made sure the slits for the wings and tail were as wide as the material I was using for the wings.
Saving the design as an .svg file, I imported it into Easel and scaled them up to my final size.
I copied the wing and tail pieces to a new file, since they use a different thickness material than the body.
I used 3/32" balsa wood that I got from a craft store.
Balsa is very thin and soft, so the X-Carve can cut it quickly and easily.
For the wings, I used 1/16" balsa.
Make sure to use "tabs" in Easel, to hold the pieces in place while they're being cut out.
The tabs were quickly cut away with a sharp blade.
I slid the wing and tail pieces into the slots, and it was almost ready.
I added two paper clips to the front for a little weight.
Then I spent way too much time decorating the glider with markers.
I decided to also try making a glider from dense styrofoam insulation from a big box store.
I scaled the design up a bit, and resized the slots to match the new material thickness (1").
I tried, miserably, to shape the wings and body with a rasp to help it fly better.
Finally, I screwed in a heavy screw to the nose to add some weight.
Here's my complete balsa glider!
Here's my complete styrofoam glider!
Check out the video above to see how they flew! Second channel: bit.ly/iltms-2