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Plywood choices


lenm

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Howard/Thrillsbe, your woodworking is a work of art!

Thanks for sharing your experience with the plywoods.

Incidently, I tracked down the source of the Dragon variant.

Looks to be of Indonesian origin.

http://www.smip.co.id

Considering everyones suggestions, im happy to make a decision now.

Going with mostly okoume (to save weight) though using the red meranti in a few select areas (for toughness/durability and looks!) such as the bottom.

Hoop pine keel and ribands.

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I agree with PAR and Graham on plywood for boats.  My own measurements show that meranti is 24% heavier than occoume so I would not use it where weight is critical but would prefer it where weight is not an issue and it is to be painted.  Meranti is a bit stronger with a stiffer and a more rugged face and a bit more rot resistant but all need protection from moisture.  The aesthetics of the face on all can be quite different from sheet to sheet and meranti is on average (to me) less attractive finished bright than occoume.  There has been no official support of the BS1088 or BS6566 standard for over 20 years and you need to trust the supplier rather than the stamp that may be on the sheets. 

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Thanks Tom for some more expert opinion.

This timber material subject is interesting stuff..

I played around with some Meranti offcuts today, and it indeed seems quite stiff for its thickness, especially along the longitudinal axis.

Not as much so in a twist type load though (45 degrees).  

I guess this is due to the fibres in the ply faces running at mostly 0-90 axis - probably a trait of most ply's ?

Perhaps a good laminate schedule and tabbing for it may be using a 45-45 (double bias) with the glass fibres making up for a lack of wood grain in this direction

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Meranti is brittle as compared to Okoume which is a little sinewy (is this a word?).  This makes it stiffer and more abrasion resistant than Okoume. It also makes it  splinter more when machined.  Even though these are engineered materials, they still take on some characteristics of the wood.  The key as a builder is to use the characteristics in your favor.  And what is cool is that as builders we get to decide which characteristics matter most for our boats.

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You mentioned cost as a factor in your plywood decision.  I just checked my receipts, and my plywood bill was only 1/8 the total cost of my build.  In other words, you're gonna spend a lot more money on other things.  I wouldn't worry about saving a few pennies on your plywood purchase.

 

And thanks for the compliment on my Honey of a boat.  Sure do love my Honey!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Now that you mention your receipts, could you share the price you paid for the plywood and what grade?

 

I'm going to build the BRS17 and have found that using BS1088 (7 sheets 6mm, 3 sheets 9mm) brings me to about $770 USD plus taxes and shipping I'd be at $1000 for the plywood. Obviously I'm still shopping around.

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The plywood for the Princess also came from Homestead, except is was somewhere around 40 sheets, so weighted nearly 2,000 pounds. The discount for that much is even more.

 

You may also want to check Noah's. I believe they may have a physical store / location in Toronto.

 

http://www.noahsmarine.com/Canada/Plywoods-can/plywoods-can.html

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  • 4 months later...

Now that the snow has melted it's time to get some plywood! I've found a local supplier for Hydrotek (in stock) but price still comes out to near $1000 for the BRS17 including taxes (3/8" for $110 and 1/4" for $77). At least it's local and in stock, so I should be able to pick clear sheets. I've attached the MSDS for the plywood in case anyone is interested... some good info there.

 

 

SKM_C454e17042710050.pdf

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