Plywood Advice Wanted
 

I have a set of plans for a Glen-L TNT and I've decided to build it.

The question is what kind of plywood or plywood substitute? The marine
grade ply of 20 or 30 years ago seems to be history.........

What else should I consider using? The finished boat will be used as a
knock about, not a show piece with forty coats of varnish. It will be
USED as a boat, so I think the inner plywood could merely be varnished
yearly, the outer skin should be glassed from chine to chine or maybe
from gunnel to gunnel.

What combination of products do you experienced boat builders
recommend?

I'm located in the Twin Cities and that might affect some of the
choices.

TIA

I strongly recommend you get on the net and locate some BS 1088 or
equivalent marine ply. The pleasure and ease of working with really good
stuff eclipses any differences in cost. I'd recommend MDO, but I've not
been able to find anything thinner than 1/2".

Roger (I tried buying the cheap stuff.)

http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm

"Professor Freshwaters" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a set of plans for a Glen-L TNT and I've decided to build it.

The question is what kind of plywood or plywood substitute? The marine
grade ply of 20 or 30 years ago seems to be history.........

What else should I consider using? The finished boat will be used as a
knock about, not a show piece with forty coats of varnish. It will be
USED as a boat, so I think the inner plywood could merely be varnished
yearly, the outer skin should be glassed from chine to chine or maybe
from gunnel to gunnel.

What combination of products do you experienced boat builders
recommend?

I'm located in the Twin Cities and that might affect some of the
choices.

TIA

I would not recommend mdo. Howerever any decent ply with no
voids like bs 1088 or 6566 is good as is fir. I would suggest
using boatbuildercentral.com as they have meranti which will
definetly do the trick.

Roger Derby wrote:
I strongly recommend you get on the net and locate some BS 1088 or
equivalent marine ply. The pleasure and ease of working with really good
stuff eclipses any differences in cost. I'd recommend MDO, but I've not
been able to find anything thinner than 1/2".

Roger (I tried buying the cheap stuff.)

http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm

"Professor Freshwaters" wrote in message
oups.com...

I have a set of plans for a Glen-L TNT and I've decided to build it.

The question is what kind of plywood or plywood substitute? The marine
grade ply of 20 or 30 years ago seems to be history.........

What else should I consider using? The finished boat will be used as a
knock about, not a show piece with forty coats of varnish. It will be
USED as a boat, so I think the inner plywood could merely be varnished
yearly, the outer skin should be glassed from chine to chine or maybe
from gunnel to gunnel.

What combination of products do you experienced boat builders
recommend?

I'm located in the Twin Cities and that might affect some of the
choices.

TIA

"Professor Freshwaters" ) writes:
I have a set of plans for a Glen-L TNT and I've decided to build it.

The question is what kind of plywood or plywood substitute? The marine
grade ply of 20 or 30 years ago seems to be history.........

Marine ply is available but it is expensive, okume is light and popular
and costs about twice as much as douglas fir. Douglas fir would be good
for a "knock about" boat but I don't know the size of the one you mention.
Okume comes in 1/5" inch (metric standard). Douglas fir seems to start at 3/8"
at lumber yards and you'll have to sort through it for good sheets with no
surface splits or edge voids.

I've used cheap underlayment plywood on my small boats, just painted, no
fibreglass. One is just starting it's 6th season and the face ply is
lifting off in one place (delamination) over a void in the middle ply. I'm
going to have to patch it this season and maybe replace the bottom of the
boat next summer.

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