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Marine Plywood?
A few thoughts:
Ply, since it is laminated, is much more resistant to warping than solid wood. It's also able to take impact and strain without splitting as solid wood might. Provided you can keep the water out, it's a very stable material. Ply is, pound for pound, really strong. Good marine ply is void-free and uses waterproof glues. I build stitch and glue kayaks, where the 4mm (3/16") ply is encapsulated in epoxy resin - about 4 coats on each side. Our 'yaks take a pounding on our rocky beaches, and I've yet to damage the ply itself. Provided you epoxy seal both the inside and outside surfaces with multiple coats of resin, or even fiberglass cloth soaked out with epoxy, making sure you seal the end grain really well, there's no reason the ply won't outlast any solid wood, and possibly you :-)) Make sure you use epoxy, and not polyester resin - the poly doesn't stick to things or hold them together nearly as well. BTW - that Potter is one sweet little craft - used to admire them greatly in our sailing days, before we downsized and simplified things to kayaks and canoes. "Toller" wrote in message ... My Potter 15 rudder is made of 4 pieces. The top is a solid core about 10"x15", with two pieces of plywood screwed to it on either side measuring 10"x30". The solid blade mounts between the plywood, below the solid top. One side of the plywood is falling apart, and the other side isn't doing much better. I went to the lumber yard today to buy some plywood to replace the bad parts. They have Marine Fir and Marine Okoume. They told me that neither will be durable; they have to be covered with fiberglass. If that is true, it certainly explains why the original is falling apart, as it is not covered in fiberglass. I bought a piece of fir, which I will cover with spar varnish just to get me through the end of the year. This winter I will rebuild the whole thing. (neither the top core nor the rudder blade are looking real good either). What is the story on plywood? Is nothing suitable for marine use without being fiberglassed? Would solid wood (3/8") substitute? Any advice on how I go about doing this so it is durable would be appreciated. |
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