I'm thinking about builiding the PDR. On one of the FAQ pages, there was some discussion about 8 x 4 ft sheets, availability and substituing 1200 x 2400 sheets using the tolerances within the plan.

"Regarding the thinner ply we are using in Australia - it was partly chosen because they were the cheapest true 8ft x 4ft sheets we could get locally on that day. Under $20/sheet.

A lot of ply these days is 2400mm x 1200mm - which is just under the imperial sheets but unsuitable for the PDRacer as it would add quite a bit more labour and material wastage to get the 4ft width. - though you can use the measurement tolerances."

I haven't purchased the plans (yet!) but I'd like to know what the tolerances are and how this would overcome the differences between the two sheet sizes. I suppose Bunnies only carry metric sheets?

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"If something is really worth doing, it is worth doing badly." - GK Chesterton

Dion,

I have a feeling (I may be wrong so I'll try to check it during the course of the day) that the PDR rules were changed to accommodate the metric sizes

In any case, the imperial sizes are available mostly still.

It's a bit of an unfortunate time this week, to be buying ply, but see if Sharpe Plywood or Mister Ply & Wood are open. They have a really good (and economical) gaboon which would be perfect.

The $20.00 ply was a bit of a false economy, as I've replaced the bottoms of both boats with proper stuff, so the bottoms cost $80 in total, plus a few days work and double the epoxy!

Mik has only sporadic access to the web at the moment, so I'll try to get back tonight.

cheers,

P

Hi Dion,

The general PDRacer FAQ talks about using metric plywood sheets 2400 x 1200, but at this stage the OZ PDR only uses imperial sheets 2440 x 1220 - it was a struggle to get everything to fit on those larger sheets without reducing freeboard or having a two piece bow transom with a knuckle in it - both things I wanted to avoid.

As far as I know Australia is the only country that has moved over to metric plywood manufacture in such a big way - at the same time I believe other building trade materials here like gyprock are still imperial sizes. It is just as surprising as the USA continuing to ignore the existence of the metric system )

The good side is that the 4mm ply can be quite cheap - the awful stuff we used for our Mk1 boats has stood up extremely well - but if you look through our building thread you can see that you really don't want to compromise on the quality of the 6mm bottom sheet too much.

A couple of people building in country areas of Australia did email me that they were having problems getting imperial ply - but managed to locate it looking a bit further afield.

There should not be too much problem in most urbanised areas to get imperial ply. Ask here if you have any trouble - usually someone knows.

Best wishes
Michael Storer

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Thanks for the replies - I'll try looking around at timber suppliers once the rain has stopped - no point in getting it wet on the way home!

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"If something is really worth doing, it is worth doing badly." - GK Chesterton

Run ya tape over your sheet of ply. You will probably find is it very close to 2440 X 1220 in reality, which is as close as darn it to 8' X 4'