Thread: Thin Plywood.

Hi Rhys

bending ply? http://www.australply.com.au/index.p.../austral-bendy

Proper bendy ply is way expensive ($60-70 per sheet in 5mm). It's also hard to get at the moment (in 7mm) as I recently discovered.

What radius do you need to wrap around? We've been successfully using 3mm 2-core ply from Timberwood Panels in Melbourne for that sort of stuff at work for years. Costs around $18 per sheet and it'll bend around a 200mm radius quite easily, you can probably go to 150mm but I'd advise spraying some water on it and letting it soak in for a few minutes to prevent it snapping.

not a criticism, just an observation

the cost of a component is not just in the raw materials.
If it takes 15 minutes to kerf a piece of ply so that you can bend it, the bent component has around $15 of labour (allowing for overheads) in it just for the kerfing

If a $60 sheet of bending ply yields 15 components that don't need kerfing, that's a "saving" of $225 in labour over the 15 components.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

We've been successfully using 3mm 2-core ply from Timberwood Panels in Melbourne for that sort of stuff at work for years. Costs around $18 per sheet and it'll bend around a 200mm radius quite easily, you can probably go to 150mm but I'd advise spraying some water on it and letting it soak in for a few minutes to prevent it snapping.

Do you mean just 2 sheets of veneer glued at right angles? I found some of these years ago and bought the shop's stocks for my own bending projects (drum rings). I haven't been able to find any since! It was a lot easier and quicker than removing one of the plies from a 3 ply sheet to get the same degree of bendability.
Does the Timberwood shop have its own website? All I can seem to find are business directory references?

Originally Posted by burraboy

Do you mean just 2 sheets of veneer glued at right angles?

Yep, that's the stuff.

Does the Timberwood shop have its own website? All I can seem to find are business directory references?

No they don't.

Ian, the 2-core doesn't need kerfing.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Proper bendy ply is way expensive ($60-70 per sheet in 5mm). It's also hard to get at the moment (in 7mm) as I recently discovered.

What radius do you need to wrap around? We've been successfully using 3mm 2-core ply from Timberwood Panels in Melbourne for that sort of stuff at work for years. Costs around $18 per sheet and it'll bend around a 200mm radius quite easily, you can probably go to 150mm but I'd advise spraying some water on it and letting it soak in for a few minutes to prevent it snapping.

Excellent mate! Legend! I will chase it up, I'll be in Melbourne in July so maybe I'll arrange to have a look and suss it out. The radius isn't too crazy, but I'll have a check of my cad files to refresh my memory on the radius. $18 a sheet sounds like the sort of stuff I am chasing.

I'm not looking to produce these myself, but for the time being I am just chasing some more suitable ply for the backrest section, kerfing is boring and has potential to weaken the radius section. It's either source some more suitable ply material or maybe have a look at reinforcing the radius with a couple of layers of fibreglass for piece of mind.


Thank you all, I will be in contact with Timberwood Panels!

Apparently (never tried it m'self) an old boatbuilders' trick is to put some metho on ply and set it alight to make it bendier. It seems that the heat softens the glue and allows the veneers to slide over each other.

As I say, I've never tried it, but heard of it from several people who've done it. Suggest you try a test piece first.

Perhaps a heat gun or oven might be a safer solution than burning your project?

Originally Posted by surfdabbler

Perhaps a heat gun or oven might be a safer solution than burning your project?

If there are going to be photos in a WIP, then I vote for metho and flames.

Although ..... I would personally prefer to use a heat gun.