Thread: Timber and Ply question

Yes - there is special 'bendy ply', and there is even an $$$$ book on making furniture with it. The bendy ply comes in 2 flavours - one bends the short way and the other bends on the long axis of the 1200x2400 sheets - and its not particularly cheap either. I have no idea where you will find it in Queensland, here in NSW I've only see it at 'Mr Ply & Wood'.

Hi Matey, Thanks for the name of the ply '' Bendy Ply '' I've found a site for Austral Plywoods and they say Hoop faced Bendy comes in 5mm 1220 x 2440mm or 2440 x 1220mm sheets and 7mm Plain bendy comes in 7mm 1220 x 2440mm or 2440 x 1220mm sheets and where jointed faces are required as I'll need use the short grain product.
Austral web site: www.australply.com.au, does any one else have any suggestions of what kind of structural timber would be best for the frame.
I know of a bussiness in Rockhampton that specialises in Plywood so I'll call on Monday. Cheers Fred

Great looking capmper Fred, very old skool funky and fuel efficent at the same time. Don't know which timber exactly to use but my family has had caravans for 30ish years and something a bit flexible and not too ridgid is the go I think. Anything too ridgid tends to snap joints although the little camper is not very high so the stresses on the base joints would be much less. If I were you I would talk to the guys in the boat building forum, the stresses would be similar if not less. Good luck Fred, make sure you give us plenty of photos mate. Oh and put some shockies under her, she'll thank you for it.

Hi Fred. Making a teardrop camper is on my list of projects I’d love to do one day, so it is great to read that you are going to be making one. Have you come across the Aussie teardrop website www.aussieteardrops.com.au which is run by Reiner Gudd, a teardrop maker in Brisbane? There are lots of links here to other teardrop makers and Reiner also has some teardrop accessories for sale. I have also heard that he is very approachable and encouraging of home builders so I think you may get some recommendations from Reiner or from this website as to recommended timbers to use. I think caravans use meranti for framing in their walls and roof because it is quite lightweight and inexpensive, but I would want to use something that was very well seasoned and machined so that the timber was stable and easy to use. Anyway, goodluck and I look forward to seeing how your teardrop develops.

Yep I went to Aussie Tear Drops straight up but there's little to no advice using there forum but yes like you said the parts available are outstanding, I went though all the home builder project pages this morning and one in particular caught my eye he's based his on a 1948 tear drop model, I'll build ours using his as a guide.

I had a quick look at the aussie teardrop home builder pages this morning also and saw framing made from oregon, vic ash, pine and meranti. It seems the choice of framing timber is probably determined by how you want the inside of your teardrop to look.
You have probably also found the following website based in the USA, but in case you haven't it has a huge gallery of home built teardrops in their hall of fame section, quite a few with photos of the contruction process. www.mikenchell.com