Thread: Thin Plywood

Originally Posted by lakeside

Hello all.
Seeking a supplier of plywood in thickness range 0.4 - 1.0 mm for model boat making, other than hobby shops who charge like wounded bulls for large quantities.
Can anyone help please?

Try Mr Ply and Wood - they were able to help with some aircraft quality birch for making boomerangs ... though that was a scary number of years ago now

Richard

Yes, Mr. Ply & Wood do have the very thin Ply, unfortunately even they charge like wounded bulls for this stuff. It is .4 mm thick and I think from memory, only about 300 X 600 mm big. I can't remember the brand of the stuff but am fairly sure that it came from Finland.

Harry

Have you tried making your own ply? I got some veneer strips from the dumper bin in the yard of a local veneer manufacturer in Vic (Timberwood Trading). I put release agent on a sheet of thick polycarbonate and painted it with epoxy. When it went a bit tacky, I laid the veneer strips out edge to edge, then overlaid cling wrap, then corrugated cardboard, a sheet of wood and some bricks for pressure. When cured, I just repeated the process with another layer at right angles until I had the thickness I wanted. The kids and I made a chess board out of it, but it would have been strong enough for many uses. Impractical for large projects, but might be OK for yours.

Originally Posted by lakeside

Hello all.
Seeking a supplier of plywood in thickness range 0.4 - 1.0 mm for model boat making, other than hobby shops who charge like wounded bulls for large quantities.
Can anyone help please?

Lakeside,

DMK Forest Products bring in Craft Plywood from Finland - it's Birch species (especially for model building etc), but sadly the thinner the plywood the pricier it goes though. But they are in 1220x1220 sheets sizes though.

Hobby shop wholesale suppliers used to source their stock from Mr Ply years ago and were stung fairly heavily for it wholesale, then had to break it down into hobby sized sheets, store it till ordered, deliver it without damage and possibly wait a few months for payment. Hobby shops in turn get stung for it and have to charge accordingly to stay in business.

And yes, the thinner the ply, the dearer it becomes. This is because the veneers have to be sliced much thinner increasing the fault rate and hence the reject rate in the production proccess. Most of the micro ply that is available is aviation grade material with zero fault tolerance.

Many thanks for all the responses, muchly appreciated.

Mr Ply & Wood appears to be MisterPly but they no not seem to offer small thickesses, at least that's what their web site conveys.
I like the idea of building up ply from scrap veneer and will follow up this approach and perhaps send some feedback on the outcome.

Again thanks for all the suggestions.

I cut the irregular scraps into straight sided strips the width of a metal ruler, and pressed them down on to the tacky epoxy by rubbing with a burnishing tool (a spoon would do as well). After curing, and removing the cling wrap, I lightly sanded each successive surface flat before painting epoxy for the next layer. Overlap layer three 50% over layer one, layer four 50% over layer two, and so on, so you don't have pinholes going through the layers. If you lay the strips on the epoxy at the right stage of tackiness, it sticks down well, and you may not need the pressure from the bricks, but I just wanted to be sure it was good and flat. I didn't paint the underside of the strips with epoxy, but might try this next time.
It ended up looking similar to those woven wood veneer salad bowls you can buy in Asian shops (which were what gave me the idea).


Good luck, and show us some photos of how you get on.

Thanks Simon for the additional information and guidance. It will be most helpful.
I will certainly post some photos when job completed

Originally Posted by lakeside

Hello all.
Seeking a supplier of plywood in thickness range 0.4 - 1.0 mm for model boat making, other than hobby shops who charge like wounded bulls for large quantities.
Can anyone help please?

Hi, I can this thin plywood. And the prices is USD4.4 (1220mmX1220mm) CIF AU per sheet. It is with full birch veneer.
If you gave me you address, I can send some samples for you to check the quality.

Best Regards
DannyAttachment 136183

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Hi. I am having difficulty sourcing laser ply. It must be A grade veneers, interior glue so the laser can cut it, knot free in the veneer and the core. I am looking for 1.5mm, 2mm and 3mm. Does anyone have any suggestions. I'm in Queensland