Thread: Exterior ply

Hi Mallet,

You really need marine grade ply - just exterior grade won't last very long in fresh (esp.) or salt water.

Reckon on around $100 ~ $120 on a sheet of 8' x 4'. I don't know about the ACT, but for some escellent service and first rate quality, try www.brims.com.au

Cheers!

Thanks. I didn't think exterior grade would be a problem as I am going to sheath the entire thing in epoxy with fibrglass on the outside. Is this true?
Because if I start forking out for marine grade ply I may as well just skip the little boat and start building a "BIG" one!

This is how it starts isn't it?

Hi Mallet,

If you plan to sheath the whole hull, interior and exterior, in epoxy and fibreglass, then I guess cardboard would be ok so exterior would be ok.

Yup, it does get that way...

Cheers, I have a fabric covered canoe, so I know about nervousness but I think i'd draw the line at cardboard.

ps; I've heard that the best bilge pump is a frightened man with a bucket!:eek:

Exterior ply is okay Mallet. Sure, it won't last as long as marine ply, but as long as the glue is waterproof, you'll be right. It all depends on what you want the boat for and how long you want it to last and good maintenance will see many years out of an exterior ply boat. The question I'd be asking is - if you are going to spend all that money on poxy and glass, why try to save a few dollars on the ply, especially as the best thing you can do is to paint it with good quality paint (not necessarily marine paint but even good enamel is pricey).

You don't have to pay $120 for marine ply - Hoop Pine is $80 - $90 for 6mm sheets. Decent exterior is about half that and you can go cheaper again if you don't mind three ply.

What are you thinking of building?

Why the glass? You only need it for abrasion and a pair of rubbing strips along her bum will do that in most uses.

Richard

I'm with Daddles (it's a guy thing).

Three sheets of ply, save $100 tops, yet still spend another $400 on paint, epoxy, glass, timber..... and you'll have a boat that weighs 10 kg more probably.

Does 10kg make a difference? Try carrying a 10kg pack around for a day. You have to use the same energy to move it in a boat as well.

As for suppliers of ply and epoxy products, try: Auscraft Canberra, A.C.T. Tel. 0411 140 266

Cheers,

P

Hi guys,

Yeah it's called a Southhaven dory and they specify using 6mm, but I thought if I used 4mm and glassed the outside I might save some weight whilst giving it some rigidity. I have no idea how much weight there is in epoxy but was going on the interior/exterior taking about a 4L tin.
Weight is very important as I have to lift it on and off the roof racks.
As I said I already have a 17ft fabric covered sailing canoe/kayak homebuilt type thing so the thickness of the ply can be minimal ( I went down to Magnet mart and tried to punch a hole through a sheet of 3mm structural ply and couldn't do it, the guy there didn't know whether to call security or the loony bin ). Do you think using 3mm marine grade ply and just filleting the joints and painting it would be the go?:confused:
Cheers.

having gone through all this not too long ago... advice..
ring heaps of places in the yellow pages who do timber
panel products. I ended up getting proper gaboon ply
for about $70 a sheet (2500x1200 6mm). worth it for
weight and nice clean finish on sheets.
epoxy once again hit the yellowpages, you will probably find
like south australia there is only a few main distributors of
marine epoxy. or look up your prefered epoxy manufacturer
(i chose west system bit more expensive but supposed to be the
best) on the net and find your local distributor... generally these will
be the cheapest blokes cause you dont have any middle men taking
cut...
one thing about using a thinner ply, as i was thinking for my project,
the designer advised against it due to the thinner ply lacking the
designed rigidity. to regain this with glass and epoxy i would say
would far outweigh the cost of getting thicker ply....

Yeah, thanks Shanefera, I'll shop around for the ply, and heaps of people have steered me towards West system epoxy so it looks like 6mm might be the go and hang the expense.
I'll post a few photo's when I get it together and thanks to everyone for their input, You can see the plans on southhaven dory on the web.

Cheers H.

Fibreglass suppliers you should check out are ACT Fibreglass in Fyshwick and Billspeed Design in Queanbeyan.

For marine ply try Turners Building Supplies.