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Plywood grades

Posted: Mon July 20th, 2009, 1:39 pm
by JamesH
Hi
Has anyone used softwood ply for building an eventide ww etc?
George B boatsareextensively built of the stuff.
However they are i the main are epoxy cloth covered.
I Think thereare 4poss otions
1) Pine ply with bitumen paint.
2) Pine ply with epoxy /cloth
3) Hardwood ply with paint
4) Hardwood ply with epoxy/ cloth,
I was thinking I could build in 18mm soft wood pine epoxy or bit coated.
What do people think
Also to marine paints?
House paints? I once coated my kestral with ext house paint it lasted 3years whilst I lived aboard her - och still have sore head!!!!
epoxy floor paint?
Bitumen paint?

Still planning ww have keel timbers outside and am notching for stem and stern uprise. Hope to cut all the frames by end of year.
James

Re: Plywood grades

Posted: Mon July 20th, 2009, 6:57 pm
by Billaboard
Bear in mind this is input from a rank amateur with very little knowledge, so probably comes under the heading of idle chat.

For the Wild Duck back in '84 ish, we used hardwood marine ply, touring the wood yards until they had a ship in with nice looking stuff at the right price. They seemed to buy in quantity off ships, and price and quality seemed almost random. We coated everything and glued with SP epoxy, then skimmed to hide the bad workmanship with a very thin layer of filled epoxy, the filler being guessed depending on what we were trying to re-inforce or hide. Fillers included the whole suite of glass bubbles, milled wood fibres and colloidal silica. External ply joints/angles used some narrow glass tape.

We painted over this with standard non-epoxy marine paint bought as bankrupt stock at auction and which determined the colour of the boat, and this has worked well.

For the bilges we found some epoxy paint made for painting food preparation tables, hospital walls etc. This has been brilliant. The original paint is still fine. The Liverpool manufacturer was, I'm told, bought by Jotun paints, and my wife discovered that we knew one of the chemists involved in the original company. I've recently followed his advice and used their 2-part Penguard primer and non-epoxy top coat on the topsides. I would definitely use this again, even though the local supplier proved utterly useless at using the colour mixing device. We ended up with a sort of orange to represent the nearest we could get to the original varnished topsides. To achieve this we had him aim for dark brown. We also were given his first 5-litres attempt, and now have a pink trailer.

Re: Plywood grades

Posted: Mon July 20th, 2009, 10:25 pm
by chris s
Yes I remember back in the day I used some of that epoxy paint from the company in liverpool, mine was supposed to be for painting a garage floor, but my "garage floor" was a bit boat shaped! :shock:

Re: Plywood grades

Posted: Tue July 21st, 2009, 8:12 am
by JamesH
Hi thanks forthat my thoughts matured during the day yesterday as I looked after my son sick with flu.
Found a good place locally garrads timber of hudddersfield.
I will use 18mm on bottom and 12 on sides deck and coach roof.
epoxied and clothed all over.
But this all a long way off!
Yours James

Re: Plywood grades

Posted: Thu September 3rd, 2009, 4:37 pm
by JamesH
Hi
Finally got the keel epoxied up out of 1 x 2 x 8" and 2x 2 x 6" timber so the ply will land on the 8" timber, will be putting a 6" steel channel on bottom to cap off the keel which can be lowered and concerete keel added when she goes to sea. The canals have limited depth so a full keel will be a hinderance at this moment in time.
Have kept the keel level of 20ft and then 7ft the stern and 7ft6" at the bow. beam 10ft. So the size is a little bigger thn normal WW!
Have used a 2" scaffold tube for stern tube sandwitched between 3x 6x2"s. Have found bearings for 1" shaft.

Will get timber for frames cut up asap, and out of the weather which is getting worse and worse!!

Will send pics when i get chance to take them.
Yours James