Originally Posted by Phillip
..... Where did you purchase the 3mm ply? We cannot get any in Adelaide.

PM sent....


When I first thought of purchasing Jurassic Karp I did some research of timber availability ..... mainly the differing types of ply and their abilities.
Marine ply, water resistant ply, normal ply, etc etc all supposedly have very different properties, asking a few questions tho came up with very different answers and prices aswell shocked
Eventually I discovered there are some differences in the glues used although not a great deal, more a case of how "watered down" the glue is to its use...... the other main factor was the quality of the timber veneers but the biggest difference came with the actual process of manufacturing, lower grades of ply are just about chucked together leaving gaps and in some cases overlays of the veneers, 'better grades' appear to be laid with more care with only the odd gap between the sheet, we've all seen small gaps in a middle layer mostly they are 1~2mm wide...... the high quality or what we call "marine grade" is basically precision laid quality veneers with no gaps or overlays and a un-watered down glue..... which obviously COSTS !!!!

After talking to 2 "old salts" (both boat builders from yesteryear) they both suggested I use the "water resistant" ply as its quality was "good enough", as it turned out one guy had a sheets left over from his last A-Class build, this was purchased for $25 grin
I took the sheet to our local cabinet maker for his opinion ( and to be ripped down to size) and he told me that this paticular ply was still available commercially should I need more of it, I did purchase a 2nd sheet as the original sheet had marks that may have caused issues later on... I can supply his details if you want to discuss it further
I can not pick any difference between the old ply and new ply that I have other than the dust that's been rubbed in slightly, the pliability or 'bending' is ever so slightly better in the newer sheet, as a result I used the older sheet for the structural work and the newer sheet went into the curved decks.
wink





Yar, & this ere post be done without a sin'le drop o' rum passin' me lips

Kingy
started with Impara Cadet #3 / Mosquito #245
& now Mosquitos #1182 & #1740