plywood issues

[islandpiper]

Well, i visited the local REALLY GOOD hardwood place. These guys have everything........except oakume...........dang.

Matt......i can get 4 mm Luan anyplace. Any issues with using that for the Okwata?

thanks, piper

 

[Jimmy W]

Piper, you know of course that everything in that other wood filling thread is going to be rewritten here.

 

[hairymick]

Keith,

I reckon 4mm luann should be fine. Just be carefull how you store it. Once your panels are cut, Lay them on a flat surface with weights to hold them flat till you are ready to use them.

When doing the panel splices, weight the ends of the panels down so they stay down and flat till you are ready to start stitching.

I built my Southwind and my laker with ply very similar to your Luann only it was 3mm thick and both boats came out pretty well.

Chuck does magnificent work with the stuff.

 

[JEM]

Luan should be ok. Look for even thickness plies, dark glue, no voids.

You can take a flash-light, turn it on, and hold flat against the ply. Voids will show through. Kind of a poor-man' s x-ray.

 

[Ozark]

Matt that a great trick to find the voids thanks

 

[oldsparkey]

Keith,

I reckon 4mm luann should be fine. Just be carefull how you store it. Once your panels are cut, Lay them on a flat surface with weights to hold them flat till you are ready to use them.

When doing the panel splices, weight the ends of the panels down so they stay down and flat till you are ready to start stitching.

I built my Southwind and my laker with ply very similar to your Luann only it was 3mm thick and both boats came out pretty well.

Chuck does magnificent work with the stuff.

I use the thinner wood because I try to make a boat as light as possible. This is out of necessity since the Doc's have me on a weight restriction as to the amount I can pick up.
The commercial made boats cost to much for me to purchase one so I make my own.

The thinner wood ( 3mm ) is harder to work with and for a 1st time builder I do not suggest using it. If you are use to working with wood then you should not have any problems.

As I said , I use it due to the necessity of having a light weight boat. Plus I might go threw 30 or more sheets to get just the right 3 or 4 for the build.

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

I've never worked with 3mm. That would almost require two people to handle a long panel strip, I'd imagine. On an average boat, does it lower weight by, say, 5 pounds or more? Near the end of a portage trail, that 5 pounds gets really valuable. When lifting a boat up onto a car, it is valuable too.

I've never looked for 3mm Okoume; don't even know if it's made or sold here. You have my curiosity up now; will look for it.

 

[TK1]

Hi,

I am using 3mm Gaboon marine ply (what we call Okume) on a racing kayak I'm building. Purely to save weight (and deck will be 1.5mm ply). I can lift the 2 sheets of 4' x 8' 3mm and 1 sheet of 1.5mm easily in one hand - total kayak weight should be around 10kgs.

I went through a pile to get nice flat pieces, and they're stored flat and OK to work with but for longer pieces it helps to have a helper. I have used it on the deck of my Chesapeake 17 and whilst nicely flexible for bending, once glassed it held it's shape and appears rigid - even when clamping on the cockpit coaming (3 x 6mm ply) it held its shape. Handling the deck pieces was no problem by myself.

I'd recommend it if you want a light boat, but you're better off saving weight on lighter epoxy/glassing. I'll be putting carbon fibre on the lower hull of mine to increase impact resistance.

And I've seen nice boats built from Luan, just avoid voids and glass it well.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Darren