Posted by fred on October 13, 2003 at 19:11:28:
In Reply to: Re: Okyme, Meranti - Good Marine Ply? posted by Graham Knight on October 11, 2003 at 13:40:16:
: Interesting stuff Ron. I have to admit that I have no 1st hand experience with DF ply, simply because it's not available here as far as I am aware, and I spent ages trying to find it!
: My knowledge of DF checking comes from a professional boatbuilder with over 40 years experience, who lives and still builds the odd boat on the Chesapeake Bay. He warned me about the tendency to check when I told him I was using solid DF in my boat, and he says the problem is worse with DF ply especially when it is bent.
: Having said that I would have happily used DF ply if I could have found it, not least because it has better rot resistance as you say. I would imagine the checking problem is solved by encapsulating provided it's done properly, having just finished encapsulating my boat I can't imagine it being able to check under all that glass and resin!
: Before I bought my ply I spoke to several local boatbuilders to find a source, they all recommended the same company and the same grade of ply that I bought, but they all said that they wouldn't have bothered with encapsulating it! They just use the normal marine wood primers and topcoats, and swear that is quite adequate.
: The ply is BS1088 marine grade, all marine ply in the UK has to meet this standard. I understand that in other countries ply that is sold as marine grade doesn't neccessarily meet BS1088, but I don't know what the difference is.
Hi - I used Douglas Fir AB Marine, way back in mid 70's to build ROUSTABOUT. It worked out great, especially for all areas of hull that I then wrapped with glass.
Unfortunately, I did not glass deck! And this is where I think DF gets a bad wrap - it has alternating layers of hard/soft ribbons of grain, and if you DO NOT glass, or paint often - it is this hard/soft area stuff - that starts to show up when weathered.
Douglas Fir is great wood. Why DF marine plywood wouldn't be great - especially when glassed or epoxy coated, I don't know.
I've just had this feeling the meranti and okoume - looks like furniture grade ply, nice and hard and shiny on the surface?
.....guess time will tell. My DF ROUSTABOUT lasted 26 years, 5 kids, and a million "hit it" - water skii runs!
:)
Fred