veneering ply

[lamarstrehlow74]

Just building a new Sabre and sick of boring gaboon ply on decks so here’s what i did. Buy 3mm gaboon ply and 1mm decorative veneer to go on top.
Vacuum veneer onto ply inside a plastic bag. Works easily,
Key to this working well is choosing the right glue.
Resorcinals stain too much,Formaldehydes are tricky, Epoxy tends to bleed up through the veneer too much. A polyurethane glue called Purbond is perfect.
No mixing required,spread out with rubber spatula, plenty of work time, 2hour set at 20c, minimal bleed through, fully waterproof.

Anyone else have experiences with veneering on the sabre?

Cheers
matt
1697
Zahir

[syreetanajera]

Where did you get the veneer? I’m looking for some light coloured veneer, about 0.75×0.5 M. So far all I have been able to find are narrow strips.

[lamarstrehlow74]

Hi Andrew
The place I sourced veneers from was
Sharp Ply Pty Ltd
1171 Boundary Road
Wacola 4076
Sunshine Coast.
Ph 07 3271 4511

I was after some Qld. cedar. which they were able to provide at leaf size of 200 x 2400 (this about the max you will get)

Not sure about lighter coloured woods except if you want Celery top pine from Tassie which is an exquisite honey coloured timber but a bit heavy for lightweight boat-building .Let me know if you want details. The locals here cut some beautiful veneers from Tassie woods.

Cheers
matt.

[lamarstrehlow74]

Matt,

Have you had any experience with Veneers that have pre-glued backs, and there ability to deal with varnuishing / water etc.

Was curious about the application of veneer over a wooden boat that had seen better days and may be an alternative to painting decks which is common in many boats over 15 years old.

Would it be at all possible to use the same method you applied without vacuum bagging on an older boat to get a good finish and seal.

[lamarstrehlow74]

Didn’t catch your name there
re preglued veneers
These tend to be for interior cabinet work. I’d be very sus on the waterproofness of the glue used.
In principle it’s possible to vacuum over the existing deck ply….but very fiddly getting a seal around the edges i suspect. Ripping off the old deck is probably cheaper and easier .
If you go this way set a router to the thickness of the ply and router over all the joints to keep the interior wood intact. This releases the ply without damaging the underlying wood.
Best luck.

Matt Westland
1747
Alchemy

[heymacaulay]

Matt,

Out of curiosity, how much does a 1200×2400 sheet of ply weigh once you have laminated a veneer on to it.

I am curious. When I bought the ply for my current and next builds, I weighed about 60 sheets and took the 12 lightest.

I cannot recall the exact weights, but some I chose were almost down to 5kg / sheet, where as many of the heavier sheets were over 6kg per sheet and some near 7kg. All from the same bundle of about 95 sheets I went through. (rejected about 35 sheets due to cracks, delamination etc)

I also targeted sheets withvery swerly patterns as apposed to very straight grain.

A thought for a change of colour, has anyone tried putting a dye / wash through the ply.

Have seen some really good effects on some websites in the past, and am considering doing something similar for making a plywood tiled Uckers board – dying the tiles as required so that I don’t loose the wood grain. There are a big variety of colours – Reds, yellows, blues, greens – check them out at any good paint supply shop.

Regards . . .

[Author]

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