I'm needy today - Where can I buy quality marine plywood at a decent price?
 

Where can I buy quality marine plywood at a decent price? Looking in the RI to SE Mass area...

THanks,

John

John,

Can't help you with those locations, but I can tell you to be ready for sticker shock on material prices. Government sent 13 trainloads of plywood to Iraq over a year ago and the prices haven't come back down nearly enough from the spike that caused. Two plants were shut down, one for retooling, another from a fire in Quebec. The remaining plants could not meet demand, especially after last year's hurricane season. Add in fuel increases and the premium we already pay for marine grade and....... :peessed:

Yes that was TRAINLOADS!

Don't blame the messenger, please.

hey i got two sheets of honduran mahogany if you need them?
i think it's 1/4' thick. beautifull stuff. think i paid like 175.00 per sheet.

boulter plywood in somerville has all kinds.

:rolleyes: What are ya gonna do...fix yer truck with plywood?

John If I could figure out how to get plywood off a train moving at about 20 mph I could help you every day freght train goes by with at least 15 cars of wood products on it. Not sure where it is all going but a lot of goes down the track everyday. Like someone be ready for sticker shock it is going to surprise you. THomT

Hi John-

Check DBS in Dartmouth, they have decent pricing. JT's on Aquidneck Island has a few sheets left of 3/8" I believe, but marine grade plywood is pretty expensive. The only difference is the layers, not the type of wood used. I redo decks quite a bit for my customers, and just use quality building type plywood. You will have to coat both sides with a layer of sealant, but the extra work saves lots of money off the marine grade stuff. I say don't waste yer money on the marine grade plywood, its twice the price. Can't use pressure treated either, trust me on that one........

I agree with squidler. just use regular grade A plywood and sop it up with catalyzed resin.

__Z__

John,
Watcha doin?
I would third the go regular route.If your going to coat with resin anyway CDX or BC will work just as well.

Bill

You could try Downes & Reader in Stoughton MA too. I think they have some marine plywood even though they specicalize in hardwoods. I think they have a website too and I know Boulter has a website.

What size? How many? Fir? or Okume?
I can get pricing from Atlantic Plywood, my wholesaler in Providence.
What did you have in mind for a decent price? I don't know how much marine ply they sell but I got the ply for my garvey from them and the Okume 1/4" was about 50 bucks or so.

I'm sure you can get 1/2" to 3/4" marine fir from Downes and Reader but it might cost ya a bit, but probably better than Boulter Ply in Sommerville.

I see my dad with Atlantic Plywood pencils all the time, so I would start there. His shop was making interior panels for one of the Portsmouth boat builders, what do you need I may be able to get a deal on leftovers.

If you want to order online
http://plywood.e-boat.net/categories.php
this place seems decent.

Maybe Ed can get you scraps :)

Try GB. If he doesn't carry it he will steer you right

Downes and Reader has 1/2" marine ply in stock. I paid $65 per sheet about 3 weeks ago. I wouldn't use AC ply from your local home center on a boat project, as it is garbage imo. Plywood has gone way down hill since the Iran shipment. If you think about the labor involved to install those sheets of ply on a boat it isn't worth saving a few bucks on cheap plywood.

I agree , get the marine grade. the work is 90 percent of the job , a little extra for the material is not bad. There's a big hardware/marine supply store on narragansett ave on Jamestown. they might have some.

Jamestown distributors?

Ok John what size and how many? How soon do you need it? What are you using it for? I know no one can beat my price for you anyway :wiggle:

I will be doing a few things, primariliy recoring some hatches and second, making some layered "plugs" to cut out and replace holes in the transom(though first in the timeline), third, reglassing my console in areas...

Greg - I will call you :) - probably looking to get something late next week :) 1 or 2 sheets

Is that where the flowers are going to be planted? :jump1:

Thats funny

now that u have your supplier I should have told u that underlayment [multi-layered 5-7 -exterior glue] will do the very same thing without the high cost of the M- ply.....back in the 60's the only reason they used M-ply was because it came in odd sizes 5'x 10' 12' 14' for making skiff's.

hey NIB, nice avatar :kewl:

John, I don't know if you plan to use fir, but if you do and you are going to epoxy over it, you'll need to use cloth (4 oz. or 6 oz.) as well if you want to insure that there will be no checking. Fir tends to check sometimes, and then all that hard work is ruined and ya need to repaint. Just go with Meranti or Okoume if you can. Small parts can always be done with Starboard type products as well.

Okume :kewl:


We use the Okume plywood for building iceboats. The stuff is strong, light weight and the glue waterproof.

Fir will definetely crack along the grain even if epoxied. I have tested that one recently myself. I had a jib boom made of some nice tight grained fir decking and everytime I tried to remove the jib splinters would get caught in the threads of the jibs bolt rope and would grow in size as you pulled the sail off the boom. We ended up opening up the sail slot and dropping a glass composite tube in there and then capped it with a piece of ash. Glued it in with West Epoxy and ran it thru the table saw a couple times to recreate the sail slot. The raw wood was coated with epoxy to seal it up.

A lot of people don't know it but West epoxy was originally created for the building of iceboats by the Gougeon's. They were looking to develop a way to build iceboats without the use of fastners which add weight and sometimes caused the hulls to fail in the extreeme cold conditions. It just so happens to have a lot of other great applications. Use the 207 hardner for a clear coating on nice woods that you intend to varnish.