Stuka Jon N

My Feedback: (33)

I know there are not too many scratch buuilders left but does anyone know of a source for 1/8" lite ply in sheets . My usual source for doorskins has dried up. Lowes now sells a product that looks , feels and weighes like masonite. Nothing I want. I need to make a lot of formers for a Don Smith Do-335. Thanks Stuka Jon

Deadeye

SIG, Balsa USA, Tower hobbies.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Rockler has 24x32 Birch 1/8" ply for 11.99 a sheet..
I don't know what you were paying for full sheets so I can't say if thats a good deal.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?O...Select=Details

Ace or True Value may have something.

You might try a local hardwood supply.

I was thinking of 4'x4' sheets of Halex Underlayment from lowes but it only comes in 1/4"
Great stuff if you need 1/4 though.

shotgun06

Try those two places. They sell high quality aviation plywood and it's probably cheaper than from any hobby source.

www.aircraftspruce.com

or

www.wicksaircraft.com

shotgun06

Or maybe this one...

http://www.lonestar-models.com/

airbornrc

My Feedback: (9)

Ask your local building center to get you a sheet of Italian bending poplar. I think I paid around $20 for the last sheet that I bought.

Mark

big6fan

try nationalbalsa.com. they seem to have pretty good prices.

BMatthews

The bending poplar ply is what you want for a cheap liteply source. the luan (often wrongly called mahogany due to the color) door skins are a lot more rare these days since wood grain doors are not in vogue and neither is lluan/mahogany wall panelling. If you find some then I suggest you stock up.

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

I just called my local Home Depot, they have 36 x 80 sheets for "under $9" according to the guy I talked to, who
seemed to know exactly what I was asking for (imagine that!).
I am stopping on my way home to see just what they have.
And they are usually luan, or "phillipine mahogany" as I have often heard it called.
This stuff is the common material used in the Dumas boat kits.
Dave
UPDATE:
They are 36"x84", $7.88 at Home Depot, Item #073291061999. The sheet I bought weighs
about 6 pounds (SWAG). 3 ply, 1/8" as advertised.

Dave

draftman1

most door skins are not made out of ply anymore. they are a veneer laminated on a masonite sheet. most good lumber yards can get 1/8" ply in many different wood types. also cabinet shops use 1/8" for backs and finished end panels. luan mohagany is almost to splintery to use. the end grain really splinters when cut. birch ply is usually pretty good. most home centers won't have much of a selection

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Yeah, it's not the best stuff, but at under 40 cents a square foot, I'd use it for planking boats, non-critical formers,
shipping boxes, etc. For general construction, poplar "lite ply" and birch are usually going to be better. Some of us get a kick out
of building planes and boats using "non-standard" materials like insulation, foam core, door skins, laminating film,
Tyvek, etc!
Dave

UPDATE:
They are 36"x84", $7.88 at Home Depot, Item #073291061999. The sheet I bought weighs
about 6 pounds or 4-5 ounces per sq. foot. (SWAG). It's 3 ply, 1/8" as advertised.

BMatthews

I made a model transport box the size of a coffin a bunch of years back. Luan ply "door skin" material for the sides and 1 inch L mahogany molding for the corners. Glued and stapled the panels to the insides of the L. 3 coats of marine varnish later it looked like something to put in your living room. Very light and easy to move but you sure wouldn't want to use it as a seat. It's been going strong for about 18 years now and seen probably 100 or more excursions out to various contests and flyins.

The moral here is that it's not what you make it out of as long as you make it with deference to the material's strengths and weaknesses. Yes it's splintery but if you use a sharp table saw blade and lower the blade so the tips just barely extend up through the top surface of the wood then most of the cutting pull is kept in line with the material and the pull out is minimal. A zero clearance insert in combination with minimal blade height will all but eliminate the tear out.

But on a band or scroll saw it can definetly get ugly in a hurry. For those sorts of cut jobs it's probably best to stack two blanks and let the bottom part just be a sacrificial tear out prevention piece. As you say the door skin material is cheap enough that you can do this for the more critical parts.

Stuka Jon N

My Feedback: (33)

Thanks for all the reply's guys. Armed with the Home ZDepot sku no I will try to order some. Will get back and report with my results .Stuka Jon

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

My dad is a retired floor layer ("linoleum" as it used to be known)
and he usually used 1/4" luan ply for underlayment. He never ever used a saw, always cut everything
with a hawk-bill linoleum knife (Dexter/Russel, all the rest were "crap"!). He kept it sharp with a good single-cut
file.
Anyway, I now cut most stuff like this with an old lino knife as well, rarely saw the stuff. Yeah, it can be splintery!
Dave

cutaway

Look for luan in the dumpsters out in back. Its often used as a packing material banded to the side of other sheet goods. The corners might be dinged up or it may be busted in spots due to rough handling, but I've scored a number of 2x8 sheets this way with lots of good usable area on them.

Another good source is discarded dressers out on the curb on garbage collection day. The drawer bottoms are often a lite type ply like luan.

draftman1

old doors are a good source of luan. doorshops usually throw them away after doing match ups. cut about 1 and 1/2 " all the way around, to get rid of the wood sides, top and bottom, and then pull the panels apart. scrape the glued on cardboard strips of the backs . 2 sheets that are about 65" x 24" is what you get, depending on the door size of course

pfatz

I was previously in the RV repair biz. I used a lot of 1/8"x4'x8' luan plywood from various Lumber Yards and from the RV Warehouse (Wholesaler). I also got good quality bending ply from the RV warehouse. I usually cut mainly large cuts on a Bench saw and used a Sabre Saw for curves. I never noticed a splintering problem. Perhaps if using the wrong blade, dull one or forcing the cut.

I'd think you could easily find the 1/8 luan(mahagony if you will) at many Building Centers and good Lumber Yards. @ $12/ sheet a while back.

Stuka Jon N

My Feedback: (33)

Returned to Home Depot this AM and was able to find 38" by 80" doorskins. This was at a recently opened HD and it was fully stocked. Thus the doorskins were being carried on inventory. Purchased 4 sheets and they even cut them up for me into smaller pieces for easier storage. Now have enough for several latrge aircraft. Back to the Dornier 335, bring on those formers and ribs now. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Stuka John N

RC RedHots

Hey guys how about this
Scaled up 50% form my 80 inch hots all 1/8" ply at this point in the build all + the ribs 10 lb.
My guess will be around 20-25 lb
121.250 span
Thanks RC Redhots

AA5BY

I just did a rebuild of a Taylorcraft. Stock construction was 1/8" light ply sheeted over with 1/8' balsa for total of 1/4". The rebuild was done with 3/16 luan with all unnecessary areas cut out and no balsa doubler. Strength seems good and weight is reasonable. There was splintering but it was dealt with by lite spackling.

It was 3 ply plus a thin veneer surface and a little attention has to be given to its use to turn the veneer out as it can pull loose fairly easily. Bulkheads should not be glued to the veneer side.

Champ-RCU

My Feedback: (132)

Here's a fellow that was at Joe Nall flyin this past summer. Dealer Imports, Inc. Specialty plywoods,Veneers & Edge Banding, Domestic & Foreign. In Huntersville N.C. , phone 1- 800 - 521 - 6164. Had lite ply in 1/8 and 1/4, also aircraft ply 1/32, 1/64 in large sheets. Didn't get any at the time now I wish I had.

MTY

Highflight

My Feedback: (4)

I'm sorry that so many people are actually having to pay for 1/4" and 1/8" lite ply. It's free if you know where to look. I've got so much stashed away for my giant scale projects that I'm running out of room to put it.

In any reasonable size city, there will be cabinet shops, people who make media centers, and any number of woodworking companies that produce various cabinetry.
Once you walk in and introduce yourself and let the owner know why you'd like some scrap panels, you'll have a permanent source of material that'll fill your garage in a very short period of time.
One such example is a company that sells a huge amount of ply here in Houston. I got to know one of the salesmen, and he called me up a couple of months ago and said that they had about 50, 4x8 full sheets of 1/4" lite ply that had been slightly damaged by a forklift hose breaking and getting oil on one edge of the bundle. The oil stain only went in maybe 3", so a full 7-1/2' of the 8' lengths was perfectly usable.
Anyway, this whole bundle was declared a loss and to be tossed, so the salesman took 25 sheets for himself for his woodworking projocts at home (non-R/C related), and he asked me if I wanted the other 25 sheets (free) which I now have in my garage. That's a lifetime of formers and ribs for giant scale projects.
I also have quite a bit of 1/8" luan, but I'd like more to have in reserve. I'm working on that right now.

All I'm saying is that more good, useable material is being thrown away every day than any one of us could use in a lifetime, and all you need to do is to put yourself between the people throwing it away, and the dumpster.