monkeyshowpictures
Observer
Nice work. When I get my plans completed I will post them here for anyone who is interested.
Home Built camper for Tacoma
- Thread starter monkeyshowpictures
- Start date
Nice work. When I get my plans completed I will post them here for anyone who is interested.
washington taco
Explorer
Put them up please! Subed!
monkeyshowpictures
Observer
plywood testing
I have been looking for some 1/8"/3mm plywood to use in my camper. Marine grade is the obvious choice but expensive. The other options I've found are Luan (very cheap) and Baltic Birch (not as cheap). Neither of these option have exterior rated glue but many people use non exterior plywood for many surprising applications including boat building. There are a few tests that I have heard of to see how plywood will hold up. One is to put a sheet in the bed of your truck for a year but I don't have time for that. So I am using the boil test. Basically you just boil a small piece of the plywood you are testing for an hour. More about this here http://www.simplicityboats.com/boil.html
Unboiled luan and birch plywood
In the pot
Here are my samples with their unboiled counterparts. After 1.25 hours of boiling both held up great. No sign of delamination in either sample, the birch swelled slightly more than the luan . I will build with the luan which will save me a huge amount of cash.
Morgan
I have been looking for some 1/8"/3mm plywood to use in my camper. Marine grade is the obvious choice but expensive. The other options I've found are Luan (very cheap) and Baltic Birch (not as cheap). Neither of these option have exterior rated glue but many people use non exterior plywood for many surprising applications including boat building. There are a few tests that I have heard of to see how plywood will hold up. One is to put a sheet in the bed of your truck for a year but I don't have time for that. So I am using the boil test. Basically you just boil a small piece of the plywood you are testing for an hour. More about this here http://www.simplicityboats.com/boil.html
Unboiled luan and birch plywood
In the pot
Here are my samples with their unboiled counterparts. After 1.25 hours of boiling both held up great. No sign of delamination in either sample, the birch swelled slightly more than the luan . I will build with the luan which will save me a huge amount of cash.
Morgan
Neither specifically say whether they are exterior rated or not you mean. If they hold to boiling the glue used is exterior rated. (By the way if you have a pressure cooker that helps to really weed out lesser glues running it at 15psi).
monkeyshowpictures
Observer
Well, the lumber guy said that neither of these have exterior glue but judging from my test he did not know what he was talking about. I think sometimes with these imported plywoods the lumber yards don't really know what they are getting. When I actually get my order I will have to retest to make sure that I get the same thing again. Luan is pretty shady and it seems like you never know what you are going to get. Pressure cooker is a good idea. I live at 8800' so boiling is not as hot.
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Yes, it is. I would use baltic birch.
Rbertalotto
Explorer
Years ago when I was in the house building business I attended a seminar on plywood. We were told that ALL plywood used exterior grade glue at that time and this was 20+ years ago.
Before this time they did use "interior" glue. But it didn't make sense to use two different types of glue at that point in time.
I think now we have "Interior/exterior" and "pressure treated"
Before this time they did use "interior" glue. But it didn't make sense to use two different types of glue at that point in time.
I think now we have "Interior/exterior" and "pressure treated"
monkeyshowpictures
Observer
I am planing on using 1/8" ply which is not available in AC. The plywood is really just a core material that supports the fiberglass and epoxy which provide the real strength. Check this out to see how strong this combo can be. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=gt6p46UPmBE&desktop_uri=/watch?v=gt6p46UPmBE Imagine hiting your truck door like that.
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monkeyshowpictures
Observer
Working with fiberglass and resins is pretty simple just start with a slow resin hardener combo so you are not rushed. Do some searches on "stitch and glue" boat building to find a lot of good resources. 1/8" ply is often metric sized as 3mm. The three types I found were luan which is a cheapo low quality product but ok for some applications. Baltic burch, which is nice material but typically only available 5' x 5' sheets. Marine grade ply is the best and is available in several
different wood species. Luan and Baltic burch can be found at lumber yards that supply cabinet makers. Marine can be found at yards that supply boat builders or online http://www.boulterplywood.com/
Its definitely strong but also keep in mind he's hitting that with a larger surface area hammer front on a panel that can flex a bit too. You just gotta factor that all in while deciding what level of performance you personally want and what material combinations to put together. In post 22 of my thread I made up test pieces with different combos and smacked them with a framing hammer as hard (smaller head than that sledge and also swinging much harder), they all cracked to a degree but darn near any light weight material would. In that instance over foam I found 3 layers of 8.6oz glass performed similarly to 2 layers of 8.6and 1layer of 1/8 cheap ply. All of those combos on 2" foam had more panel strength than required for the structure it was just trying to beef off the impact/point load strength.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...op-up-camper-build-thread?p=860140#post860140
All that said I still caution that laminating down plywood and then laminating a layer or two of glass over it is time consuming... give serious consideration to looking into factory FRP sheets to take the place of the plywood and glass, at least for the exterior.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...op-up-camper-build-thread?p=860140#post860140
All that said I still caution that laminating down plywood and then laminating a layer or two of glass over it is time consuming... give serious consideration to looking into factory FRP sheets to take the place of the plywood and glass, at least for the exterior.
monkeyshowpictures
Observer
I've been working on my camper. Did not quite make my first week of May deadline, so we had to spend a few more nights in the ground tents. Here are some pics of my progress.
All the 1/8" plywood pieces cut out on CNC router
A typical panel (this one has some plywood hard paints in it for bolting).
With panels complete assembly begins
6 oz fibre glass laid out.
Glass wetted with epoxy resin
All the 1/8" plywood pieces cut out on CNC router
A typical panel (this one has some plywood hard paints in it for bolting).
With panels complete assembly begins6 oz fibre glass laid out. Glass wetted with epoxy resin