Joining Sheets In Plywood Boats

For an instant boat the usual manner of joining the panels together to get one long panel is with a butt strap or butt plate.

Joining sheets in plywood boats.

Plywood is used as a sheet material in the majority of plywood boats including stitch n glue. This is the most common type of construction used by the home. The most common methods of joining plywood are variations of the butt joint and the scarf joint. On each design page the method is listed under hull in characteristics.

Plywood is also used in cold molded construction and multi diagonal planking. As shown in the sketch the two plywood panels to be scarf joined are aligned on the edge of a flat table or a sheet of 3 4 plywood. The instant boats developed by phil bolger use simplified framing and stitch and glue style plywood sheet joining and bulkhead gluing. See more ideas about boat plans plywood boat plans boat building.

Easiest is to butt the two pieces end to end then laminate a length of 50mm 2 wide glass tape onto the outside. The special 16 foot plywood had been made that long by joining two standard 8 foot sheets. I have two concerns though. Joining plywood sheets almost any boat you build from plywood will require panels longer than 8 except some very small dinghies.

Always cut the plywood panels to the minimum width as wide panels are more difficult to join. Almost any boat you build from plywood will require panels longer than the 8 lengths you will find at the lumberyard. May 15 2017 explore tom edom s board one sheet boats on pinterest. The most common methods of joining plywood are the butt joint with backer block the scarf joint and a hybrid between the two.

Scarfing is tapering of both sheets in the area of connection in order to have a bigger contacting surface. There are three popular methods of joining plywood sheets scarfing butt blocks and fibreglassing. Taped joints are the simplest way to join plywood in small boats with sheet thicknesses of 4 6mm. Second since i ll have to join the bottom and sides with a batten etc i d like to know how thick the plywood can be for me to be able to bend it and still meet my goal.

They range from very small dinghies to power and sailboats 25 to 30 feet long. First i don t know if it s a good idea to build a boat with 1 4in plywood. In that case the hardwood trim could be about double the thickness and half the width of the plywood butt strap. Many boat parts require plywood lengths greater than the standard 8 feet so joining together two panels of plywood is an important step.

As an example at a 1 12 ratio 1 4 thick plywood would have a scarf joint length of 3. From jim michalak s boat designs.