Steaming/bending plywood

[mikeoz22]

Just a technical question to the members - I have to put a new plywood interior on the front of the valiant as the old stuff was stuffed beyond repair. How do I get the curve on the plywood so that it follows the profile of the outside cladding? I've seen the threads on steaming ply but don't have a steamer - are there other ways of achieving the shape? - the ply is 3mm - any suggestions please?

Cheers

Mike

[greedy53]

there is a product in ply called bendy ply it can bend eather way long ways or across ,ask your local timber supplier or bunnings it makes this type of work child easy

[overlanda]

The ply wood on older Viscounts were bent without steaming them, in all my years of working on caravans i have never had problems bending ply just take your time and support the whole sheet evenly and don,t force it . Regards Gerald

[Roehm3108]

Agree with overlanda, 3mm ply should cope with the bend you're after without steaming

[Franklin1]

G'day Mike,

There is a limit to the radius that 3mm ply will bend around. I can tell you that the imported 3mm lauan plywood that Bunnings sell, will bend around a radius of 480mm or greater. Any tighter than that and you will really struggle with it (and snap it).

If you buy 3mm plywood that's made in Australia, it will bend around a tighter radius than 480mm because the three veneer layers are more equal in thickness than the Bunnings stuff.

The way to test whether the ply you have will bend around the radius you want, is to cut a narrow strip off the short side of the sheet (ie. if you have an 8 x 4ft sheet, you cut a 2" strip off the 4ft edge). Sand the cut edges of the strip to remove any rough cut edges, and then see if it will bend around the curve you want. If the narrow strip will cope with the bend, then a full sheet will cope with the bend.

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Nov 11, 2013 22:47:30 GMT 10 Franklin1 said:

...the imported 3mm lauan plywood that Bunnings sell....3mm plywood that's made in Australia...
cheers,
Al.

At the school I worked at the kids went through heaps of that cheap Bunnings lauan ply. It's foul brittle hardwood stuff and was the cause of constant splinters in students. I always wore thick leather gloves when handling/storing sheets. It snaps with a clap of thunder when breaking point is reached. After many complaints we swapped over to hoop pine ply (Aussie made?) which alleviated most of the splinter problems and much more bendy - but twice the price!
As for steaming lauan or any other ply, unless it's moisture rated, forget it?
Helen.

[mikeoz22]

Thank you for the advice folks - I will give the suggestions a try this weekend. Cheers Mike

[Franklin1]

I agree with your comments, hellsbells, and certainly wouldn't recommend using the lauan plywood for caravans, after having used six sheets of it on the ceiling of my van. It's normally about $13.50 for an 8x4ft sheet, but old Scrooge here thought it was a bargain when they put it on special for $10.50 a sheet. After working with it for a while, I regretted not spending the extra money for some decent quality Aussie plywood.

I'm using Aussie hoop pine plywood everywhere else in the van and the difference in quality between this and the lauan ply is chalk and cheese.

They say you're a "Dumbo" if you keep making the same mistakes, and I certainly won't be making that mistake again.

cheers,
Al.

[mibosa]

Hi Franklin1. You may have noticed my previous thread about installing the new ceiling in my 66 Viscount Ambassador. I commenced to used Bunnings MDF but haven't been happy with that and it's coming out tomorrow. Bunnings sell what they refer as 3mm premium plywood. Do you think this would be suitable for the new ceiling and in mine, for the curve from front to back? Or should I look at a product that wood merchants sell? Regards, Bob.

[cluelesssharon]

Re bending plywood - I propped my ply up against a wall and put flower pots on the floor end of the ply, every few days I placed the pots nearer the wall to get the curve in the ply tighter. Worked for me, have also heard of people tying the ply around a tree with string and pulling the string tighter every week.
Good luck

Sharon

[gilbert]

I just done my Globetrotter front and rear i used 3mm ply it bent no trouble at all i used full sheets.i screwed and glued just worked my way down to the bottom