Saturday, January 29, 2022

World Panel Boat Building Lumber

 29 Jan 22:

I took a road trip to World Panel in Windsor, NC to pick up materials for our Nutshell Pram project and a teak deck chair. World Panel specializes sawn lumber, plywood and composite materials suitable for the marine environment, with another store in Riviera Beach, FL. 

We first loaded a 5x10 sheet of 3/8th inch (9mm) okoume ply for use as a table top, another project. Surprisingly it didn't fit flat  in my 5x10 trailer, I found out it is cut a bit over size, I suppose to account for possible edge damage in transit. For the Nutshell we bought okume 4x8 plywood in 1/4 (6 mm), 3/8th (9 mm) and 3/4 inch (18 mm), a 13 foot piece of 1x8 mahogany, and a 20 foot long piece of 2x4 fir that they cut in half. 


The rough mahogany measures 1 inch thick, in lumber terms it is classed as 4/4 unfinished. If they were to surface all 4 sides (S4S) it would measure about 3/4 thickness and be labeled 4/4 S4S. It is sold in a variety of widths and they figure the price by "board foot." Hardwoods are sold by the board foot, which is a calculation of the wood volume in the board. A board foot indicates a volume quantity equal to a board 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch, or one-twelfth of a cubic foot. The board in the photo is 8.75 board feet at $8.95 per bf, it cashes out at $78.31. It will be used for the keel, rudder bits, gunwales and a few other places, and there will be quite a bit left over for other projects


Skipper also requested some teak to build a deck chair, and since I wasn't sure how much I needed I bought a little extra. We bought 43.50 board feet, way too much, maybe enough to make an entire patio set, At 27.50 per board foot, you do the math. 

Marine plywood is made with waterproof adhesive and the higher grades of plywood are rated by standards, in this case British Standard 1088 (BS1088). The untreated face veneers must have a solid surface without open defects. The okoume we bought is also a hardwood.



Compare to this lumber yard plywood made from fir, a softwood, which has a grainy surface and open defects. We bought this piece to make molds and lamination jigs for the Nutshell, it will be useful and economical for that.



Marine plywood will have more plies, our 6 mm and 9 mm have 5 plies and the 18 mm has 9. The odd number of plies helps reduce warping and deformation.


World Panel ships to many locations, and the folks are very knowledgeable and helpful.

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