World Panel Marine Lumber

 01 Sep 23:

It takes time to build a boat, and we want to optimize the use of our time by using good boat building lumber. We are lucky to have a World Panel store nearby in Windsor, NC where we can pick up a variety of marine grade lumber. A few days ago we took a trip with Super Sandy and Huey II to grab some 2x4 douglas fir and sapele plywood. They have many other species available, we picked up some solid sapele and teak on the last trip. 

It's like being in a candy store.

One interesting stack had teak plywood with holly stripes. 

We'll use the plywood for a table top, we needed a ten foot by two and a half long piece of wood that will stay dimensionally stable, but lightweight and thin. The void free sapele plies and marine grade adhesives will take care of that. The douglas fir is slated to make a mast and booms for a wooden Sunfish.

Video: https://youtu.be/SMadGQW6FaE

World Panel has their location here to service the needs of mid Atlantic builders, including folks putting together some mighty fine boats out on the Outer Banks. There is another store down in Florida and they will ship from either location at reasonable prices. The customer service is awesome, they took a lot of time to select my tiny pile of wood bits, while working on a shipment going out the next day for a multi millionaire's new build.

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.

FMI: World Panel