Posted by JRM on September 29, 2000 at 13:06:18:
In Reply to: Re: stitch and glue posted by Eins on September 29, 2000 at 12:04:07:
Plywood will surprise the heck out of you. Where I live only the morons like myself have solid slab foundations. Everyone else has piers. It has to do with the expansion/contraction of the clay in the soil. My place is built on a huge fill prism, but I still have more cracks in my foundation than I can count.
Heck, I've dropped things heavier than SCUBA gear on the floor growing up. My parents had a small piano moving incident, and if that didn't punch the floor I don't know what would (It certainly punched the insurance of the piano movers. And my dad thought we could do it ourselves. point mom :-). And I've never punched a hole in a wooden boat. I have had someone punch a hole in the side of my fiberglass hobie-cat (got hit by a moron water-skiier, but that's another laughable tale entirely). I have read in boat building literature that marine grade plywood is pound for pound stronger than steel, but I don't know how they measured it (or if I really believe it).
But plywood is pretty amazing stuff. There are plans for boats over 60' with plywood skins, and I figure those take quite a bit of abuse.
And if you're really worried about it, you can always coat it with a layer of fiberglass, but you'll be adding a bunch of weight.
But hey, this isn't a boat building forum, it's a dive forum. I just figured that if someone has a special set of requirements its usually cheaper (and sometimes even easier) to build it yourself. Please exclude parachutes, tanks, regs, and climbing ropes from this argument :-)
JRM