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Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:55 am
by Billinthedesert
I was in Lowe's this morning and wandered past a unit of this 5mm poplar plywood from Patriot Lumber. It is clearly labeled for interior use only. Wondering if anyone has used it in Teardrop/TT construction.

http://www.patriottimber.com/RevolutionPly-Plywood.php

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:28 pm
by MtnDon
If/when it gets wet it delaminates readily.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:47 pm
by working on it
Their warranty lists so many caveats that it seems they actually warranty nothing, and certainly won't cover extreme usage, like camping usage in a teardrop, nor in such a non-standard application. Just buy regular plywood, and soak it in the mix. IMHO

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 7:51 am
by Billinthedesert
Figured as much, darn it. It is good-looking material.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 11:01 am
by tony.latham
Billinthedesert wrote:Figured as much, darn it. It is good-looking material.


FInd some Baltic birch. You can throw a chunk in a bucket and leave it there for a month. Pull it out and dry it off. No delamination, no swelling.

The biggest cost of building a teardrop is labor. (I get the willies when I see folks using OSB.)

T

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:53 pm
by Billinthedesert
Tony, I am with you on OSB. Yuck. I'll visit a couple of the real lumber yards and ask about Baltic birch. It is probably the most-mentioned plywood on TNTTT and sounds like wonderful, affordable stuff.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:20 pm
by Tom&Shelly
Billinthedesert wrote:Tony, I am with you on OSB. Yuck. I'll visit a couple of the real lumber yards and ask about Baltic birch. It is probably the most-mentioned plywood on TNTTT and sounds like wonderful, affordable stuff.


I called Rugby in Albuquerque a month ago, and they had some Baltic birch in stock for about $11 a sheet (1/8" 5'x5'), if you want to go that far. Please don't buy him out though, we haven't bought ours yet. :) They are not open on weekends and don't deliver to residences. Our hauling trailer is a 4 by 8 Harbor Fright with fenders in the way, so we have to figure out how to get it home safely.

I have great hopes for the Baltic birch: We want to use it on our interior walls as well as for the head liner and roof. The AC plywood we bought from RAKs (Edgewood) has cracks on the A side; we found better quality stuff from a Lowes in Albuquerque. My home builder knew Hunter from Hunter lumber in Edgewood, and said Hunter retired and sold his business to RAKs because he was tired of dealing with customer dissatisfaction with the worsening quality wood from his distributors.

Tom

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:23 am
by Billinthedesert
Tom, I may very well have to travel to ABQ or El Paso, although Las Cruces may have what I need. I guess I need to get that 5X8 Northern Tool trailer here soon, so I can haul plywood. I don't have the roof rack cross members for my Forester and good ones would cost 2/3s of the cost of the NT trailer. First I have to check with Foxworth-Galbraith and 84 Lumber here in Alamo, as they may have what I need -- or can order it for me.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 12:45 pm
by NorthEGPhoto
Well, i used it to skin my build and do the interior, and coated it with 4 coats of behr alkyd paint. it was stored in a barn, it did get wet. I guess we'll see in a few years if my choices are available for public shaming.

When I was working with it, I noticed it was pretty damn tough to get a screw started on it, and it seems to be fairly tough to scratch up. You can see me applying it in my build thread, though it is a time lapse.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:04 am
by JamesDixonLR
I bought a few sheets of 5mm RevolutionPly to use as the interior walls and ceiling. Six days ago I cut two sheets to fit and left the 2 inch wide strips leaning up against the house. It's rained every day since and they have stayed wet or at least damp for the first foot or so all this time. There is no sign of delamination or anything. They look like they will be fine once dry. I remember someone said the manufacturer said it was made with exterior glue though they don't advertise that.
Makes me think it might make a good skin once covered in paint.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:23 am
by working on it
JamesDixonLR wrote:... I cut two sheets to fit and left the 2 inch wide strips leaning up against the house. It's rained every day since and they have stayed wet or at least damp for the first foot or so all this time. There is no sign of delamination or anything. They look like they will be fine once dry. I remember someone said the manufacturer said it was made with exterior glue .....
  • If you can, move those strips to a drier location, and lay them flat. I had (have) doors cut out from the profile of the walls, made of solid ABX 3/4" plywood, with phenolic resin between the plies, that were already soaked with "the mix" (polyurethane and thinner), then painted with pure poly, followed by outdoor acrylic enamel (6 coats in all, I think). They were still un-mounted from the trailer, and put aside for about three or four weeks. One stayed flat, and the other became warped.
  • The one that remained flat was left laying (on cardboard) on a concrete shop floor, but the other was moved (by someone other than me), and was leaned against a lathe, next to the shop's roll-up door, for over a week. It was rainy for a spell, and that trailer door was kept wet/damp next to the opened roll-up, while still leaning. When I returned to the shop after that time, I compared the two doors. The one laid flat was still flat, and the one that stood leaning, exposed to moisture, was slightly warped. I tried to correct that by laying a wet towel over it, and put a flat plywood remnant on top, with several heavy brake drums pressing it down, for several days, hoping to flatten it again.
  • I was partially successful, but my street-side door is still slightly warped to this day, and requires some effort to shut (my automotive door seals require a lot of compression, anyway). Though both doors were (and are still) very sealed against moisture, with the plywood converted to almost being "plastic" (after the thorough soaking of "the mix", and all the paint), and will probably never de-laminate, the one did warp anyway. So, as good a material as the RevolutionPly might be, I'd still lay it flat instead of leaning it, especially wet.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:18 pm
by JamesDixonLR
I just brought them in. Today was the first dry day in days and they were too. They are warped , about a 1 inch rise over the 4 foot length. These are 5mm thick so I wouldn't have been surprised if they were warped without getting wet. I laid them flat and put a 20 pound bag on them to see if they would straighten out.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 8:56 am
by JamesDixonLR
One of the two strips straightened out pretty well, the other is still bowed. I took that one and stuck one end in a bucket with 2 inches of water over night. Took it out and it dried just fine. No delamination at all with this stuff. I guess the next thing would be to put it back in the bucket and leave it a while.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:52 am
by JamesDixonLR
Another 24 hours soaking in a bucket of water and the 2" remnant is fine.

Re: Uses for "RevolutionPly"?

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:29 pm
by Tomterrific
I built my entire trailer out of this Rply. When I bought it the label said for outdoor projects. Is it the same stuff? A 1 foot square piece sat outside in the Ohio weather for months without failing. I later heard of solvent based coating will soften the glue used. Sigh! :-(

The tiny camper stays outside all the time and spent last winter without a tarp. We are camping next week.

Tt