Will plywood bend this much?
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:34 amby AJP
Can I do this bend with a single piece of plywood? Assume each block in the pic is 2 inches
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:53 amby Dale M.
Depends on thickness and way grain (major count in sheet) runs....
Maybe use two thin sheets laminated over bend...
Dale
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:01 amby Miriam C.
Yes it will. You can do 1/8", 1/4" and if you go thicker you will need to cut kerfs but it will bend. You will need to draw 1/4" slowly and may have to wet it. I don't really like water on wood so a slow draw with some ratchet straps might be better.
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:31 amby b.bodemer
This is a 24" radius with 1/4" plywood.
No problem.
Barb
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:32 pmby aggie79
It is doable in 1/4" ply and easy in 1/8" plywood.
BTW, I've seen Barb's TD and it is a work of art.
The bottom radius of my hatch is 10" and I used 1/8" plywood. It really wasn't much effort at this radius.
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:37 pmby AJP
Ok I will try it with 1/4 since I'd rather have a bit thicker material up top. Also does anyone see any issues with my initial galley design?
Posted:
Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:44 pmby dh
Is there a specific breed of ply that bends better?
Posted:
Thu Jul 29, 2010 12:40 amby kennyrayandersen
dh wrote:Is there a specific breed of ply that bends better?
Yes, rather than have the two outside plies go the long direction with the middle going across, the inside plies go perpendicular to the face or sometimes the grain is oriented backward from the standard sheet – anyway, I forget exactly, but it’s softer and easier to bend than regular plywood. It’s sometimes referred to as bendy ply or bendable plywood.
You can also buy the plywood pre-bent (made as a curve to begin with)
http://www.bd-international.com/Curved.htm
Posted:
Thu Jul 29, 2010 8:55 amby cracker39
On the plans for the Squidget GT that I'm working on, I have two options for the front. One ia just 3 flat plywood panels, and the other is two flat panels (top and bottom) with a curved center panel, and it's about a 24" radius.
I did a tight curve on the front of the Squidget with 1/4" plywood and it was hard to get the plywood to curve, but I did it with straps as recommended in a post above. This time I may recommend kerfing the plywood 1/8" deep at 1" intervals. That's a tedious task, but easily done with a table saw.
I'd rather use two layers of 1/8" plywood, but so far haven't found any locally. I'll check further afield for somne 1/8" if I decide to build this one.
