1/8 luan - where do you find that ?

[bobhenry]

Here is a 9" radius done with 1/4" cheap box store luan.

Hot water and a towel was used to soak the area for 10 - 15 minutes and continued to wet down as I formed the curve without incident.

Let it dry thoroughly in the sun after fastening and it finished with marine spar varnish without any hint of having been wetted out.

[Jim Marshall]

If someone wanted the thickness and still a very tight bend, cabinet suppliers have what is called bending plywood. I have used it many times and have pulled a 1 foot radius easily. It will make all kind of cracking sounds but it will not crack.

The down side to using bending plywood is you must have your staves in the bend running in the direction of the bend as all the grain runs in one direction and will bend in only one direction. Unlike regular plywood it will droop and wave easily unless supported correctly. We used the bending plywood on nursing stations and such at hospitals and covered with HPL (Formica).

Using this plywood on a tear would defeat the purpose of light weight. I used the 1/8 inch baltic birch on my build and it was very stiff once in place. I got the baltic birch in 5X5 sheets and it worked perfect for all my build as I made sure my hatch worked out at 5 foot. The rear of my tear was a very tight bend and 1/8 inch was tough but on the second try it made it.

Judy and I camped many times in the tear and good friends of ours bought the little tear and they still runs the tires off it.

[tcolar]

@BobHenry: that dog house is so neat !

Another question on the sandwich construction:
Do you use any fasteners to build the sandwich or glue only ... this 5mm stuff is probably to skinny to hold a screw, but can I use maybe staples or brads to the skin in place while glue cures ?

[kennyrayandersen]

@BobHenry: that dog house is so neat !

Another question on the sandwich construction:
Do you use any fasteners to build the sandwich or glue only ... this 5mm stuff is probably to skinny to hold a screw, but can I use maybe staples or brads to the skin in place while glue cures ?

The staples/nails won't do much in the foam core -- glue is WAY stronger. You could tack it at the edges if you close it out in wood, but several of the guys vacuumed it with the shop vac, which is probably good enough for who it's for...