Aluminum sheet and plate in metric sizes

[Daniel Lance]

Does anyone know of any Aluminum Suppliers in eastern Canada that stock marine grade ( 5086 or 5083 ) sheet and plate ? All the Suppliers I have contacted in the eastern and southern U.S. do not .

[marshmat]

Hi Daniel,

Is there a particular reason you must have metric-dimensioned plate?

I cannot think of many situations where it would be particularly problematic to substitute an inch-dimensioned plate of very nearly the same thickness. For instance, 1/4" plate ought to be an OK substitute for 6mm in most applications, since it is only 0.014" thicker than 6mm plate.

[Daniel Lance]

Matt,
Thanks for the reply. I bought a set of plans from Mike Waller of Queensland Australia for a 13m Aluminum Powercat. The boat is designed using metric thickness sheet, plates angle flat bar and square tube. Bare weight of just the hull is around 6526Kg. It is my belief that deviating from "as designed" could incur a weight penalty at best and possible structural deficiencies at worst. I really need to achieve the performance the architect intended.
Daniel

[Luckless]

Contact the architect and talk to them about it. Often sheet metal is produced with a fairly large variance from the stated thickness, so talk to the architect about the impact it will have.

At the very least any decent sized metal yard should be able to hook you up if you're willing to pay a little extra to get stuff they don't normally stock.

[Daniel Lance]

Matt and Luckless,
Thank you both for the advice. I will contact the architect and ask his opinion. It is my desire to do the best job possible when constructing my boat and not do anything I will regret later.

[Clifford Barney]

I have a large quantity (10 tons) of aluminum 5086 from a U.S. Navy warship in Louisiana. I don't know the thickness yet, but we're scheduled to begin breaking it up next week. There is the potential for cut-to-spec for DIY boat builders. Contact me if interested.

[whoosh]

there will be almost no weight addition at all, your 5/32 is almost same as our 4mm, yout 3/16 a touch thinner than our 5, your 1/4 is 6.25mm and so on, one inch is 25.4m, you can work it from there
in other words, 5/32 is 3.9 mm, ten thou under
you are better with 1/8th than 3mm. it is .125 inch thicker and will work with less distortion