sandeply for kayak skin

Anyone ever use sandeply from home depot to skin a kayak. My plans are another no flare, flat bottom kayak 18' x 22". Once put together, everything will be coated with two coats of epoxy, then sanded and painted. The reason is the stuff feels rigid enough, but it is very light for the thickness (5.5mm). The down side that I can see off the bat is it is soft enough to put my fingernail in the edge with moderate force, but the epoxy would take care of that. I also plan to use bulk heads for side support and will double ply the cock pit, or use a batten as another member here mentioned, before. Anyone feel this wood would not do what I'm gonna be asking of it?

 

I thought this stuff looked great when I first saw it.
Grabbed the first piece off the stack to lift it off and the edge de-laminated in my hand.
When I rubbed my finger over the edge, it de-laminated even more.

Don't use it. even coating it in epoxy will not fix the lamination joint between layers.

Looks nice though.

 

a lot of people use door skin plywood, if you can find it with exteiror grade glue, it would be an excellent low cost skin. Just watch out for voids when you cut it.

there are lots of inexpensive door skins that use interior glue; hypothetically once finished and sealed no moisture will get to the glue. Reality is moisture will work its way in and will start delaminating, and it will fall apart soon after. So cheap imported marine grade plywood is what most people use, or the not so cheap quality marine plywood.

I build skin-on-frame, fabric skin, no plywood at all.

 

Edensaw, who's a Huge lumber supplier for boats/boat projects carries it in their marine plywood section. Albeit not in the thickness(es) of which I think you're ponderings. http://www.edensaw.com/MainSite/Store1/StoreProducts/ProductList/413

Still, that said:
- They may be able to order quality offerings in thinner sheets
- Odds are they know a bit about it, & it's prospects for use in your project
- You might get lucky, & they'll steer you to a builder who has a lot of experience with it
- If it's ruled out, they may have some other options which you hadn't thought of.

I can't imagine it'll hurt to call them.

 

Sande Marine Plywood and Sande Plywood are two different products. The marine is built to the APA marine AA standard, while the regular stuff is considered a finished cabinet grade (AB). This cabinet grade stuff is what you'll get from the big box stores and it'll delaminate just with the mere mentioning of the word delaminate. It's usually not a balanced sheet with, paper thin surface veneers, typical of cabinet grades (including the marine stuff) and really can't be trusted for much. At $40 a sheet for 1/4" (6 mm) Sande Marine from Fiberglas Supply, it's not any savings over a 6566 meranti sheet (Aquatech), though the Sande sheet will be slightly lighter, it'll also have the occasional void, imbalanced veneers and other defects. It's only 15% cheaper than a 1088 meranti sheet. The general consensus is that by the time you sand out the raised grain after the first coating, you've worn through the outer veneer. I wouldn't use this stuff, regardless of how insistent a client might be, unless it was for interior trim.