Re: leeboards

Depends on the plywood. Some plywood, especially luan, has face
pieces
that are too thin to contribute much. In those cases, it would be
better to go the other way. Of course if you glass it, it doesn't
matter so much. I'd sit down and calculate at what proportions it's
better to go with the grain of the inner piece, but I'm lazy.

--- Inbolger@egroups.com, "Richard Spelling" <richard@s...> wrote:
snip
> For smaller boards of ply, just make sure the surface grain runs
lengthwise. snip

Scratch that and reverse it. Most of tension is on the surface, use ply in the center, the pine on the surfaces.

The board on Entropy is ply, 1 inch thick. I made sure the grain ran lengthwise on the surfaces on the sides.

For smaller boards of ply, just make sure the surface grain runs lengthwise. If you have a 3/8 board, using 3/8 inch ply, with three layers, and you DONT run it lengthwise, you effectivly have a leeboard 1/8 inch thick...

With a board 1-1/2 inch thick board, you have a lot of leeway. Even if your surface grain is running crosswise, you board is still effectivly 1-1/4 inch thick.

to me to use 3/4" lumber in the center of the board, and 3/8" ply on the faces. I got some nice Ponderosa Pine 1 X 6's with small knots, and used Fir MDO for the outsides.

First I predrilled the ply about 3/16" in a pattern to clamp it to the face of the edge glued 1 X 6's. Then I glued the lumber and clamped the edges. Next, I screwed them to the first piece of ply. After that, I laid down the second piece of ply, and screwed that down.

This system might not work on small leeboards, but I think you could use 3/4" lumber, and 1/8" ply for a total thickness of 1". For even smaller boards, rip 2X to 1/2" thick strips and, again use 1/8" ply for the face giving 3/4" thickness.

I have posted a couple of snapshots of the process here:
http://www.egroups.com/files/bolger/Lee+board+construction/

Chuck Leinweber
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