Suggestions for an inexpensive but hardy piece of wood please.

[ajlelectronics]

This is for the entry hatch on the boat, a horizontal pane measuring 500 x 480 x 18mm and currently in (marine?) plywood with the edges 'veneered' and that is warped and coming off.
I would like to replace it with a nice piece of wood which doesn't need the edges covered up. I looked at Pine at the woodyard, but that was going to cost me £60 for the smallest piece they had, which was 1800 x 600. I was offered Oak too, at more than double!
I will be using a coloured varnish on it, in Antique Pine and I didn't want to have to refurbish the original due to security although I have already sanded and clear varnished the top surface.

My fallback plan is to cut up some Contiboard as a temporary stopper and then sort the original.

 

[barracuda816]

What about some furniture board or wooden worktop off cut? Not super water resistant but a decent PU clearcoat would help.

 

[Mark 5]

This is for the entry hatch on the boat, a horizontal pane measuring 500 x 480 x 18mm and currently in (marine?) plywood with the edges 'veneered' and that is warped and coming off.
I would like to replace it with a nice piece of wood which doesn't need the edges covered up. I looked at Pine at the woodyard, but that was going to cost me £60 for the smallest piece they had, which was 1800 x 600. I was offered Oak too, at more than double!
I will be using a coloured varnish on it, in Antique Pine and I didn't want to have to refurbish the original due to security although I have already sanded and clear varnished the top surface.

My fallback plan is to cut up some Contiboard as a temporary stopper and then sort the original.

View attachment 515169

Like boats, know little about them but I do like working with timber.

How about Accoya or Marine ply covered in Aluminium.

 

[MattF]

I was offered Oak too, at more than double!

That's a wood which will last, though.

 

[ajlelectronics]

That's a wood which will last, though.

Perhaps I could crowdfund it then? It would leave me with a redundant length (being married ) that I would have no use for, although a cunning plan is forming...

I will measure the door tomorrow, maybe I could do both from one length, which would be nice if pricey.

 

[julianf]

phenolic ply

It won't change shape with moisture content.

 

[m_c]

For something like that, you're probably going to want an 'engineered' wood, aka a bit wood made from multiple other bits of wood, as anything that size from a single bit wood is likely to twist/distort with age/moisture.

 

[ajlelectronics]

For something like that, you're probably going to want an 'engineered' wood, aka a bit wood made from multiple other bits of wood, as anything that size from a single bit wood is likely to twist/distort with age/moisture.

Is that I wonder, why it was made from ply at the start?

 

[m_c]

Is that I wonder, why it was made from ply at the start?

Most likely.
Ply is generally dimensionally stable in the conditions it's designed for, unlike a big flat (especially thin!) bit wood that'll distort depending on temperature and moisture content.

You could make from lots of small bits of wood glued together, but time and effort is likely to exceed the cost of a bit decent plywood.
I say decent, as there is a lot of rubbish quality ply around, but a bit decent marine ply should give a decent edge without needing to edge it.
(I personally think edged ply is a bit naff looking, and would much rather have a nice decent bare ply edge)

 

[hotponyshoes]

When I wanted some odd bits for mine I struggled to get teak anywhere (apparently it's banned/discontinued or something?)

I did find a teak side table at a charity shop for £15 that got chopped up to do most of it.
The rest I did in iroko stained with teak stain. That's holding up really well. Not been oiled again but it's weathering pretty much the same as the teak (which I haven't oiled either!)

 

[Mark 5]

When I wanted some odd bits for mine I struggled to get teak anywhere (apparently it's banned/discontinued or something?)

I did find a teak side table at a charity shop for £15 that got chopped up to do most of it.
The rest I did in iroko stained with teak stain. That's holding up really well. Not been oiled again but it's weathering pretty much the same as the teak (which I haven't oiled either!)

I thought Teak was just another name for Iroko?

 

[cocker]

Get yourself down to your local auction house .
You'll pick up old (Victorian/Edwardian) furniture for not a lot .
Sounds a bit wrong but that's where I get my oak/teak/mahogany from , just have a look to check it's not veneered .
Big tables are hard to move and can go for next to nothing !

 

[cocker]

Just checked last auction , Victorian gate legged oak dinning table , sold for £10 !
Three slabs of oak plus the Legs and frame for wood bothering .

 

[Pete.]

Back in 2018 we sent several 40yd bins of teak window frames to the biomass chipper. Pieces 12 foot long 6 inches by 1.5". i wasn't in charge of that work of I would have found a way to salvage that lot but the guy in charge was only interested in metal as scrap - he couldn't see any value in bits of wood.

 

[Keith 66]

Back in 2018 we sent several 40yd bins of teak window frames to the biomass chipper. Pieces 12 foot long 6 inches by 1.5". i wasn't in charge of that work of I would have found a way to salvage that lot but the guy in charge was only interested in metal as scrap - he couldn't see any value in bits of wood.

If it was real Teak that was simply a crime. Old growth teak is now virtual unobtainium with most on the market currently plantation grown & of much lower quality. Good stuff is a prohibited import though i dare say there must be a considerable black market in the stuff to fuel the demand for teak on superyachts.
To put it into perspective 12ft x 6" x 1.5" is .75 of a Cubic foot. Currently prices for good quality Teak are running to £400 a Cu ft or more so each of those skipped planks was £300 quids worth at todays rate.
I have had three good scores of teak over the last 30 years, one lorry load of duckboards from a Telephone exchange, A load of 14ft 8x2's, And two years ago a 2 ton lorry load of floorboards. I have had a few yachtsmen approach me with stupid low offers but i wont sell it now as the price is only going up.
I have two nice projects that will put a fair dent in it but the rest is my pension!
As said auction houses are good sources, even veneered tables often used good mahogany as base timber, I have a good stash of fine Honduras & even some Cuban mahogany, that stuff has been unavailable for over 60 years.
Now if i could only find some Canadian rock elm, that was used up in WW2, creamy coloured & fine grained you can steam ribs for boats & literally tie knots in it. Absolutely impossible to get today.
Anyone would think wood grew on trees!

 

[addjunkie]

Piece of perspex!

 

[Onoff]

Buffalo board.

 

[Ton-up]

I work for a large timber company. As Pete and Keith say, teak is a horrendous price. We have a stock of reclaimed teak and sell small pices as needed. Last year a customer ordered two pieces about 1m long to be machined to a certain profile.
They went into our machining mill ontop of another job and the labourer thought they were bearers and chucked them on the wood burner!

 

[Turbo]

As has been said, solid wood will warp if you use a solid piece.

Scandanavian marine birch ply is probably the best thing but hard to get non Chinese stuff now.

Another option could be glulam. You can get it in 18mm sheets and it is quite decorative when varnished.

 

[Keith 66]

Good quality marine ply is now available from very few sources, Robbins of Bristol do their elite range & then there is the Dutch Brynzeel, always the rolls royce of ply. Unfortunately shipping a sheet from Bristol is prohibitive, earlier in the year i needed 1 sheet of 8mm marine ply & Robbins quoted £380, 2 hundred of that was carriage. Brynzeel was minimum order of ten sheets. I ended up scarfing some second hand stuff together.
99% of so called marine ply sold in timberyards simply isnt fit for purpose. Made in the far east & stuck together with wallpaper paste.