Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[glennb2006]

Hi there,

does anyone know where I can get some 1/4" (Oops - sorry, 6mm) marine ply from, I am after five ply. I have found plenty of it but it all seems to be three ply.

Need about 2' square. (There I go again, 600mm x 600mm)!!

Thanks in advance, I am sure you guys will know where to find it.

Glenn

[ukengineman]

You could try SLEC, they do a comprehensive range of woods
http://www.slecuk.com/
Alan

[Youngat65]

Glenn never never apologize for using imperial measurements one it shows your age and two it tends to say your a true Englishman  ::)  ::)

[Colin Bishop]

Also, Imperial is a much more flexible system than Metric which isn't fraction friendly.  :)

[FullLeatherJacket]

http://www.fitchetts.co.uk/index.html

This is my local timber supplier in Nottingham, although I would heartily endorse SLEC as mail-order specialists. If you check out the Fitchetts website under "Plywood", you'll find that 6mm Russian Birch ply costs £12.77 + VAT for a 5' x 5' sheet. That is pretty good value compared with model shop prices for the same stuff. I've used their 9mm sheet and it's excellent (and 5-ply). It might be worth checking out your own nearest timber importers if you want a larger quantity than a couple of square feet e.g. for a club purchase.

As for fractions, I'm sorry I have to disagree with The Admiral but Imperial is flexible?? What does flexible mean in this context? And exactly why is "fraction-friendly" such a boon? Try this one for Imperial weight: a hundredweight is 1/20 of a ton; a stone is 1/10 of a hundredweight, while a pound (of which an ounce is 1/16) is 1/14 of a stone. Even sillier is linear measurement i.e. an inch is 1/12 of a foot is 1/3 of a yard is 1/22 of a chain is 1/10 of a furlong is 1/8 of a mile.......... get outta here!!

Colin - I hope this one of your wind-ups. Those of us who went to school in the 50s and 60s are used to thinking of certain things in Imperial because even now it's difficult for us to imagine, say, someone's height in metres without having to convert it mentally to feet and inches. Having said that, as a designer, draftsman and seasoned user of such tools as AutoCAD and digital callipers I can't imagine trying to work in Imperial. I can recognise each small increment on my rule and callipers as a millimetre and I know that if I enter a length into AutoCAD it doesn't offer me a list of N different possible units for that length (OK - so the Architectural Units are Imperial, but they aren't using metric plywood, dowels and styrene sheet).

As for being a true Englisman well, I was born and bred here and I might have a small and simple mind but it's not closed to everything yet!

[Colin Bishop]

Sorry FLJ, I was thinking a bit narrowly there! I largely agree with your comments about weight but the 12 based system is quite useful in giving more direct scaling options as I have heard many people attest. Being brought up in the 50s/60s I tend to use both systems according to which is most convenient although I wouldn't want to inflict Imperial on today's schoolkids. I really love those mm to the foot scales too! Also, my 1:1 scale boat was built in 1983 and many of the key measurements are Imperial although most of the bolts and rigging holding her together seem to be metric.  ::). And remember, the great US of A is still firmly wedded to Imperial in many respects which is why they c***ed up that Mars shot a few years back. And don't get me started on the variations on tonnage  . The Metric system is just a whim of Napoleon's, personally I'd go for cubits and the Egyptian inch 

[FullLeatherJacket]

Admiral
You're forgiven on this occasion........

[anmo]

I think we've been through this Imperial v Metric discussion before, and it's never going to be resolved. I talk dimensions to people on the phone every day, and have found that younger people often only understand metric, and many older ones barely have a clue about anything other than imperial, so I just have to be multilingual in this respect. Probably like many here, I'm perfectly happy working in either system, or even in both at the same time, they both have their advantages & disadvantages, and it's just a case of which one happens to be more convenient for the job in hand. For example, it's easier to mark a sixteenth of an inch using a rule than it is to mark 1.5mm, even though those two measurements are almost exactly the same. But as Mr Jacket is wont to say, suit yourself.

[Roger in France]

I think you chaps just do it to wind me up....Imperial V Metric !!

The problem you folk have in the UK is a series of wishy-washy Govts. which won't make their minds up. So, you end up with a half baked system which is a bastardised mixture.

Napoleon may have had some wrong ideas but he had the resolution to push through some very difficult changes. He did not introduce the Metric system on a whim, he did it because the many "tribes"   which came together to form France, DEMANDED a common measurement system.

Do not mention the USA as they do not have the Imperial System. They buy and sell in 1/10 of pounds not ounces and their gallon is the old Winchester Gallon, not the Imperial Gallon.

I don't know which system is "best". I just prefer using whichever system serves my present purpose. Sometimes I even use my own system..."about this big"..."about 2 this big" and "say 10 times as big".

Next I guess you will try to wind me up on the Euro! (And to support you doubters, the "Mayhem Spellchecker" does not even RECOGNISE "Euro"!!!!)

Roger in France.

[glennb2006]

 :) Oops,

looks likle I did it again. Thanks for the answers reference plywood. Will give the Nottingham people a go, passing by there on Monday on my way to Sunny London-for my sins.

Cheers,

Glenn.

[tobyker]

Re metric/imperial, and not of course bothering to score the point that the frogs got the answer wrong anyway, I am sorry to say that that most British of all artefacts, the original Bentley motor car, was drawn in mm.

[bobdoc]

I agree with Roger in France. Other measures include: some; just a bit; a lump; a dose (pleural = doses); a suppie, a smidge, och that'll be fine; a wee drop.

In fact I think I'll go a fetch a wee drop for a night cap just now!

Bob

[Roger in France]

Bob, you forgot "a tad"; "a smidgen"; "about half"; "near enough"; "just over a quarter"; "a little"; "a lot"; "much more"; "a good fit"; "a loose fit" and in my wife's case, "size 14 which the salesgirl knows (as if by magic) means size 18"!

Roger in France.

P.S. Spell check corrected my spelling of "smidgen" so it must exist!

[DickyD]

Of course smidgen is a real word. I use it all the time.

Not forgetting an " eighth and a little one" which is halfway between an eighth of an inch and a quarter of an inch

Richard. 

[anmo]

My first gainful employment many years ago was in a photographic studio, and that's where I was taught that the smallest measurement known to man was 'A gnat's .....'. Everything there was imperial, and being associated with printing, like everyone in that part of the industry, we worked in 6ths and 12ths of an inch. These were called an Em and an En respectively, and both words have won Scrabble games for me from time to time over the years.

[FullLeatherJacket]

Glenn
Be aware that they won't normally cut the sheet down for you on-the-spot, so either ring them first and arrange something or make sure you can fit a full sheet in your motor. They're easy to find from the Ring Road if you're heading south. PM me if you need directions.
Anmo
Standard unit of machining tolerance, learned during my apprenticeship, was an anafi...............you work it out!

[RickF]

Don't forget the all-embracing "Close enough for a Government job", beloved by defence contractors everywhere.

Rick

[bigH]

   Well here in Wales we work in UMS  you know, b****r  um that's good enough.

[glennb2006]

Thanks for all the replies to my query. I got my wood in the post today from Slec. Top notch.

Cheers everyone.

Glenn