Andy Mace suggested a quality marine plywood/veneer as being more
stable than solid hardwood. He's right. The stuff is designed and
produced for use in the most hostile environment for wood (short of
fire) imaginable. Solid woods are fine but in applications exposed to
the weather, you run into problems with the grain. Since the grain is
through the wood and all in one direction, solid woods are prone to
crack and split along the grain. Plywoods are laid up of thin layers
of wood with the grains of each layer rotated 90 degrees from the previous
layer. Thus one layer (ply) may split but the crack won't go all the way
through the piece. If you think about it, the factory used plywood, (not
for cost reasons, but for stability.) and the reason most dashboards are
refinished or replaced is because the veneer cracked or the glossy finish
coat has failed, not for structural failure.
Two things to remember about plywoods. One is that the edges are hard to
seal and finish. You have a combination of long grains and end grains which
means high absorbancy of your finish material. But it can be done. The other
thing is that plywood fails by de-laminating. Once the glue holding it
together fails, plywood falls apart like a stack of playing cards. The
way to avoid this is to finish and seal all sides and edges thoroughly.
That includes *inside* all the holes you drill/bore for your instruments
and switches.
Rik, Somewhat closer in wood sense to Al Borland than Andy Mace, Schlierer
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Rik Schlierer "Weekends don't count unless you
RGS03@HEALTH.STATE.NY.US spend them doing something
NYS DEPT OF HEALTH, ALBANY NY completely pointless" (Calvin)
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