: I've cut out two of the five plywood cross sections for my interpretation of
: Brian Schulz's F1 with Tom Yost's construction technique and will have the
: rest finished by the end of the night. In a total lapse of judgment, I
: ended up buying Birch "cabinet grade" plywood rather than
: exterior grade. (It was too hard to resist the beautiful veneer at a much
: lower price!)

: My logic at the time went something like "I'll slather on some epoxy to
: seal it, and get a the beauty and thickness of this wood for cheap."
: I'm wondering how exactly I should go about sealing it though. Epoxy would
: probably be ideal, but it's expensive and I can easily imagine the low
: density end grain drinking up a few coats. Is there something which would
: work as well but is a lot cheaper? I don't really have any experience with
: wood finishes. I'm thinking maybe a small can of that clear hard wood
: finish could suffice? It might be called "polycrylic" or
: something. Is there a hardware store chemical which would seal as well as
: epoxy? If it comes down to it, I'll take superior protection over price,
: but if they basically perform the same, I'll save those pennies.

: Thanks,

: Mike Collins

My first boat was a plywood stitch & glue job and the interior was sealed with one coat of thinned epoxy with no speacial treatment of the end grain and has given years of service, however that was marine ply. If I understand your post correctly your proposing to use interior grade ply for the boat hull? If so I would seriously reconsider. Water is pretty tough on wooden boats and considering all the time and effort your going to put in, it would be a real shame to have it delaminate after a short period.