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I'm thinking about stocking up on 3/8" plywood for future boat projects (All but 2 of Gardner's boats can be built from 3/8 marine plywood).  Some of the online dealers like bateau.com mention that they discount plywood when it's purchased by the pallet/lot.  How many sheets of plywood are in a full pallet?  While we're at it, same question for other plywood thicknesses (1/4", 1/2", 3/4", etc.)

Thanks,
Will

Everyone is different, so call Joel at Bateau and ask, he's very approachable. A pallet of plywood, especially the thinner stuff is a lot of plywood.

Thanks!  I figured there was not a set answer, since I couldn't find anything about it online. 

(01-16-2013, 03:09 PM)Will_Lavender link Wrote: [ -> ]... I figured there was not a set answer ...

There used to be a more or less set answer. Plywood is stacked together and strapped onto some sleeper boards to form a bundle with a skid that a forklift can get its tines under. The bundles are then loaded on to rail cars for shipment like so ...



So the bundle height will be an even divisor of the 11' 6" load height of the centerbeam flatcar, minus a few inches. In practice, that leads to stacks like four 32" bundles.

But, fancy Marine-grade plywood comes mostly from oversees. So those bundles will be an even divisor of a shipping container minus some wiggle room for loading. The metric sized Okume I bought for my Weekender came from a 24 inch tall bundle.

If you know the bundle height, you can simply subtract and inch and a half for the sleeper boards and banding, and divide the remainder by the actual thickness of the plywood, which is usually 1/32nd less than the nominal thickness for the thicker sheets, ie 23/32 instead of 24/32 for a 3/4 inch sheet.

So there ought to be about 60 sheets of 3/8[sup]ths[/sup] inch plywood in a 24 inch bundle.  I hope you will be building a few boats.

But we don't know the bundle size for sure, so you better do as Paul says and just call.

If you do order a bundle, make sure you have it delivered all the way to your door step, or you might end up like this guy ...



:

A 24 inch bundle is 60 ft[sup]3[/sup] of plywood, which should weigh north of 1800 lbs.

Cheers,
Tom

Haha!  He didn't distribute his load evenly!  ;D

Even worse and to add to the confusion is the fact that most marine plywood is resold, which often means repalleted. There are also weight considerations. I usually get 54 sheets of 3/8" or 28 sheets of 3/4" or 80 sheets of 1/4" per pallet. Though does vary with supplier.