Sealing Plywood

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BAtoo

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I am replacing the plywood floor in my Squib. Whats the best/right stuff to seal the cut edges with.

Varnish
PVA
I've got spare paint - one pot gloss, 2-pot undercoat, 2 pot-topcoat.
Epoxy.

The floor will get wet with both rain and seawater but won't be submersed - hopefully :eek::eek:.
 
I am restoring an old Mirror dinghy and intend to seal the ply with epoxy as it was tape and epoxy glued / sealed originally. I then plan to coat the hull in epoxy to seal it.
I am also interested to hear opinion here on the the best stuff.
 
Thin Epoxy Is Drawn Into End Grain of Ply Layers

There is a special Epoxy product for sealing ply edges. It has very low viscosity and gets drawn into the edge ply and seals quite deep in. From another post on this subject: -

This is a product which is known as CPES (clear penetrating epoxy sealer) in the States and is epoxy based but very thin.

http://www.mbfg.co.uk/epoxy-resins/e...xy-primer.html

It will soak into the ply and seal it from any future water ingress. you will however need to replace the rotted ply first by cutting back to good wood and then coat with this. It wont do anything for the rotted ply but is much better at getting into the wood than normal epoxy. Three or four coats will completly seal the wood.
Click to expand...

A link to the actual product mentioned above: http://www.mbfg.co.uk/epoxy-resins/eposeal-300-epoxy-primer.html
 
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Epoxy for the edges and underside, applied with a hot air gun to warm it. It will go thin and penetrate nicely.
For the top, two pack varnish if you want a clear finish, else epoxy and paint.
Make sure all the screwholes are sealed.
 
Epoxy resin is the right stuff to seal timber or ply, for the end grain you can thin epoxy resin with Methylated spirits, cheap and it works well, thin the resin by weight or volume up to 30% after mining the resin and hardener.

If you plan on painting it you will need to apply and epoxy primer first, and there are some high UV blocking varnishes available.

Re the mirror, because it was constructed with epoxy resins you are confined to epoxy resin, not much else will stick to epoxy other than more epoxy.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 
I would suggest a couple of coats of thinned epoxy for the edges, before applying an unthinned coat.

If possible, apply the epoxy in the late afternoon, after allowing the plywood to warm up in the sun during the day - then, as the air within the plywood cools, it will contract and help pull the epoxy into the voids.
Same technique applies to any sealing coats of varnish.
 
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