Has anyone tried to manufacture 'plymetal' (steel sheet-plywood-steel sheet) panels in-house versus purchasing them from an outside supplier ?

They would be used on a carbody-type d/e loco restoration.

Thanks....

My understanding is that plymetal is still used by trailer manufacturers, like horse trailers, etc.. On E and F units, I believe the material deteriorated pretty badly as the wood rotted and metal rusted, both from exterior rain and washing and also from steam cleaning the carbody interior. Horse trailers face some pretty harsh conditions also, so they may now use some kind of paintlok galvanized and perhaps pressure treated plywood also.

I think you could make plymetal, using something like Liquid Nails to glue it together, but you would need a good flat surface and some good weights to hold it down. I think the manufactured product would have better quality control. Some museums, the railroads, and Amtrak have replaced plymetal sides with 1/8-inch steel panels or fiberglass. If the unit has stainless panels, however, the plymetal is probably the way to go.

At a point in time semi trailers were made with plymetal sides. One that comes to mind is Strick Trailers in Chicago & I know there are/were others I would bet that if it's avavilable a semi trailer maker would be the place.......................................Wooly

The design goal of Ply-Metal is to have a thin metal skin that is backed up by some material rigid enough to prevent the panels “drummingâ€

The material is still available from a number of different suppliers. In fact, it is currently used for interior partitions and subfloors on light rail vehicles. The orginal supplier to the rail industry, 'Met-L-Wood' is long out of business.

There are a number of different choices as to metal sheathing (ie, galvanized or aluminum) in varied thicknesses.

The issue I have with the material is that it is only available in 12' sheets-where the original design calls for a number of 16' lengths. Additionally, I believe that the issue of the plymetal trapping water within the wood core is still extant.

While I may investigate some other alternatives (Alucobond:an aluminum-foam-aluminum sandwich), I think the way to skin this particular cat is to use 10 gauge (approx-0.125") sheet sheet suitably braced around the edges ands diagonals with flat bar.

You might want to check the following site:

http://www.trainweb.org/wp918d/index.html

The May 2004 work report discusses the creation of these sides for WP 918.

Mike.

Plymetal is used in about every railroad passenger car I've evere worked on, including those being produced currently for NJT and METRA. Some of the R142 subway cars have plymetal panels which have the edges covered with a formed metal channel, soldered to the top and bottom plymetal to form a water-tight barrier. Most plymetal which isn't protected in that manner has the edges painted, usually with aluminum paint. There are a couple of outfits in New York state producing plymetal these days. One is in White Plains, but I don't remember the name, right off.

Thanks for the tip on the WP918 site. Good stuff...

The idea of manufacturing plymetal panels in-house is certainly intruiging.
Perhaps I will perform a 'make vs. buy' analysis in order to determine the efficacy of using the PLAs' approach within our setting.

At the same time, I have come to prefer the concept of having material made to our drawing that can be bolted into place with a minimum of effort. This could certainly be done with sheet steel sides.

RE: Alucobond

I'd stay away from mixing different metals in this application. Unless the aluminum skin is gasketed to isolate it from the steel framing, galvantic corrosion will cause more problems than water in the plywood cores ever would, and the steel structure, which is the hardest to replace, will bear the brunt of it.