Lightweight material for cabinet building?

[Robw_z]

VW/Westfalia used wood from some South African tree for their camper cabinets because it's light weight. Hard to get at Home Depot

What wood is recommended for cabinet building? What is the "aluminum" of wood? Thanks for any input.

-Rob

[Ollie W]

I used this stuff for yachts and airplane cabinetry.
http://www.plyveneer.com/plycorr.html

[rmcd]

[Ollie W]

I used to get it from a wholesaler when I had commercial accounts. You could try Crosscut Lumber or Disdero? Shoot, that was 15 years ago, you might be able to get it on Amazon now?

As far as using it, I always cut it as a panel and edged it with solid wood.

[Steve M.]

somebody had thrown out a piece of really lightweight plywood at my warehouse and I asked the woodworker there what it was and he called it "light ply".
google searched the word and got these results:
https://www.google.com/#q=light+plywood

[Howesight]

Rob: Try your local supplier of materials for the cabinet-building industry. Google "formica" and the name of your town or the closest larger town. Here in BC, a Canadian chain called "P.J. White Hardwoods Ltd." is the place to go. Home Depot will not likely have what you are looking for.
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[buildyourown]

Marine okoume plywood is about the lightest thing you can find. Its pretty spendy, but its also pretty strong so you can get away with using thinner which makes it even lighter.
I used it on a truck bed buildout and it ended up very light and waterproof.

[Tom Powell]

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/wppages/finnishbirch.php

Aloha
tp

[Love My Westy]

Think about a way to use 1/4" Luan Plywood. It's way strong. My 18 year old FourWheel Camper uses that for sliding doors on the 1/2" lightweight plywood cabinets. I'd think that using a 3/4 x 3/4 strip of fir in the corners you could use the Luan plywood to make a pretty strong cabinet if you screwed and glued it together. It's available at Lowes or Home Depot.

[bjrogers86auto]

There are building techniques for lightweight cabinet construction. One I used for a Chuck box called "skin and bones" keeps things very light using standard materials.

Brian
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86 Vanagon GL Westfalia 2.1
18 Nissan Frontier Pro 4X
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A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. Calvin and Hobbes.

[Merian]

you want to use hexcell, which is what is used for the partitions (think bathroom bulkhead) ini passenger aircraft

Aircraft spruce or use google

I have a panel from a friend at Boing Boing and it is very light

you can do some dumpster diving at selected locations to get it cheap
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[kalavinka]

For the best off the shelf option I would recommend Baltic Birch Plywood also called Russian Ply by some suppliers. It comes in 5'x5' sheets and thicknesses are metric but pretty close to 1/8", 3/8", 1/4" etc...
This is a display cabinet I made several years ago using flight case hardware and I think 1/8" Baltic Birch Ply. It was tough! About 5' in height and width.
Hope this helps.

[geodude]

End grain balsa with hardwood veneer or thin lamination of fiberglass is both very light and very stiff.
http://www.airexbaltekbanova.com/products/banova/banovareg-ply-ilo.html
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1988 GL Camper
1991 Multivan — the basket case

[Merian]

[canasync]

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Custom Lift
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1985 2wd Vanagon Pre-runner in the making
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[Robw_z]

In addition to the balance between strength and weight, I need to strike a balance between a lightweight material and cost

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm hoping for something I can find locally, in a landlocked city with no big-league marine supply stores.

For the curious, as I am, it is my understanding Westfalia used White Limba wood from South Africa for their cabinets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminalia_superba

-Rob