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[rickm]

Not that kind of wood, you perverts. 2x4x1/2 birch plywood. One board will become indo boards, the other a paipo.

On that, a few questions.
1) Nose. I was going to bend the nose up a tad but as this isn't marine ply I don't want to chance having the glue come undone. Would this be an issue with standard plywood? I could just sand the bottom up a bit so there is a rise...hard to describe but make the nose 1/4" thick, taking 1/4" (if that) in a gradient starting a few inches back.
2) Bottom. Leave it flat, put a little channel in it or roll it a bit, ie take 1/8" or so off coming from say 4" from the inside so it sorta is convex.
3) Spar or polyurethane? With both, should I mix some varnish/poly together first and wipe it down a few times before a final coat but after paint? The top will be plain birch with a logo my daughter drew, a cherry red border and the bottom will be all red. I was going to varnish with deluted poly then paint then use a few more coats.

[OG-AZN]

I've shaped some nose lift & put some roll in the bottom /rail like you're contemplating on most of my boards. Seems to work well. I used hot water to put some rocker on a board made of generic ply, and that board didn't last. However, it has been pointed out on this forum that the glues used in even generic ply should be water/boil proof. Maybe the failure was due to the already weathered/poor condition of the wood I used.

[rickm]

This is a really nice piece of birch ply. I pulled all of them out and looked at each. Was going to use standard ply but this was a lot nicer, no gaps in the ends or anything of that nature.

I drew two out tonight - a slim one and a mini sim design.

[Uncle Grumpy]

Typical Birch ply (now mostly Russian in origin) is made with waterproof glue but make sure you get a nice thick finish on your boards, especially the edges.
Despite the waterproof glue, Birch ply is made for interior use and the birch used for making birchply has very low rot resistance.
_________________
Prone to ride.

[RNT808]

I've had pretty good luck finishing plywood paipo with a process that I learned from a guy that used it to finish ornamental wood features on cars.

Once the board is shaped and sanded I wipe on Minwax Spar urethane thinned with mineral spirits. About one to one; sometimes as much as two parts MS to one of spar urethane. The wood really soaks it up. Usually I'll apply three or four coats. Once that's good and dry I dull the surface with steel wool or 400 grit sandpaper. Then another three or four coats of full strength urethane. With a good dry and light sanding in between. It works great for me but is a little time consuming.

If I'm going to paint the board I'll dull the sealer coats and then use a spray on primer to give the paint something to really stick to. I usually use spray paint on the boards. Once painted it gets the full strength urethane treatment mentioned earlier.

[rodndtube]