Plywood thickness for drawer bed extension

[KPJero]

Hey guys,
I got a used drawer system off of gumtree and it works great. The ply is all 18mm thick and carpeted. I want to add brackets and a piece of plywood that is removable that would go over top of the 2nd row seats when they're folded down so i can sleep in the back. Obviously need to make legs and stuff. My question is, do you think 12mm thick is thick enough for the bed extension part? Bunnings only has 12mm thick in the size of plywood that i need. Otherwise I have to get 18mm and it's the large 2440 x 1200mm sheets..1) i can't fit that sheet size 2) i don't have a use for the left over wood

[nj swb]

Hey guys,
I got a used drawer system off of gumtree and it works great. The ply is all 18mm thick and carpeted. I want to add brackets and a piece of plywood that is removable that would go over top of the 2nd row seats when they're folded down so i can sleep in the back. Obviously need to make legs and stuff. My question is, do you think 12mm thick is thick enough for the bed extension part? Bunnings only has 12mm thick in the size of plywood that i need. Otherwise I have to get 18mm and it's the large 2440 x 1200mm sheets..1) i can't fit that sheet size 2) i don't have a use for the left over wood

I suspect 12mm won't be quite enough for a bed base, but that doesn't mean you can't make it work - worst case, a couple of extra supports, or a brace on the underside.

Have a look at running some small aluminium angle around the edges - flat underneath, vertical up the side of the ply - so your weight is pushing the ply into the aluminium instead of away from it, and the aluminium is in tension - it can't buckle under load). You could also consider another angle through the middle, on the underside, depending on how much clearance you have to whatever is underneath.

An alternative might be to cut the ply in half, then join it back together with an aluminium "T" profile - the top of the T under the ply, the vertical piece between the sheets of ply. This should give you a much cleaner underside, if you're worried about it rubbing on stuff. You'll probably need to trim the vertical piece of aluminium back to the top surface of your ply - I recently had to do this for replacing a failed part of my storage system, and it proved a little trickier than I expected (for me, with the tools I have available).

Once you have your plan worked out, you could have Bunnings cut the sheet to the size(s) you want.

[Pixie_au]

I think Bunnings has 17mm formply in smaller sizes.

[tiger99]

Your profile shows QLD but not sure where. Mr Plywood has 3 stores in SE Qld. They cut to size and also have an off cut bin which is really cheap.

Pete

[Hatto]

Yeah use the black form ply. Its available in 17mm and in all sorts of size sheets.

[Daniel-J]

Send a photo of what you have, it will be more clear, I have little idea how it will look.

[Drewan]

Dont laugh but IKEA have these springy plywood slat bed base thing we just put a set in the caravan worked a treat just lop the slat length to size 1/2 the price of a sheet of ply

[Drewan]

Dont laugh but IKEA have these springy plywood slat bed base thing we just put a set in the caravan worked a treat just lop the slat length to size 1/2 the price of a sheet of ply

[KPJero]

Thanks guys
I have postponed the bed extension with..well. overseas travel haha