Bonded Honeycomb Panel

[BrianB]

My Dad used to help build choppers at Bell Helicopter and was telling me about the lightweight bonded panels they used for the skins. On a whim, I contacted Pacific Panels about their general purpose honeycomb bonded panel, and this is what he responded with:




Brian,
The GPP-1"-M3840 panel at 4' x 10' cost is $281.20 / ea. for less than 10 panels. Pricing for 10-25 panels is $261.20 / ea. There is a $50.00 crating charge.
The panel is constructed with 0.040" thick mill finish aluminum skins and 3/8" cell size commercial grade aluminum honeycomb core.

Peter Borris

Suprisingly not too high considering you could easily spend $200 on an aluminum skinned sandwich wall, but just wanted to pass along the info.

[BoilermakerFan]

Hmmm...

I think that it would conduct heat way too easily. It's 100% aluminum.

[BrianB]

Well, the idea would be to line the inside with 1/2" rigid foam insulation and then perhaps a 3/8" layer of plywood.

Of course, now I'm reconsidering using aluminum at all after seeing Roly's trailer. Sheesh!

[D. Tillery]

I was wondering if that stuff had any kind of R value too. Unless you can roll it, you would still need to buy aluminum for the roof. 5'x12'x.063" 5052 alloy = $99.75 at Eastern Metal Supply is hard to beat.

The woodworking skills of some of the people on this site are quite intimidating. I decided long ago that I would have to make mine out of aluminum if I was ever going to survive a gathering.
D. Tillery