Easiest (i.e. cheapest) way to build a raft + rafting disaster!

[gopal]

Study Engineering in China at top government-owned University, Institute in English Medium at low cost. China engineering education is top ranking in world.
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[djwkd]

Thankyou!

Hey Guppy-could you post a bigger picture of your avatar?it looks COOOOOOOOOL!

[djwkd]

so long as you havent changed it since...

[Bergalia]

Course - if you were a Ninja Turtle, you could swim.
You don't mention which part of the world you're from. If you are anywhere near pontoon fish farms (Scotland is cluttered with the buggers) it's worth mooching around to see if the've scrapped old cage flotation collars - huge slabs (ten feet by eight feet by four feet usually) of styrene foam. I once used one to carve a 'life-sized' horse for a carnival which later floated across Oban Harbour...with a crew of three aboard.

[djwkd]

Its Ninja SPIDER not ninja turtle !!!

[charmc]

I think that's why he said "if you were a Ninja Turtle....."

[djwkd]

Oh yeah!!!LOL

[djwkd]

Hallo???GUppy????glad you haven't changed ur avy-so could oyu post a bigger pictere?

[jetboat.dk]

chek www.jetboat.dk

[Raftman1979]

Sit and think about all the home improvement stores in your area. Then get online and look them up. The Menard's by where I live has white polystyrene sheets, 2 inches thick, an inexpensive alternative to the pink and blue stuff.

Styrofoam sheets are good to use if you use plywood on top to keep it stiff and flat, and if you put something like paneling on the bottom to protect the styrofoam. For some reason I have found that if you put something on the bottom, you don't need to protect the sides of the styrofoam. You'll break small chunks off of sides eventually, but no major damage. The styrofoam is more likely to get damaged in rapids and when loading it in the truck and stuff. Use new plywood and sand it and coat all sides with several coats of Minwax Polyurethane, and get the end grain really good. Otherwise the wood will get water-logged and it'll be really heavy when you have to carry it to the truck.

[NordicFolkboat]

Originally Posted by timplett

2) Ping pong balls float great. You'd need thousands of them, so I guess it might get kind of expensive, unless you have some sort of ping pong connection...

Actually ping pong balls are made from nitrocellulose, which is highly flammable! Not a good idea for a boat!

[blackdaisies]

I cam a cross a website that built a wooden plank, or used one of those wooden square crate things, put 4 inner tube tires for one on each end, and it floated two people in a folding chair. I'll try to find the websites, but it seemed fairly easy to figure out.

For easy pontoons just build them out of plywood. Here's a free website for one.

http://www.jemwatercraft.com/pontoon.php

Any hollow water proof wood box is going to float, so you can just take 3 different 4 x 8 pieces of plywood, cut 1 foot off the 4 foot wide section all the way to the end, leaving 7 feet left and cut that into 4 long sections. Cut the 1 foot wide by 4 feet long piece into a piece that will cover the ends of the box you can build out of the 4 long pieces. Make another just like it out of another piece of plywood so you have a pair of floating wood tubes. Set them side by side with a foot or two or more between them and nail the last piece of plywood on top

You can either stitch and glue the sides of teh tubes, or get some copper screw and end plates cheap at the dollar store to connect wood pieces. Get some type of water proofing putty or aquarium glue, paint it with polyurethane or paint, and you should have a simple pontoon.

It would be better to do it like the directions says, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to make a simple pontoon.

[djwkd]

I'm Currently building a 6' long Pontoon Raft. For flotation i will use Drinks (soda) bottles and foam.
Its the first time I've cut plywood with a jig saw-and its so fun!
Anyway, there are 4 Pontoons, each 3' long and 1' wide.It will have a displacement of 744 lbs!
Anyway...just thought i'd post that lol.
If you want to know more, check out this thread

Thanks,Dominic.

PS- Have the Floating neutrinos been mentioned in this thread? If not, then this raft thread is incomplete!Check 'em out here-

[blackdaisies]

http://www.floatingneutrinos.com/




This sounds nice. If they can stitch and glue boats together making a stronger bond than hammer and nail, then imagine what plastic and do.

[Raftman1979]

I've checked out their website before and studied pictures of their rafts. I never copied a single thing from their designs, for several reasons. One, their rafts are too big to load into a pickup at the end of the day, and 2, I don't think they do anything to preserve them. I think they put bare, unprotected wood in total submergence and not care if it rots because they continuously repair and rebuild them. I've been in pursuit of the best way to make my rafts last longer since like, 1998. I think the biggest thing I've done to preserve them was to build an enclosed trailer to store them to keep the UV rays off of them, so they only see daylight (or water) when I'm using them. That, and I constantly keep them clean, and as needed, I sand them and add another coat of polyurethane.