Building a small work barge with plywood

Depending on location, you might find a source of plywood from a large contractor that knows multiple handle and storage of plywood used in protection tunnels and privacy fences around construction sites, cost more in the long run. Might find it cheap or in a real lucky day, they might pay you to disassemble and haul off.

Ron

 

What's the size and use of this hull? Did you use poly? Did you use preservatives? What sort of fasteners?

 

12 000 pound (5000 kg), 25' X 10' (8mX3m), 6 knot houseboat (not a floathome) barge.

Polyester with epoxy barrier coat (Interlux). Glued and screwed: G2 Cold Cure epoxy, 1600 SS #8 X 2" wood screws (Robertson or "square" drive).

Copper based wood preservative on the frames only. White, latex, gloss paint on the interior of the 3/4" (19mm), good one side (outside) plywood.

It's a dry bilge although I do have four 2000 GPH pumps, and 1400 amp-hours of house batteries to drive them.

-Tom

 

Ya Sub Tom...sounds like a rugged product. Its possible to use lower grade materials if you carefully design the structure for it. Locally they use onshore bait boxes...4x8 low sided tables with a continous flow of seawater pumped thru to keep the bait alive. These boxs are better quality, lumberyard pressure treated ply and timber held together with ss dry wall type screws and some kid of lumberyard quality...tube of caulking..as an adhesive bedding compound. Paint on the outside..bare ply or some kind of clear preserative on the inside. The bait boxes last many, many , many years.

 

Hey submarine tom, any pics of your rig? Also Frank, what did you use to draw that depiction?

 

Also, happy thanksgiving to everyone and thanks for all the info. More is good

 

Happy Thanksgiving .

I used Freeships , but a pencil and paper would do well here .
I think Toms general idea is that way to go , although I would forgo the stainless fasteners . Galvanized are stronger and if buried in poly and glass
should be no problem . Put together with 5200 or the like .
Please let us know how it comes out . I like thew idea of a house barge about that size , with a house about 8x16 feet . But I would not use it for passage making.

F

 

Definitely use galvanized, hot dipped, not electroplated, especially below the water line.

 

there are platers that will hot dip for you, if you can't find hot dipped fasteners you want to use

 

I'll dig up some pics. Gotta go to work now.

-Tom

P.S. Just remembered, I've tried this before and can't post pics... I have an OLD Mac...

 

Correct,

and there are several suppliers on the US market. A mail to Daniel will provide a source. Or even a plan?

Michael,

forget about your treated ply, how often must we say that? A good quality timber is the better solution.

Regards
Richard

 

I know the purists will find these offensive , but they last 20 years or more,
And are built using lumberyard material. In these cases roofing tar , and hot dipped galvanized nails. They are well pickled in salt water, I don't think they would last as long in fresh . Anyway they are simple and do the job.

 

Nice rig....Looks like the " Chincoteague "skiffs that we used as crab skiffs when I was a kid. Common lumberyard stock is all we had.... looks like her chine logs are galvanized thru bolted or clench nailed..thats how ours were

 

Micheal, the original would have been nailed , I think the bolts were added at a later date.
The big one is 24' , a nice house could be built on that basic garvey . Basic living accommodations , and a wheel inside. Figure 8' wide at the bottom. I would built out a swim platform, and make the roof flat for lounge chairs.

 

Yah, those Garveys make great platforms. The local shipyard has a Big " double ended" Garvey, custom built as a shipyard painters float. Perhaps 20 or so feet long by 8 feet wide. Nice rig... thel garvey bow and stern keep the float from biting into topsides, detailing on deck for a short scafolding rig, small work bench paint center in the middle and stand off rubbing rails down low, designed so that the painters float touchs a vessels waterline, not its topsides , when painting. I really should take a picture of it. Quite unique, well thought out.