Raft/Junk Raft Building

From Boat Design Wiki

This is an article for Junk Raft building and Raft building.

I am building something in between :)

The two most common ways to build a raft are as follows:

1)Build a pontoon junk raft using bottles,cans and polystyrene/pour foam for floatation.-Covered in this article by djwkd

2)Use a Frame to put 55 gallon drums/plastic barrels and put over a deck

Build a pontoon junk raft using bottles,cans and polystyrene/pour foam for floatation

Firstly,you build a 'casing/box'-the "bare pontoon"-make sure you DO NOT COVER THE TOP YET.

Like this:

pontoon image courtesy of the floating neutrinos

hammer image courtesy of the floating neutrinos

Then add floatation-this can be anything that floats,but needs to be sealed (you can seal anything with epoxy)

Now add the deck on this pontoon.

Repeat the process as many times as needed.

Now,to join these together you can

1)Use crosspieces and space the deck out,so that you dont't need loads of wood for hulls OR

2)add an overlapping bit of wood between the hulls and add the deck.

Option 2 will NOT be covered by me,as i have no experience in it,and it is only a guess as it being done.

Gather your pontoons to the required space and measure the gaps. cut pieces of wood about 1 1/2' bigger than these measurements for crosspices.you will need several of these along the hulls depending on the size of the raft.

Join these onto the sides of the hulls of the correct length (IE if you have 10' spaces on the longways,and 5' on the short ways,the wood would be 11 1/2' longways and 6 1/2' shortways,this then goes on the raft the way measured,it won't work the other way round unless all sides are equal.)

Now to add the decks,just add boards or more lengths of wood crossed the other way to and on top of the crosspieces.

If you want cabins then build them now,and add onto the deck.

"hull" Repairs

As a raft is very hard to sink,repairs dont need to be done instantly,but when you do do them,All you need to do is replace the lost floatation (if needed)and then replace the lost wood,

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djwkd----------------------------------------------------------------