Pop bottle style pontoon

How come pontoons can't be made like pop bottles?

Pop bottles are insanely strong!!
And cheap!!!

 

I guess you've never dropped one while unloading grocerys.

They explode!

It takes 71 two-litre bottles to make a size 42 polyester 3-piece suit.

 

You can - this guy lives on one, though his first one was wrecked in a storm.



But do we need more degrading plastic in the oceans ?

http://geography.about.com/od/globalproblemsandissues/a/trashislands.htm

 

What happens when the bottles get a few tons of barnacles on them?

 

No i meant like giant pontoons, not a bunch of bottle tied together.

Picture a giant pop bottle the size of a pontoon, but made using the same or similar technique as making a pop bottle.

I wouldn't be surprised if the strength to weight ratio is better than aluminum, and I bet they could take a beating a lot better too.

 

The closest equivalent would be roto-moulded kayaks and small dinghies. You dont see them much bigger than ~13 ft due to the complexity of the moulds and the lower strength as they get much bigger.

Everything larger is cheaper and easier to build from the more usual materials, including aluminum.


Pop bottles arent all that strong in larger sizes unless they are full of liquid or high pressure gas - they get flattened out when you stand on them pretty easily at their current size.

 

They sink, and then drift off to pollute more of the ocean.

 

I pumped one up to 40 PSI once and it was hard as a rock.

1/8" walls and 5- 10 psi would make it uber strong!

 

What happens when you get a leak?

I fooled around pop bottle rockets years ago-cheap pops would go BOOM at 85,many around 125 and some to 140-150.
Anything over 60 I'd say is getting risky to handle/be close to.

 

yes, but they aren't UV stable, are only a few MM thick so you cant fasten stuff to it, are easily punctured by sharp objects.

Other than that, they are perfect

 

Well they could be thicker, and painted, or add a uv stabilizer to the plastic.

 

2 litre carbonated beverage bottle lids are tested to 100 lbs at the bottling plant. After that the lid blows of with explosive force. The bottles fail before that.

 

Parkland,

Do it, show us.
If you don't want information don't ask the question.

Just do it.

The material never gets any better when you make it thicker or paint it or any thing else, unless you cover it with fiberglass so the fiberglass takes all the load.

 

Yes, of course they could - then they would be like the roto-moulded boats I was talking about earlier, with all the weight, complex moulding problems I talked about earlier.

Then, my persistent friend, they would not be competitive with aluminum, wood, FG etc as I also mentioned earlier.

 

Oh my . . . paper mache composite seems up next.