Crazy Pallet Boat idea?

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by dllcooper, Nov 13, 2013.

  1. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    When you do glue the wood together, do a test piece first to ascertain that the glue and the wood are compatible. Some woods will not take epoxy glue, like certain oaks.
     
  2. dllcooper
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    Location: Ascension Island

    dllcooper Junior Member

    Thankyou so much everybody for the diverse and interesting replies.

    A special boat sounds like the ticket, a special place and a special person (mama)!

    I look forward to researching this boat you have mentioned Michael and others with the joining techniques mentioned, sounds exciting.

    I think with a good bandsaw, plenty of epoxy and boat nails it is possible to make a boat from whatever can be laid hands on by the sounds of it!

    Any further ideas would be gladly received.
     
  3. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    Pallets are hard to take apart, usually spiral nails into hardwood. Then you end up with a board that has 6-12 nail holes in it. Air drying them to uniformity would be no problem with the temperatures and humidity levels there on your island, but you might possibly need kiln drying to get them real dry or to kill bugs. Simple solar kilns might work. Of course you would have a lot of scrap wood to fire up a wood fired dryer.

    It would be best to somewhat 'automate' and assembly line the process.

    Some kind of air or hydraulic assisted way to take them apart would be good. Possibly some kind of 'lever-ised' mechanical crowbar type thing might work also.

    Once apart, I would run the boards through a simple gang saw and cut each board into 3 or four strips, scarf the ends with another simple saw set-up, glue them into long strips and then either run them through yet another simple saw set-up to get them all the same thickness, or maybe a planer.

    The thicker supports that the boards are nailed to would be different. A lot of nails might pull through the boards and stay stuck in the supports. It's hard to get the nails out of them and a lot of times they will break off.

    From there you would use regular strip build techniques for a boat. They could be used either edge to edge, where the faces are against the frame and you fasten through the strips into the frames, or they could be used the other way, where the edges of the strips are against the frame and the strips are face to face and fastened to each other.

    I have seen massive grain bins built that way, random length 2x6 or 2x8 boards stacked and nailed all to hell. Here is a house of short 2x4 offcuts stacked and nailed...

    [​IMG]

    That might be another way to use those mountains of pallet wood boards, stack them up and every 4 or 5 layers drive through some nails and make yourself a house. An air nailer would be best. Use the saved money to buy a boat.

    I looked up Ascension Island, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on there, your biggest export seems to be postal stamps. I'm guessing drinking beer is popular. Apparently you're known as the home of the world's worst golf course too. Notice the golfer in the upper top corner in this photo of a sand trap there.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. parkland
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    parkland Senior Member

    I once worked when I was young tearing rotten boards off of pallets and replacing with good boards, for a liquor distilling company.

    We had about a 5 or 6 ft bar, with 2 fingers on the end, about 3" apart. You would rest it on the cross board, and pushing down would lever the other board off quick and easy.
     
  5. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

  6. daiquiri
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    A crowbar, I guess? Or, as we call it in Italy, a Pig's trotter (piede di porco) :D

    [​IMG]
     
  7. dllcooper
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    dllcooper Junior Member

    Thank you - I am yet to build a boat so will be purchasing a few books recommended from the Boat Building Academy and getting a few basic materials together and also finding somewhere appropriate to build in.

    Ascension island is a beautiful place and we have never been busier with community events and such like. Ascension's got Talent the other weekend hosted acts such as the laughing police man and Jake the Peg, what more can one ask! The sea around here is surprisingly calm most the time and perfect for cutting up and down in a home built dinghy or mini pallet Yacht. Watch out Atlantic here I come in an epoxy infested pallet boat!
     
  8. Jetmech
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    Jetmech New Member

    Did you happen across any of my coworkers last winter. We had a 777 off land there for an engine problem and flew a crew down to change the engine and repair the wind after it sustained some ground damage by an A-330. They said its a beautiful place, though they didn't have much time for sightseeing.

    Good luck with the boat project. No question in my mind it could be done with well planned scarf joints and epoxy.

    Tom
     
  9. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

  10. NoEyeDeer
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    NoEyeDeer Senior Member

    Here's another thought: Inuit boats were made out of bits of driftwood, often in fairly short lengths. Some even used scarf joints that were simply lashed, not glued.

    If a skin on frame kayak is one of the boats you might build, you may be able to do it without stacks of glue (assuming the pallet timber is of decent quality).

    ETA: What it comes down to is that the timber will need to be straight-grained, with a decent strength to weight ratio. If you have that, you can do lotsa things. If the timber is total rubbish, forget the whole idea.
     
  11. dllcooper
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    dllcooper Junior Member

    No I am afraid I wasn't here then although I have heard some stories of hoards of American tourists wandering around quite bewildered for a few days!

    Wideawake airfield cant be used for Emergency airfield planning on ILS flights so not sure how it ended up here. Strictly military only this airfield although the retired American's who man it are lovely people and many have lived here for years, along with the visiting turtles.
     
  12. Jetmech
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    Jetmech New Member

    I'm not sure how we ended up landing there other than it was the closest place available when they had to shut down. We fly on a 180 minute rule so we probably could have gone somewhere else, but that's still a lot of faith in single engine flight. I wouldn't fault a captain for diverting there even with another alternate farther away.

    Wish I could have made that trip but I couldn't leave the kids for as long as that trip was projected to take. It was quite the bit of logistics getting the tools equipment ready for tat repair. We had to think of everything possible ahead of time since flights to and from are so limited. We chartered a g-4 and a 747 freighter to get the mechs and engine/tooling there.

    There is a thread with pics here if anyone is interested.
    http://www.flyertalk.com/the-gate/b...n-to-ascension-island-—-with-photographs.html
     
  13. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

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  14. dllcooper
    Joined: Nov 2013
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    Location: Ascension Island

    dllcooper Junior Member

    Thank you everybody for all the feedback and ideas on this. Amazing to be able to share ideas from an isolated island like this with like minded people around the world.

    A testament to boating people that no one has said no, it cant be done but everyone has offered a constructive idea so thanks again and maybe one day I will post a picture of the amazing boat recycled boat taking her first journey!
     
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  15. 1618
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    1618 New Member

    Deadrise boats of the Chesapeake Bay were planked crosswise. I think part of the reason was that by the time they were being made, much of the local long, clear good timber had been cut down.
     
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