building a raft on $75

I once got a bunch of empty 60 gallon plastic barrels for free.

It was empty cutting oil barrels that a machine shop gave me.

Check around at large machine shops and other places like that.
Some are "food grade", so if you can find out who is needing to
discard them, you can get them free.

When we were done we piled about 30 into a pyramid and
burned them. With the trace amounts (maybe 1 Liter per barrel)
of cutting oil still in them, the flames were about 100 to 200 ft
high. My neighbors were pretty used to it... they didn't call 911
without calling me first to see if I need help or not.

That was in Alabama where there is still some freedom to do
what you want to on your property. Now I am too close to
city folks who want to regulate every facet of life

But the 4th of July is still an exciting spectacle at my house.

BTW, one of these might be a cool
accessory for your raft.
I plan to build one to shoot balls of tinfoil on Pirate Night at the
DuckDodge on Lake Union someday.

 

"Check around at large machine shops and other places like that.
Some are "food grade", so if you can find out who is needing to
discard them, you can get them free."

Well, whatever works. Maybe aluminum? Maybe a heck of a lot of paint cans or beer kegs (Search Malt's Mermaid...guy sailed across the pacific from US to Japan on a catamaran made of beer kegs)?

 

find a local plastic dealer, I"m thinking the bucket idea has some merit to it. There is a chemical (glue) used on industrial plastics that pretty much just melts them together and is cheap. Much better than duct tape. 4 or 5 buckets end to end you could cut the front bucket on each row to be like a pontoon boat for less drag and with the glue seal it back up

 

M.E.K. works to weld many plastic types together. Some model builders prefer
it over Testors plastic cement glue.

 

I used to use acetone to weld plastics. At least I did...until the incident...hot day...no breeze..poor ventilation in general...need I say more.

 

Should we call you "Twitchy" now?

 

You've just wiped me out with the bubble gum specs! What about using bubble gum?

 

Or inflated condoms.
At least you'd get style points.

 

Or inflated condoms.
At least you'd get style points.

LOL!

 

yeah,you could also have a whale of a time riding it,whale watching etc...

 

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "raft". It has to be made of buoyant materials? Does it have to suck? Can it be fast? Or are you obligated to use clunky things like drums and innertubes?

I think that unless somebody puts a motor in the water, oars will be the key to victory. Seems to me that you want it to be as much like a fine boat as possible, while still being a raft.... I would say the answer lies in the interpretation of the rules. Seems to me that, so long as the thing floats on its own, whether upside down, rightside up, or submerged, and has not interior volume whatsoever, then you've met the spirit of the rules.

What kind of race? Straight line? You'll need about 500 lbs of buoyancy. Go for a rowing-type canoe-like fine boat with zero interior volume to satisfy the "raft" requirement and an outrigger for stability.

Materials:
2 sheets 4'x8'x2" polystyrene (~300 buoyancy each)
1 piece 1"x4"x8' soft wood
Glue
Latex paint
3 PVC pipes (for oars)
1 scavenge something for paddles on the oars

Cut 6"x8' strip off of one sheet of polystyrene and a 10"x8' strip off the other. You now have a wide strip, a narrow strip, a large remnant, and a smaller remnant.


Cut the large remnant in half and stick it end-wise so you have a 16-foot long piece with a 21" beam. Cut to form a slimmer shape at the front and rear and then glue it, centered, to the 8' piece of wood so you have 8.5" per side at the midpoint and four feet of length to the front and rear.

Glue the smaller remnant to the larger remant, again centered. These two remnants are your "hull". Hand shape it for max efficiency in the water, as permitted by your interpretation of the rules.


Also, if the spirit or letter of the rules prohibuit the use of a handcarved "hull", then just cut the hull in two dimensions so it's got perfect 90-degree sides and a flat botton. That certainly ought to satisfy the rules while still making a pretty speedy shape. You really have got a 22" wide raft at this point. There's no interior volume and everything you use will float.

Now, take the 6"x8' strip and use it to fashion an outrigger, as I suspect this design may have just the slightest bit of a stability problem.

Paint it with latex paint. Make the paint awesome and lay it on thick because you're using it to smooth the surface.

I'd say that qualifies as a raft, no?

ROWING TECHNIQUE
You will want to screw in 3 blocks of scrap wood, 8" wide or so, to serve as foot-stops to improve rowing efficiency. Make sure the rowers put their pressure on these blocks, not on the polystyrene.

Next, take about a 4' long section of rope, make a loop at each end, and wrap those around the footblocks. When the rower sits down, he will loop the rope around his back to keep his body close to the footblocks for max rowing efficiency. Alternatively, you can make a knot at each end of the rope and drill holes in the footblocks. Either way, you will provide some back support to keep the rower supported. Unforunately, I imagine you'll only be able to use single oars for each, given the budget constraints.


And yeah.. this is probably a bit too boatlike for any seriously non-serious competition.

 

hey ive had deep thought on how to create a boat cheap, my self i thought that thos 10ft sections of pvc pipe would be durable and good, U could take like a few for each side cap them bind a few together for each side then create a deck ontop of this, but as for control u would need to make somthing that was v shape and fit on the front of each, if u did this u could probably make them (the tubes that are caped) even up to 20 ft long and could put a small motor on the thing, let me know what ya think about that,,,,,,lol

 

Theft keeps it cheap - as long as you don't get caught!

 

okay i have no idea what safewalrus meant by that statement,,,,lol

 

Possible Source for Cheap Materials

This may be useful...

http://www.2good2toss.com/