Building a small work barge with plywood

Oh and ...what was the best grade of standard lumberyard pressure treated Plywood to use ? I really only know marine boatbuilding ply. Expensive stuff. Never learned all the standard construction grade Plywood quality markings.

 

lets try this

 

i read that propane tanks could be mounted so they can be rotated for painting with out taking the barge out of the water

 

Well these ideas aught to stir the discussion up a little:

How about submerging the tanks into a SWATH configuration?

Oh, and pressurizing them so they have great structural integrity.

-Tom

 

Propane Tanks again,

These bigger (500 gal) sizes are probably too big for your application, but likely there are some smaller ones that no longer meet the new pressure requirements, and thus become available at greatly reduced prices from new tanks.

One idea I liked about these tanks is they are already air tight, so why not put a small amount of nitrogen gas in them to combat any rusting on the inside :idea:....rusting requires oxygen
....Nitrogen gas has a variety of applications, including serving as an inert replacement for air where oxidation is undesirable.

 

internal sealed steel structures rust until all the oxygen is consumed then stop rusting

 

I was once told that one of the major sectional-barge manufacturers placed a burning candle inside their barges prior to the final sealing off...and this was suppose to consume the remaining oxygen inside and thus stop all additional rusting.

But I'm not so sure this is true?? Somewhere recently I believe I read a contary viewpoint.

 

If lumber is used the estimate for just the lumber is around 1,900.00 and additional items such as epoxy and glass is 1,000.00 to 1,500.00. That is with a double thick hull, deck and sides and I think double internal framework.

I am still waiting for the drawings so I can price it out in steel. Just the plate if we go with 3/16 is $3500.00 and 1/4 is $4,000.00. No cost on the internal framework yet. Actually those prices aren't that bad given the overall cost of steel these days. It will probably be in the $6-7,000.00 range for all the steel materials after pricing out the skeleton.

We have acquired a small 4500# truck crane, electric over hydraulic which should work perfectly. The crane only weighs 700# but we will have to construct some sort of sub frame out of steel if we go the wood route. The crane needs some work but nothing we can't handle. The price was right.

 

They would probably not brake. The supporting structure maybe would.
If one would plan to use these overly heavy tanks, one would be better away, to just build a (much lighter) steel barge.

Obviously I understood that the requirement was for tough jobs. Seems I was wrong on that, sorry.

Regards
Richard

 

I have a bunch of aluminum planks that are commonly used for bleacher seats. They would work great as a barge deck. Message me for more info.

 

http://www.capral.com.au/FTP/PDFs/Catalogue/IndustrialProducts-NSW.pdf

In this catalog are the oyster punt planks that work barges are commonly built from in Aus, these boats cop some heavy use & seem to hold up ok in the bridge & wharf game although some guys I work with reckon timber work scows are better & safer- kinder. hers a link to http://www.ywe.com.au/pro-punts.htm

I'm lovin' this thread & am thinking of building a ply scow, ply skinned inside & outsde of the framing 4.8 x 1.8 x 0.9M & something outboard powered on a pod/boarding platform that I can work out of & tow the kids for freeboarding or even fill up at home for a plunge pool!
All the best from Jeff.

 

Here's a houseboat that uses 4 - 1000 gallon propane tanks.



This is a Boatdesign thread about it http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/unusual-houseboat-question-15343.html and I think on this site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homemadehouseboats/ there is a discussion with the guy who built it. The discussion was May 10, 2004. You might have to join the group to search back to then. I think there was a lot of wondering about cutting and welding on old propane tanks. I believe the builder was on the side of "It's no problem" and didn't take any precautions at all and just welded frames and cut holes without any preparation or precautions at all. NOT the way I would go about it.

 

I put 'small plywood barge' into google image and found a few interesting places...

http://www.aquacycleusa.com/barge.asp


http://pithpontoonboatkits.com/WeightCapacities.ivnu


http://rollingbarge.com/floating-docks.htm


This one here is interesting. Can a tubular metal frame like this be made and then covered with plywood to make a hull? Or would the frame expand and contract so differently that it would destroy itself?
http://www.maritimesales.com/SY10.htm

 

There used to be ply clad steel framed floating bridge component from army/war, maybe a pontoon bridge?

 

Thanks Jeff

Good info and pics. We had compared the different ideas for structures. A framework with separate flotation verses a complete multi-compartment real barge. When we got done, the pros of the separate flotation barge were easier maintenance on each float or easy replacement, a little less framework, ability to raise the freeboard less expensively but still the overall cost was ending up higher although I like the looks of that steel barge with the black fiberglass pontoons under it. The rub rail on the bottom is a great idea. The one piece barge was ending up to be easier to construct no matter what material we used and we didn't have to find or construct the flotation to fit out needs and sizes. We even looked at construction our own floats out of plywood then glassing them but at that point, why not just build a deck barge with a little more material. If I could have located some military or commercial used flotation that would have fit the bill, that would have helped in an enormous way but even if it were cheap, shipping probably would have erased the savings. We don't have an outlet for surplus military stuff like they have in California and the Ohio area and the south. I get some magazines and they seem to have a bunch of locations for some of that great military surplus stuff. I have been shopping for stuff like that though but not finding what i think would work. Anyway with this type of one piece construction, we get %100 of the available flotation we could possibly get.