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Vacuum formed Pontoon Boat Molds/Product Line

Discussion in 'Boat Molds' started by RevoRow, Sep 3, 2015.

  1. RevoRow
    Joined: Sep 2015
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    Location: Georgia

    RevoRow New Member

    Health concerns are causing me to part ways with my small 17 foot long pontoon boat that I manufacture. This is a unique hull in that it is vacuum formed from a high quality polymer. Hulls can continue to be produced this way or they can be made from composites. Purchase the molds or the entire product line. You can make your own boat from the pontoons or you can keep making the boat I currently make. Either way, I am willing to train.

    Questions or inquiries can be sent to: jim@revolutionrowing.com
     
  2. Cobra1
    Joined: Feb 2008
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    Location: Az

    Cobra1 Junior Member

    Any pictures of said pontoon?
     
  3. RevoRow
    Joined: Sep 2015
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    Location: Georgia

    RevoRow New Member

    Pictures

    Sorry about that. I did not scroll down far enough to see that you could add pictures. This helps a lot!

    Two pictures are shown. One is of the entire boat assembled and on the water. The other is of the hull coming off the machine.

    You can also see photos and video on my website. http://www.revolutionrowing.com/rowing-equipment/wakeless-launch/placid-wakeless-launch.html

    My boat is a very specific niche market boat, which I have designed as a wakeless launch for rowing teams. I have the fixtures and jigs to build this specific boat, BUT that does not mean you have to build the boat I am building. I totally understand if you would want to take my hulls and make your own craft. The nice thing about how I designed this boat is it can be infinitely modified. The width of the deck can be changed. The consoles and seats can be switched out. The only catch is that the pontoon is 17 feet and that is what you will be limited to with vacuum forming.

    The benefit to vacuum forming these hulls is that you take a lot of the labor and the mess out of traditional boat building. This includes the initial tooling of the molds. Since the pontoons are pulled off of a male mold, the molds do not have to be super polished or 100% blemish free. The plastic that is used to form the pontoons is .300" thick, so a lot of surface blemishes on the mold do not translate to the finished part. The pontoons are formed within a matter of minutes. They look and feel like a painted fiberglass surface. They are VERY durable. All of the trimmings and scrap that come off of the pontoons are recyclable for $$$.

    The only downside to vacuum forming is you have to order 40 pontoons at a minimum, which is going to cost you around $20k each time. This will be your biggest expense.

    You really have a choice whether or not you want to vacuum form with plastic or lay up pontoons via fiberglass. I have a male vacuum mold and a female mold for the pontoon. The female mold often only ever gets used once in its lifetime to produce the male vacuum mold. After that, it just sits. My female mold will need a little bit of finish work done to it to make it polished and shiny. As I mentioned above, you can kind of get away with surface imperfections from the plug, to the female mold, to the male vacuum mold, so there are a few surface imperfections in the female mold that will need to be polished up if you choose to go the route of fiberglass pontoons.

    If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I am willing to train and help someone else keep this endeavor going. I need to take it easy for a while health wise, so I will not be able to continue it myself. I would love to see it survive. I have had a lot of folks from inside the general boating public say that this would be a great reservoir boat, electric boat or fishing boat.
     

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  4. RevoRow
    Joined: Sep 2015
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    Location: Georgia

    RevoRow New Member

    more information...

    Here is some more information since I have been getting some emails with questions, especially about cost...

    The boat that I have is slightly industry specific as is. With that said, nothing but the pontoons are really set in stone with regards to design. The deck can be widened, the console can be changed to a center console/helm and the materials can be modified to make the boat much less expensive if you please.

    I say this because I am open to someone purchasing the pontoon molds separate from the console mold and separate from the deck welding fixture. You can build many different boats from the materials and pieces that I have. You can also purchase the whole package and modify as you see fit. Although the pontoons would be the hardest thing to change, it is still possible to modify them. With the vacuum forming process, it is much easier to produce low cost molds at a more rapid pace.

    I will go over the individual components included in the sale that can be purchased together or parted out.

    1. Pontoons Molds: There is a female mold and a male vacuum mold. Both are constructed out of fiberglass. You have the option to make either fiberglass pontoons or plastic vacuum formed pontoons with the molds. Because of the rapid tooling process involved in making the vacuum molds, the female mold has some imperfections that we never bothered to sand/polish out of the finish. If you wish to produce blemish free fiberglass parts, you will need to do some finish work to the female molds. Depending upon your production volume, the male vacuum mold should last almost a lifetime if it is taken care of. Blemishes on this mold that may develop over time can be touched up with automotive body filler and sanded with 400 grit sand paper with no worry of showing up on the finished parts. Picture of both molds is attached.

    2. Console mold: This is a fiberglass production mold used for making fiberglass parts. It has had less than a dozen parts pulled from it. It has a welded steel frame with heavy duty casters for easy transport.

    3. Deck welding fixture: This is a steel frame fixture used to assemble the frames for the decks of our boats. Welding the frames allowed us to make a lighter super structure for our boat than traditional C channel or I beam cross members found on pontoon boats. This fixture is currently set up for a 6 foot 2 inch wide and 17 foot 2 inch long boat. It is also set up to weld the cross members for deck boards that are 5 feet long and 6 feet wide. The dimensions can easily be modified to make a wider boat and convert to deck boards that are 4 feet x 8 feet. This welding fixture could be used with someone else's pontoons to make a boat with aluminum pontoons. I have plenty of aluminum to make approximately 20 boats as is at the moment. I also have a manual tube bender to bend the aluminum. Picture of a bare finished frame is attached.

    4. Miscellaneous Equipment: Below is a list of the small items that are also available for sale. This is one area that a purchaser would be able to save some money if they already own the equipment and do not need certain items.

    -JMR Manual tube Bender with 1" X 2.5” and 1” X 2" dies
    -Milwaukee Foamzall sawzall
    -Small sheet metal bender
    -6’ X 18’ flatbed 50LA Big Tex trailer
    -7” Dewalt angle grinder
    -Milwaukee M18 jigsaw
    -Milwaukee M18 Fuel circular saw
    -Milwaukee M18 Fuel angle grinder
    -Milwaukee M18 Fuel hammer drill
    -Milwaukee M18 Fuel sawzall
    -Dewalt 10” table saw with rolling stand
    -Dewalt 10" compound miter saw with rolling stand
    -Shrink wrap gun with roll of shrink wrap
    -Devcon methacrylate glue dispensing gun
    -Dewalt compact router
    -Pallet rack shelving
    -Vermette 520A material lift
    -Clamps
    -Truck Ramps
    -Drum dollies
    -Various Jigs and fixtures
    -Various small tools and equipment

    5. Miscellaneous Inventory: This is the inventory still available.

    -(66) 24' lengths of 1" X 2.5" X 0.065" aluminum for 20 boat deck frames
    -(2+) sheets of 5' X 12' deck board material

    6. Documents: This includes all of the resources needed to build and assemble the boats as well as the vendors for the parts and pieces.

    Make me any reasonable offer for the molds, equipment or inventory. I am not desperate to sell, but I would prefer not to move this equipment if I don't have to. My lease is up October 31, 2015. After that time, I will start to part out all of the small equipment that can be sold locally and put the molds into storage. Up until this time, I will be able to offer in house training. After this time, I will have to train you in your facility.
     

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