A boat made of bottles. How to make a kayak - a boat from plastic bottles Boat from plastic bottles
A plastic bottle is very comfortable material for building a homemade boat. To break through such a bottle, you have to try and that is why the use of empty bottles of beer and carbonated drinks is so convenient for making a small homemade boat.
The first thing to do is empty the containers of drinks. You can, of course, buy empty bottles, but this is not sports. It is much more pleasant to sail on a homemade boat from plastic bottles, drinks from which you have consumed within a certain period.
So, for example - all winter you can procure material for the construction of a boat by emptying bottles of your favorite beer, and in the spring you can start construction.
Of course, for a serious hike better fit an inflatable boat made of PVC, but you can also organize a weekend rafting on a boat made of plastic bottles.
How to build a boat out of plastic bottles
There are two options in the construction - the more complex one can be seen in the photo above, “logs” are made from bottles to the length of the boat.
To do this, the neck and bottom of the bottle are cut off, the centers are inserted into each other with glue, and the seam is wrapped on the outside with transparent tape.
Such a connection keeps an increase in internal pressure up to 6-8 atmospheres, so that even a sharp impact on the bottom of the reservoir will not break the "log" of the boat.
The second construction option can be seen in the video below - the bottles are tied together using tape and a net. A homemade bottle boat made in this way is less resistant, but nevertheless suitable for small rafting.
You can also use the option with a frame - then plastic bottles are attached from below in 2-3 layers and the sides are made of them.
Here is another video that shows how such a homemade product can swim, pay attention - even a motor is installed on it!
By the way, homemade rafts for alloys were made using similar technologies during the Soviet era, only instead of bottles they used air balloons, they were inflated and placed in specially sewn covers. Today, balls can be replaced with empty bottles - after all, bottles are much more resistant to mechanical stress, which means that the raft for rafting will turn out to be more reliable.
Take a look at the photo above, on which a similar raft is being assembled. The bottles are combined into bags, and they are already attached to the bottom of the homemade raft. On the water, such a raft will stand level and have a high carrying capacity.
By the way, there is also a real yacht in the manufacture of which plastic bottles were used. Plastiki is the name of this vessel. 12.5 thousand plastic bottles were used to make it and it successfully crossed the Pacific Ocean passing from San Francisco to Sydney.
If you decide to do this homemade boat, then pay attention to the article
Surely many craftsmen have wondered how you can use the buoyancy of empty plastic bottles to make a small boat or raft for fishing. In fact, it is not so easy to put this idea into practice. Apparently, therefore, there are not so many examples of such creativity, but still they are.
An industrial engineer from Argentina Federico Blanc calculated and built a similar structure in the form of a narrow kayak. The boat can carry two adults with additional cargo.
The boat floats perfectly and is often used for its intended purpose on the Argentine Parana River. The author did not immediately come to this construction. He conducted several experiments with assembling a boat from standard bottles with closed caps. In the end, the perfect design was made of long cylinders.
The most important and difficult building element is to glue the elongated cylinders from several large bottles. The two outer bottles are taken with whole necks closed with corks. For the rest, the bottom and neck are cut off from the bottles. The bottles are glued together with the overlap of the walls on top of each other. Of course, this kind of work will take some time and ingenuity. But now the master has made his dream come true. In addition to two people and fishing tackle, the boat had enough space for a small refrigerator, indeed, a dream, not a vacation.
Another version of a plastic bottle boat made by the owner and staff of a small hotel on Viti Levu Island, Fiji. Here, when designing, they went what is called "head-on". The bottles are simply glued together, to increase buoyancy, the bottom is made of a piece of thick foam.
For tightness, parts of the structure were poured from the inside with a waterproof polyurethane foam, I'm really not sure that we have such foam in stores. On the other hand, I know from my own experience that good foam sticks to any material and you just can't tear it off. Outside, the product is covered with a film, which increases the rigidity of the connection. Despite its rather strange appearance, the boat can keep three adult men afloat.
The business was not limited to one boat; square rafts were also assembled. A raft is certainly easier to make than a boat. It is enough to take some kind of light sheet material, it can be a piece of foam, reinforced on top with a piece of plywood of the same size. Then, under the foam, two or three rows of bottles are glued from below.
Spring is the traditional starting time for the fishing season. What is fishing without a boat? You will learn how to make a boat out of plastic bottles in this article.
Necessary materials
To start making your boat, collect all suitable material... It consists of approximately the following basic elements:
1. Plastic bottles. You need to collect as many of them as possible. It is good if they are of large volume.
2. Scissors or a sharp knife.
3. Scotch tape for fastening bottles.
4. Thin wire.
5. Crossbeams made of wood or plywood.
Stages of work
We will tell you step by step how to make a boat yourself. Stage one includes preparing bottles for use. Wash them, peel off the stickers and the glue itself, using a solvent if necessary. Then fill the bottles with pressurized air so they don't deform.
The bottles are placed in the freezer. After they are filled with cold air, you need to screw them with the caps. When the bottles are moved from the freezer into the warmth, the air expands. As a result, the bottles are no longer subject to deformation. When all the procedures are done, put the bottle caps on the glue, and it is better if the glue is waterproof.
So, when describing the second stage, everything will become somewhat clearer. You will need to collect plastic bottles into what are called "logs". The first two bottles are held together by bottoms: the protrusions of one are connected to the depressions of the other. For their connection, a third bottle is used, the frame of which is stretched over the other two. Adhesive tape connects the joints of the containers. At this stage, it already becomes clear to you how to make a boat. You can see that it is simple and inexpensive.
To continue, you need to cut off the neck of two more bottles. Each of them is put on the already sealed bottles from its side. The joints are connected and sealed with tape and glue. The result is a blank with bottoms at both ends. As in the first stage, we connect the grooves and protrusions. Thus, you can get whole "logs" from plastic bottles. Surely the question of how to make a boat yourself does not scare you now.
The third stage begins with joining the "logs" into floats. There should be eight of them in one float. "Logs" are held together with tape, wire, you can also use waterproof glue.
Now that the job is almost complete, you can brag to your friends and tell them how to make a boat yourself. Only one step separates you from victory. It remains to assemble the boat itself from component parts... They are held together by crossbars. Assembly layouts and wireframes are quite different. It depends on what kind of flotation device you are going to make. If desired, the boat can be upholstered with sheets of plywood, paint it or draw something.
Now you know how to make a boat from improvised means. This does not cost much. Most often, rafts or simple boats are made, but even a yacht can be made from plastic bottles. Show your imagination and make your boat unique, one that your friends and family will be delighted with.
Winter is not the best the best time years to think about building boats. But to make this kayak, you need to prepare the entire required material, which is at least 270 plastic bottles. Therefore, free up an extra room for them, because very soon you will have your own boat, reliable and strong. But still, you should not go down on it along a mountain river to the sea in a storm. It is perfect for a quiet, shallow lake or pool.
1.
You will need:
2. Deck
By its design, the boat will resemble an ordinary punt. The basic principle of work is to make several flat layers and fix them on top of each other. You need to glue the bottles together, side by side, to create neat sections. The optimal thickness of the glue is 5-6 mm.
As a result, you should have a deck with 12 horizontal sections of the following dimensions:
3. Case
After the deck is glued, let it dry thoroughly according to the instructions on the adhesive. Do not waste precious minutes, because it is time to take care of the hull of the boat. The hull will be slightly smaller than the deck, but the design principle remains the same. You should have 11 horizontal sections for the second layer of the following dimensions:
4. Base layer
After all the sections are ready, and the glue has dried, you can deal directly installation work... Glue the bottle end-to-end (bottom to bottom, lid to lid). Connect the bottles as shown in the picture. Connect the two sections of the bottom from the sections until you reach the 6th section. Then connect the two halves, consisting of 6 sections each, with the bottoms of the bottles. The caps in the rear half will face the stern and the caps in the front half face the bow.
5. Further installation work
A “V” -shaped cavity is formed between the bottles of the base layer. Once it is dry, start glueing the second over the first directly with these "V" slots between the basecoat bottles. Each bottle of the second layer should be offset so that it touches the two bottles of the base layer section as shown in the picture. This second layer acts like the bottom of the boat. Press all sections together with heavy books, or objects, or motionless people for a while until the glue dries.
6. Seat
Next, we make the seat. Glue a separate bottle layer - 2 sections of 11 bottles each - and glue it all over the main frame. We warn you that it is very uncomfortable to sit on this, so it is better to spread a towel or pillow.
7. The final touch
Now you need to make a gunwale, a deck board from bottles. Glue 2 rows of bottles side by side around the edges of the largest layer, then add another one to further protect yourself from splashing.
8. Test time
The boat is ready to launch. Ideally, use kayak paddles. If you weigh more than 75 kg, then you need to make the boat in three layers of the hull. A boat made of plastic bottles is perfect for fun by the pool or in shallow waters. We do not recommend sailing across the English Channel on it.
Several years ago, I was inspired by one very short video. In which a person makes a small boat from recycled bottles.
No matter where I looked, I couldn't think of any instructions on how to make myself, so I had to make my own raft without much guidance. I decided that I would make a big raft.
It's really interesting way secondary use and recycling those pesky plastic drinks bottles that are always lying on the sidewalks and streets of the city.
As an added bonus, this is recycling somehow!
A boat. I made a boat resembling a kayak (kayak) with an open top. It measures approximately 1.5 x 3.5 meters and weighs about 50 kg. Since the bottle caps are tightly twisted, they keep me afloat just fine, even if they are drenched in water. It's perfect for calm waters, and it's surprisingly durable, but I wouldn't advise anyone to even try to swim with it on small rapids.
Materials for making boats from plastic bottles
You only need 3 things:
- Plastic bottles with capstightly curled (about 270). I used single drink bottles because they have great relief and size and will end up with a solid construction.
- Glue... I used liquid nails (polyurethane glue). There are probably better options.
- Glue gun.
Perhaps some of you will use this option for making a boat from plastic bottles, or he will give you a better idea when implementing your plan!
