Bottle boat. How to make a kayak - a boat from plastic bottles A boat from plastic bottles
The plastic bottle is very comfortable material for the construction of a homemade boat. To break through such a bottle, you need to try and that is why the use of empty bottles from beer and carbonated drinks is so convenient for making a small home-made boat.
The first thing to do is empty the containers of drinks. You can, of course, buy empty bottles, but this is not sporty. It is much more pleasant to sail on a homemade boat from plastic bottles, drinks from which you consumed during a certain period.
So, for example - all winter you can procure material for building a boat by emptying bottles from your favorite beer, and start building in the spring.
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 - a more complex one can be seen in the photo above, “logs” are made from bottles the length of the boat.
To do this, the neck and bottom of the bottle are cut off, the middle parts are inserted into each other with glue, and the seam is wrapped around with transparent tape on the outside.
Such a connection keeps the increase in internal pressure up to 6-8 atmospheres, so that even a sharp blow to the bottom of the reservoir will not break the “log” of the boat.
The second version of the construction can be seen in the video below - the bottles are connected to each other with tape and mesh. A home-made bottle boat made in this way is less stable, but nevertheless suitable for small alloys.
You can also use the option with a frame - then plastic bottles are attached from the bottom in 2-3 layers and the sides are made from them.
Here is another video that shows how such a homemade product can float, pay attention - it even has a motor!
By the way, in the days of the USSR, home-made rafts for alloys were also made using similar technologies, 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 the alloy will turn out to be more reliable.
Look at the photo above, a similar raft is being assembled on it. Bottles are combined into bags, and they are already attached to the bottom of a makeshift raft. On the water, such a raft will stand evenly 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 for its manufacture and it successfully crossed the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Sydney.
If you decide to do this homemade boat then take a look at the article.
Surely, many craftsmen have thought about how to use the buoyancy of empty plastic bottles to make a small boat or raft for fishing. In fact, putting this idea into practice is not so easy. Apparently, therefore, there are not so many examples of such creativity, but still they exist.
An industrial engineer from Argentina, Federico Blanc, calculated and built a similar design in the form of a narrow kayak. The boat can carry two adults with additional cargo.
The boat floats well and is often used for its intended purpose on the Argentinean Parana River. The author did not immediately come to this construction. He made several experiments with assembling a boat from standard bottles with closed caps. In the end, an ideal design of long cylinders was obtained.
The most important and difficult element of the construction is to glue oblong cylinders from several large bottles. Two extreme 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 overlapping walls on top of each other. Of course, such work will require some time and ingenuity. But now the master has made his dream come true. In addition to two people and fishing gear, there was enough space on the boat for a small refrigerator, indeed, a dream and not a vacation.
Another version of a plastic bottle boat was made by the owner and staff of a small hotel on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji. Here, when designing, they went what is called "on the forehead." The bottles are simply glued together; to increase buoyancy, the bottom is made of a piece of thick foam.
Parts of the structure for tightness were poured from the inside with a waterproof mounting foam, I'm really not sure that such foam is in our stores. On the other hand, I know from experience that good foam sticks to any material and you can't just 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 withstand three grown men afloat.
The case 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 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 start of the fishing season. What is fishing without a boat? You will learn how to make a boat out of plastic bottles from this article.
Necessary materials
In order to start making your own boat, collect all suitable material. It consists of the following basic elements:
1. Plastic bottles. They need to collect as many as possible. Well, if they are large.
2. Scissors or a sharp knife.
3. Adhesive tape for fastening bottles.
4. Thin wire.
5. Crossbars made of wood or plywood.
Stages of work
We will tell you step by step how to make a boat yourself. Stage one involves preparing the bottles for use. Wash them, remove the stickers and the adhesive itself, using a solvent if necessary. Then fill the bottles with pressurized air to keep them from deforming.
The bottles are placed in the freezer. After they are filled with cold air, you need to screw them on with lids. As the bottles move from the freezer into the heat, the air expands. Thanks to this, 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 in the so-called "logs". The first two bottles are fastened with bottoms: the protrusions of one are connected to the hollows 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 becomes clear to you how to make a boat. You 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 already fastened bottles from its side. The joints are connected and sealed with adhesive tape and glue. As a result, a workpiece with bottoms at two ends was obtained. As in the first stage, we connect the notches and protrusions. In this way, you can get whole "logs" from plastic bottles. Surely the question of how to make a boat yourself does not scare you now.
Stage three begins with the connection of "logs" into floats. There should be eight of them in one float. "Logs" are fastened with adhesive tape, wire, you can also use waterproof glue.
Now, when the work is almost completed, you yourself 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 constituent parts. They are fastened with cross bars. Assembly schemes and frames are very different. It depends on what kind of boat you are going to make. If desired, the boat can be upholstered with plywood sheets, paint it or draw something.
Now you know how to make a boat from improvised means. It doesn't cost much. Most often they make rafts or simple boats, but even a yacht can be made from plastic bottles. Show your imagination and make your boat unique, one at the sight of which your friends and relatives will be delighted.
Winter is not the best best time years to think about building boats. But to make this kayak, you need to prepare the whole necessary material, and this 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
With 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. It is necessary to glue the bottles together, side by side, to get neat sections. The optimal thickness of the adhesive is 5-6 mm.
As a result, you should get a deck of 12 horizontal sections of the following sizes:
3. Housing
After the deck is glued, let it dry thoroughly according to the instructions on the glue. 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 principle of creation remains the same. You should have 11 horizontal sections for the second layer with the following dimensions:
4. Base layer
After all the sections are ready, and the glue has dried, you can do it directly installation work. Glue the bottle end-to-end (bottom to bottom, cap to cap). Connect the bottles as shown in the picture. Connect the two parts of the bottom from the sections until you reach the 6th section. Then two halves, each consisting of 6 sections, connect the bottoms of the bottles. The caps in the rear half will look aft, and the caps in the forward half will look forward.
5. Further installation work
A "V"-shaped depression is formed between the bottles of the base layer. As soon as it dries, start gluing the second on top of the first directly with these "V"-cavities between the bottles of the base layer. Each bottle of the second layer must be offset so that it touches the two bottles of the base layer section, as shown in the picture. This second layer acts as the bottom of the boat. Press all sections together with heavy books or objects or immobile 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 - and glue it all over the main frame. We warn you that sitting on this is very uncomfortable, so it is better to spread a towel or pillow.
7. Finishing touch
Now you need to make a gunwale, a bottle deck board. Glue 2 rows of bottles side by side along the edges of the largest layer, and then add another one to further protect yourself from splashes.
8. Test time
The boat is ready to be launched. Ideally, use the oars of a kayak. If you weigh more than 75 kg, then you need to make a boat in three layers of the hull. A boat made of plastic bottles is perfect for fun by the pool or in shallow water. We do not recommend using it to cross the English Channel.
A few years ago, I was inspired by a very short video. In which a man makes a small boat out of recycled bottles.
No matter where I looked, I couldn't think of any instructions on how to make my own, 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 reuse and recycling those pesky plastic drink bottles that are always lying around on the sidewalks and streets of the city.
As an added bonus, it's somehow recyclable!
Boat. I made a boat resembling a kayak (kayak) with an open top. It measures approximately 1.5 x 3.5 meters and weighs approximately 50 kg. Since the bottle caps are screwed on tightly, they keep me afloat perfectly even if they are flooded with 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 in small rapids.
Materials for making a boat from plastic bottles
You only need 3 things:
- Plastic bottles with caps, tightly twisted (about 270). I used bottles from one drink because they have a great texture and size, and the result will be a solid construction.
- Glue. I used liquid nails (polyurethane glue). Perhaps there are better options.
- Glue gun.
Perhaps one of you will use this option for making a boat from plastic bottles, or it will give you a better idea when implementing your plan!
