pontoon boat build- on hold, but some progress

[GPW]

Looking Real Good Sam !!!

[desertmoose]

ok, the woodworking is done.

Here's about the last piece of skin to go on.



No way to clamp it, so I used 3" drywall screws to hold it while the gorilla glue dried. This required a REAL delicate touch running the screws into the foam so they didn't strip out.



Getting closer. The weight went from 15 pounds for the foam alone to 31 pounds with nutplates and skins. We can live with that.



I ended up adding a strip at the top of the ends. This protects the fragile acute angle on the plywood edge, and... more importantly, gives a place to pick this darn thing up. Without the end strips, you had to grab the thing in the middle to move it.



A passel of pontoons.



Filled the screw holes. Already have the filler sanded flush. Next step on the floats is covering with bed sheet and paint for waterproofing.



Sam

[EZ]

Sam,

Why bed sheets? You should just be able to prime and paint. I have made a few boats that had no foam in them from 6MM lauan and just painted. They lasted fine. Of course I guess they were encapsulated with epoxy. I think sheets soaked in paint will add more weight than you might like. My assumption is that maybe they will be tougher. Nice work!

Whatever the case, it will be cool to see what they turn out like with bed sheets applied. That looks like a really fun project. All because someone left some foam laying around......

Ed

[desertmoose]

Why bed sheets?
I'm going by what has worked so well on my tear. I did the outside with canvas and house paint.



and the inside of the galley with bed sheets and house paint.



It's held up great so far in the rain and snow all winter.

Sam

[GPW]

Hey Moose !!! That covering on your trailer looks really Nice !!! Pontoons are really turning out well !!!

[eaglesdare]

Great job! I can't wait to see them in the water. I hope you take a video of that, if not then pics will do.

[desertmoose]

Well, after taking a couple of weekends off to get the toyhauler de-winterized, and taking the 6 month old grandaughter out on her first camping trip, I'm back to work on the pontoons.



Started applying the bedsheets. Kat came in and said it looks like a morgue in here...



Going ok, I was able to apply the sheet in one piece with a seam along the bottom. I'll be putting a heavy canvas doubler on the bottom for wear, and it will also cover the seam in the sheets.



The end "handles" will need separate pieces of sheet on them. Too much detail to cover in one piece.



Been spending the evenings peeling glue off my hands.



Sam

[swampjeep]

I guess I'm a little confused, why all the wood and the sheets/canvas?

I thought it was pretty much one of the other? It seems like a ton of extra unnecessary work and weight to cover all side with wood, then cover that in sheets.

I should say though, they look very nice

[GPW]

Yeah, looks Good to me , a little extra weight won’t be noticed with all that flotation ...

No rules eh !!!

[jeff0520]

Now all you need is an outboard motor on the back....around 50 HP should work

[GPW]

... and a cooler full of Cold Beer eh ... Yah Hoo !!!!!!

[ghcoe]

Swampjeep you fly R/C aircraft too? I am starting to see a trend here with these foamies.....

[GPW]

Don’t tell me we’re all a bunch of RC guys ... .. Figures ...

[ghcoe]

Don’t tell me we’re all a bunch of RC guys ... .. Figures ...

Must be why we like foam. We have already put foam to the crash test and know how durabale and repairable it is. I have one plane, that I learned to fly with, that I have totally destroyed. I was able to peice it back together and fly it again another day. It still looks great!

[GPW]

George, the first thing we plug in at the flying field is the hot glue gun > the inverter... Impromptu combat causes a lot of damage ...
Yeah , we surely have crash tested the holy s**t out of foam eh ? We KNOW it works !!! Hard to convince these “structural’ folks , although their structures don’t have to FLY !!!