Gluing Plastic Storage Containers

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Either one will work.

[Greg]

Go get some 30 gallon plastic drums and be done with it.

[Michael Daly]

1 US gallon milk jugs weight 50lb each from the store?

Mike

[effi]

is that how dolly parton stays up?

[Gino]

Perhaps you should lay of the Christmas nog before posting.:)

[Gino]

Actually my buddy told me I'm in error. They calculated each jug to support 25 pounds, so 4 jugs to 100 pounds. I believe Dolly only has two.:)

[Greg]

A pint's a pound the world around. A gallon of sea water is about 8 pounds. You will get a significant part of that in bouyancy with a jug of foam. So about 13 jugs for 100 lbs. As someone who actively participates in beach and bay cleanup I will also say a garden variety milk jug won't last that long in the sun and salt water. They will get brittle and crumble within a year. The standard float for people who don't want to buy the real dock floats is the poly drum. They even make hardware to fasten them to the structure.

Things that work "out on the lake" (like that galvanized fence idea) will not hold up in the southern sun and salt water. By the end of the summer that 16ga galvanized wire will be a rusty mess. You also may have to deal with some "named" weather ;-)

[xrongor]

if the weight of the water displaced by the object as it settles in the water, weighs more than the object, it will float. find the weight of the kayak, estimate the weight of the float, add some to cover your butt, convert that weight to gallons of water and you have some idea of the displacement required.

randy

[xrongor]

bouyancy is determined by how much water is displaced and a foam filled gallon jug displaces just as much as one that isnt filled when submerged, assuming no crushing occurs. the only reason to fill them with foam is for durability.

randy

[Norminn]

clipped

What is a "poly drum" and where does one buy them and the fasteners?

I would have passed on the galvanized, but sure appreciate all the input. I believe that sheets of PVC are used to wrap pilings to deter barnacles ... is there a "paint on" coating of PVC? Believe I've read of PVC in paint? Would be nice to find an inexpensive material that also doesn't grow barnacles :o)

[dadiOH]

To determine cubic inches of PVC interior per running foot... (square of radius in inches ) * 3.14 * 12 -OR-

A cubic foot of dead air will support around 60+ pounds. There are

1,728 cubic inches in a cubic foot.

Weigh what you want to support and go from there. Keep in mind that a wood platform floats by itself and that the PVC has weight too (which needs supporting)..

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.05... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[dadiOH]

Good trick since an empty, sealed one gallon container will only support a bit over eight pounds. Adding foam doesn't increase the weight supported, diminishes it a bit actually.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.05... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Doug Kanter]

No guarantees whatsoever! Having followed the thread, some of the other suggestions sound better than mine, particularly those which involve blocks of styrofoam, and construction adhesive.

[Bob]

on salt

plastic

water-tight.

small,

platform

appreciated.

well :o)

Those plastic storage containers are likely to become brittle and crack after very many months of being outside in the sun. Yhey're not designed for such use. They same is true of the kayak if it is plastic. (Fiberglass survives sun better) I store my kayaks in the garage out of the sun. I've seen kayaks stored outside that crack on any impact. And, I've got "plastic storage boxes" that are falling apart from being outside.

Bob

[Jim Yanik]

[e-mail] (Greg) wrote in news:20041214203201.06298.00001662@mb- m18.aol.com:

I was just commenting on how people will take an expensive item to be shipped,and toss it into a box and fill the box with loose styro peanuts and consider it good enough for shipping.Then they are amazed to hear that it had been damaged beyond repair because it was packed poorly.

This time of year when people are shipping Xmas presents,the "pillow-of- peanuts" technique of packing items is good to know.

[Gino]

Sorry for the f*ck up. I apologize for being so stupid. Of course you are right.

My buddy was taking about a different milk container not one gallon jugs. When he told me they used milk containers I just assumed. These were some sort of commercial dairy container, more like a big bucket.

[Gino]

Up here in Canada Futureshop is now using little bags (like sandwich bags) filled with air instead of peanuts. My telescope came packed in a solid block of brown expanded foam. We have a local high end chromer who uses a white expanded foam to ship his stuff. They do a lot of custom motorcycle chrome work.

[Greg]

You are looking for something like this. If you are in a big enough city or a place with a lot of imports there is probably a "used drum" place in the yellow pages. Otherwise check out recyclers. These things come in full of fruit juice, cleaning products or some kind of petroleum product. They are usually not worth cleaning and shipping back to the 3d world country they fill them in since most are made in a 3d world country anyway. The hardware is usually available from places like Overton. My neighbor built a floating dock for jet skis but I am not sure where his stuff came from. It was mail order tho. I suppose you could just use nylon webbing from a surplus place (cheaperthandirt.com or sportsmansguide.com) along with cradles cut from salt treated PT 2x8s. I have a 55gal poly drum behind my shed I fished out of the bay 5 years ago and the sun hasn't hurt it. Still looking for a good use ;-)

[Michael Daly]

The maximum weight that a floating object can support is the weight of the water that it displaces. In a milk jug, then that is pretty much the weight of the jug filled with water. Milk and water are very close in density. Therefore, if a milk jug will support

50lb, then it will weigh 50lb when filled with water. How do you explain the 50lb number you posted?

Mike

[bill a]

there's 231 cubic inches per gallon of water and a gallon of water weighs

8.35 pounds As someone else suggested, I would use two lengths of the lighter weight PVC (used for yard drainage and a similar product with holes is used for foundation drainage). They are only about $5 for 10' and the common pvc cements in the plumbing department make a reliable seal. Each 10' length would lift about 53 pounds. If you want to get really high tech, rig up a valve system to flood the tubes (to launch the kayak) and a simple air pump to force the water out and lift the kayak out of the water. A commercial version of this is called a hydrahoist. bill