I hope..

aiidanwings

Senior Member
..it doesn't sink!

ResizedImage951374364195016_zps165e88bd.jpg


It's getting real heavy! I'm going to paint the floats with aluminum paint sometime soon, and hopefully maiden Saturday morning. Exciting!

I've thought about taking it to the pond to see if it floats, but there are like three fences on the way. And one really mean ass.
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
..it doesn't sink!

ResizedImage951374364195016_zps165e88bd.jpg


It's getting real heavy! I'm going to paint the floats with aluminum paint sometime soon, and hopefully maiden Saturday morning. Exciting!

I've thought about taking it to the pond to see if it floats, but there are like three fences on the way. And one really mean ass.

No worries, I think the ground there looks pretty solid! :p

Thurmond
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
I've thought about taking it to the pond to see if it floats, but there are like three fences on the way. And one really mean ass.

You could always fly it there ;)

BTW, unless you made those floats out of lead, you'll be fine. It's amazing how much buoyancy can be generated by such little volume -- water is REALLY heavy. If you're still not convinced, weigh it, convert to lbs then divide by 8. That's how many gallons of water you need to displace.

Still not convinced? multiply that by 231, that's how many cubic inches. measure your length and width of the pontoons, in inches, (assume they're square -- I know they're not, but we're cheating to make the math easy) and multiply 2 x length x width, and that's a rough guess at your footprint (probably off by 10-20%). divide the volume in cubic inches by your footprint, and that's a rough guess of how deep the pontoons will sink.

I'm guessing (because I've done it before on a cardboard boat project with two *BIG* guys), you'll think you ran the numbers wrong. you probably didn't. Remember, water is HEAVY.

Yeah the real thing will go deeper, because we cheated on the footprint, but not by much. As long as it's not taking on water and the CG is between the pontoons, she's gonna be just fine!

Looking forward to the video!