Does anyone have any ideas on how to build a cardboard boat?
However, this boat building has one rule that restrict certain items. Things such as staples, clamps, screws, blts, wax, tar, silicon, plastic, wood, styrofoam, fiber glass, rubber and metal aren’t allowed. Could anyone come up with a design that would help with prototyping.
Well, what does this boat have to be able to do and are you allowed to use anything besides cardboard?
Remember to displace enough water. I think water is around 64 lbs per ft^3, but don’t design for exact bouyancy if you are going to be in it. There is a reason that most boats have an extra 50% sticking out of the water. this helps with uneven load and keeps you from sinking.
I think I saw a show at one point on discovery channel that followed a couple teams that made cardboard boats! I dont know what your size constraints are, but what yo should do is research existing boats looking at speed/size/weight depending on your specific application. Then go and try to design a boat that matches those specifications! -Good luck
Kyle
A few years ago, a number of TechnoKats students were in a physics class together and made a highly effective cardboard boat. Their design had what they called “nacelles” on the sides, which were essentially pontoons. They were completely enclosed, with internal bracing consisting of closely-spaced rectangles matching the cross-section. I don’t recall whether or not they had a CAD layout, but they had a very detailed design and used a band saw to cut out all the pieces they used.
The boat survived several “voyages” down and back the length of the shool’s pool, carrying four students at one point, before it became too waterlogged and started tearing.
please post more details. Design considerations will change dramatically from a model boat to a cardboard schooner. There are lots of options.
I read an article in Popular Mechanics a while back about the Mythbusters building a boat out of frozen newspapers based on a British WW2 plan to build aircraft carriers out of the same material (for the north atlantic of course…). If you can solve the issue of keeping said boat cold, it would solve the fundamental problem of waterproofing cardboard. I don’t know how effective frozen cardboard would be as a building material however.
I found the article here.
Well, two suggestions are duct tape, and multilayered cardboard. Offcourse, you can ‘make’ your own multilayers by gluing them together. Also, perhaps caulk, or homemade crack sealers.
You will also want to use a good sealer or sealing paint on the outside.
I am not sure what you are building it for, but there are races with full size boats where people paddle them.
I found this link on such a site: (It has various tips to building a full size boat)
http://www.gcbr.com/tips.html
Hi Joey
There are also college competitions in cardboard boating. Search for them such as “Solar Boat” The Cederville University team designed their boat in SolidWorks with a special resin see article http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/resin-infused-boat-sails-into-first.aspx
Marie
At Michigan Tech, WE have Cardboard boar races every year. use alot of duck tape and cardboard. the boats we had made had to hold a minimum of 8 people. as far as water proofing it, we just layered the underside of the boat with 2-3 layers of duck tape, worked fine.
Keep in mind the means of propulsion. Are you using a paddle? Are you just going to make a water wheel? A boat isn’t much good if it sits still.
Another thing…are submarines aloud? I’ve seen a few cardboard submarines. The most I’ve seen one go is about 10 feet but it is still very impressive.
If you are only able to use cardboard (as in no duct tape, etc.) then to hold everything together you could make a series of little pieces to lock the larger bits together (possible example attached, apologies for poor picture quality). You just cut slits into the larger pieces and the pieces can be locked together. I doubt it would be watertight though so you’d have to have something else for that.
Conector prong.bmp (20.2 KB)
Conector prong.bmp (20.2 KB)
Well, I know my lsat post wasn’t all that specific being that it was early I was pretty tired. But there are no size constriants and no duct tape is allowed either. It has to fit two teenage girls in it sitting.
All my info is based upon my experience on cardboard and duct tape boats; so a bit different than your situation. Take what you can, feel free to contact me.
I wish I had a picture (yahoo email deleted the original) of the cardboard boat we built in 6th grade. The picture showed the boat with the two hulls seperated and there being about half a soda can worth of water. I don’t think any water leaked through, the only water that got in was water that splashed in from the top. We had a double hull design with the inside being slightly smaller than the outside, only the outer facing walls were covered with tape and inner faces bare. (Time constraints) Between the hulls we had ribs that spaced the two hulls as well as making the boat ridgid. Our boat was way ahead of any of the other 6th graders, easily winning the competition.
Couple tips
Use Duck Brand tape; the Home Depot Nava-something brand peels after any exposure to sunlight or heat (not sure which but we discovered this after we had to work in Texas outdoors)
Use a consistant tape layering technique, think roofing tiles.
Avoid seams, use duct tape mainly as a protectant not as a structural material
I’m sure you might be able to do more than what we did since it seems you have a bit more flexability. We had to use two sheets (4’ x 6’) of supplied cardboard, some cardboard scraps, and unlimited amounts of duct tape (had to buy your own) and that was all we could have used.
Good luck!
Edit: I forgot to explain the attachments. The first attachment is how we used our cardboard (solid for folds, dotted for cuts), after folding into the shape we wanted. We had to make an end cap for the rear that looks like the cutaway.
Edit 2: Heh, I probably started typing this post before you posted. Maybe the shape of the boat will be of help.
What kind of glues can you use? Can you use caulk on the seams? How about paint? You have two major challenges: fastening the panels along the seams and sealing the cardboard so that water doesn’t destroy it instantly. As for plans, I would take this $10 plan: http://www.bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=NC16 and modify it for construction in cardboard. The great thing about this pirogue is that it is meant to be built with plywood, which is another material which only bends in one plane. This plan is designed around conical sections, which are easily formed with plywood AND corrugated board. Let us know if there are more specific rules.
(I like this 15’ 9" design for your race because it will easily carry two people, and be easy to paddle. The same designer offers free plans for the same boat in a 13’9" length, but it would only hold two small paddlers: http://www.bateau2.com/free/cheapcanoe.htm.)
For what it’s worth, I took a Boy Scout troop and built seven of the NC-16s. It’s an easy boat to build, and with some clever modifications, would work well in cardboard. I’m tempted to build one just for fun…
As far as I know any paint is allowed and any non rubber based glue is allowed but no caulk.
Cardboard regatta, excellent; here is what I have done in the past for a similar competition. It only allowed cardboard and tape. The tape could only extend beyond a seam 1".
My method of choice was to obtain 3 large soda-syrup boxes and tape those together for a base. These boxes are very strong as they carry very heavy bags of syrup. Traditionally they are at least two layers thick in all stress points with a heavy application of glue to hold them together. With these three boxes taped together in line, I cut cross sections of the profile I wanted to achieve and taped them all down the length of the big, three box, center structure. This effectively produced the shape of the hull. From there some crafty taping and placement of 2 outer layers of cardboard around this ribbed structure gave the craft its final shape.
PROTIP: By scoring the entire outer layer of hull, I was allowed to tape the entire surface and still abide by the rules. The boat was perfectly waterproof. HOWEVER my first year I let the cardboard hull in the water ‘naked’ and it did fine for the duration of its journey: approximately 1 minute.
That’s it in a nutshell. Hope it helps.
Wow… no duct tape?
There goes plans A thru Y…
BTW, most sites I have looked at recommend a flat or really gently sloped bottom, otherwise it risks getting tipped over.
Are there any tapes you are allowed to use? Paper tape, Package tape, scotch tape, and masking tape have not been mentioned…
I like some of the other peoples idea, so look at them too. However, it looks like a few contain duck/duct tape.
Also, if you can use paint, you probably should…
(Sorry about the segmented post, I did not want to post more than once)
One word EPOXY I suppose you could call that 2 words since it is a 2 part adhesive. Look to some of the boatbuilding plan sites for ideas. Cardboard is not thatmuch different than the plywood that most wooden boats are buldt from. search on “clarkcraft” or “Glen-L” and just “boat plans”.
Bruce
I’m pretty sure Chop Shop (team 166) has a cardboard regatta every year. You may want to talk to them.