BUOY

My parent's cabin does not have drinkable tap water, so we use a lot of water bottles, juice bottles and all kind of bottles (my father prefers beer bottles). There is also no recycling system in this area, so we have to bring all these containers back home. I found a way to reuse them (using only my father's tool box) by turning them into a useful, good looking and entertaining buoy for the lake. They can be used as seats for exhausted swimmers, anchor for your kayak or rock warning... It is also really fun to try to run on them like in a Japanese game show...

p.s. Read the comments to learn how to make it a floating tray, a lantern, a water distiller, an electricity generator (solar or wave motion), a clock, a raft, a floating island, a fishing rope...

Thanks for all your great ideas, Jeff-O, iSmack, Btop and all the others.

Step 1 What you need

You will need:

-A board of wood or plastic at least 0.5 inch thick (no fiberboard)
-A saw
-A plastic rope
-A lighter
-A knife
-16 Pan Head screws
-16 water bottles and their caps
-Paint (the color you want)
-A piece of flexible foam (1/2 inch thick and more), like a square of Play Mat (I took my little sister's)
-Teflon tape or silicone tube (optional)
-A drill
-A hot glue gun

Comments

[facklere]

I think this is the first project I ever viewed on Instructables, and 5 years later it still stands on my top 3 list, if not my favorite. I would love to make one, but the only place I have to use it is my neighbor's very small pool.

[dombeef]

Hoe much weight can it hold?

[SaffronDawn]

sweet .. now if you put led lights in it .. would look amazing at night.

[kff96]

Im thinking Throwies!! Cheap, small, axposable.. Although you probably dony want the batteries all over the lake..

[KT Gadget]

Maybe a water proof solar garden lamp would work, just swap out the White LEDs with a different color and resistor if needed

[knexguns656]

well nice idea and a good idea for recycling bottles.they would work good as platforms for drinks in a hotspring.and im just curious but can you sit on them without making them sink if they were big enough and you were light enough?. again nice idea cheers

[Samuel Bernier]

Merci! You would need a lot of them to sit without sinking at least a few centimeters. The platform would actually be so big that you could almost sleep on it. With 18 bottles, an average man (sitting) has water up his bellybutton, wich is not that bad (but a part of you will be a bit cold).

[sjoobbani]

Tres bien, tres bien ! ! ! I took a cot, with an aluminum frame and clothe "matress" and put water bottles all around it, and then another "layer" there are so many, no I can sleep on it, when I go to the lake in the summer and I use the buoy I made to anchor me and hold my drinks, merci beaucoup, c'est un invention qui est necessaire! :P

[meanbean]

C'est la vie!

[pgm8693]

Paint the bottom vertical half of each bottle black ... the half that sits in the water.

Float a few of these in a small swimming pool.

solar heat for the pool.

[maurice1993]

this just gave me the idea of a crazy trap for fish

just in the place of the good looking red rope, put some heavy duty fish rope, with a fishook on tip.... must work like a charm! hehehe

next summer I'll try that! (it's winter now here... not much fish to do fishing... )

[TechDante]

very nice idea. you say swimmers can sit on this, how boyant is this then as 16 2litre botles must be able to hold up a person

[kcls]

You could make fifty of them, and put solar panels  on top of each.Then, wire 'em all up to a central battery, and power something! Then it would be truly green. Are most wires waterproof? could you run them underwater for a long time?

[knektek]

you can build about 15-20 layers of BUOY and get some pvc piping to connect the Buoy's together and the bottles to make a water butt (obviously with a huge funnel to collect the water). and did the word BUOY come from the word buoyancy...

[timebandit00]

Love the idea, but I can't try because I don't have a pool or lake nearby.

[james.mcglashan]

What is this made for? What does it do? How much does it cost? Is this used to collect water?

[Samuel Bernier]

The answers to all your questions are all in the project's explanations.... but I'll make it quick -Buoy -Buoy -Absolutly nothing -No Thanks for your interest Have a nice day.

[james.mcglashan]

is this just for looks?

[NatureBoom21]

Maybe.

[james.mcglashan]

what is a buoy?

[NatureBoom21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuoyA Buoy is a floating devie used for many purposes.

[james.mcglashan]

aahh ok

[Patented]

Vraiment cest une bonne idée! Mais est que a la longue les bouteilles vont pas devenir verte? (a cause des algues)

[Samuel Bernier]

elles se salissent un peu, mais pas autant qu on pourrais le croire.

[thekiss]

Can't wait to try these for my dam at my eco friendly studio!

[phucall-fitz]

didn't someone make an island, complete with house and garden. Thought I saw a program about it, he used recycled plastic bottles captured in nets.The possibilities are endless,great instructable. all the best from england uk

[matrix43547]

ya that was awesome, he even had trees growing on it

[peoplerstupid]

i saw this featured a while back, i love the idea it looks cool and while it may put plastic in lakes it is still better than a landfill

[snowpenguin]

You don't leave it in the lakes!

[ElectricUmbrella]

So many uses, so little time!!! This is brilliant! Nicely done.

[L a n a]

hey, just wanted to say congratulations, you deserve it! This project is really great. I can't wait to try it out keep up the good work :)

[eRosinski]

Try spraying a color that contrast with the water on the inside of the bottle in a fluorescent color even. But I agree with some other about junk in the lakes but maybe if its kept in top condition its okay.

[leufreitas]

good

[scouttster]

No offense, but keep the plastics out of the lake. Will you be there to recover the buoys when they break free and float across the lake and end up tangled up on some beach? The sun degrades plastic and your project only adds plastic particles / dust to the lake.. Those buoys lay low in the water, and I would be pretty darn peed off if I hit one in my boat.. I know your intentions are good, but no offense - I don't like your project.

[Samuel Bernier]

No offense, but boats probably is the first cause of pollution on your lake... first step would be to stop driving one. Second, if you take a look at the embankment buoys already on your lake, you'll notice that most of them are already made of HDPE and PET, but I agree that plastic particles could be a long term problem because they take centuries to biodegrade... but it's nothing compare to your boat (unless you were talking about a catamaran). Have a nice day and thanks for the constructive comment.

[erikos kostarikos]

maybe if i ask my father for the things i need, i could make it.
its a very cool thing and looks funny.

nice done=]

[Capt. Fat]

This is perfect for people in Newfoundland. Would you be able to make a giant one and use it as a raft?

[Samuel Bernier]

I hope It would work, but you'll need a lot of bottles and a big board. You also must raise your platform a bit.

[Capt. Fat]

Okay, Thanks

[thepelton]

Like I was saying. You would need a Litre bottle for every Kilogram of weight. Two grown men would probably demand over 150 Litres, depending on their size.