How to build a cardboard kayak for less than 40$ (Updated with template)

Step 8 Weighting, and waiting.....

Weight your cardboard with lots of small, "light" weights. We want each weight to be relatively light so that it does not dent the cardboard, yet heavy enough so that it weighs the cardboard down. We brew our own beer, so we had alot of bottles on hand, so my brother filled them with water, caped them (because a spill would mean the end of our kayak at this point) and we laid them on the sheet. We found that the seams, where two sheets of cardboard would meet, were the most troublesome spots. They seemed to want to warp up for some reason, so this is where we put most of the bottles. If you don't have 140 bottles kicking around, or a capper, just go to the local dump or transfer or recycling center and get alot of soda bottles, and use those instead. Also, you could use books, placed in bags, plastic or paper, does not matter, just helps keep the books from getting glue on them. Or fill sandwich bags with sand, any small weights that you can think of, that you have a lot of.

Leave each layer to dry overnight, and then cut a new layer (with the grain going 90degrees different from the previous layer) and repeat until you have a sheet that is four layers thick. since i highly recommend using double layered cardboard, it's technically 8 layers thick, but whatever. the point is make it beefy, you don't want to be putting your foot through the bottom of your kayak cause you were lazy and only did a few layers......

Comments

[fresnelman90]

140 bottles of beer on the kayak, 140 bottles of beer!!

[jujitsu-mam]

In step #7, I think is much better if you use books instead of bottles. Many people has a lot of books at home, but bottles...

Tell me if i'm wrong, maybe I miss something u

[dgrundel]

That's exactly what I was going to say. Books are an excellent option, because they are heavy but because the weight is distributed over a large surface area, they usually don't dent the card board. Another good option would be to put a sheet of plywood or similar over top and then weight it with anything you want. The plywood will do the weight distribution work. Pretty much anything with a large surface area would be good. :)

[msd8]

engh, not so quick there on the large surface area. See we tried plywood, and large heavy weights. The problem with those is that where the edges of the weights touch the cardboard, the cardboard tends to get dented, leading to a serious structural flaw in your layers. If the plywood was larger than your entire sheet, then, yeah, it would be superb. Books are a good idea, but again, I would be hesitant to use them, as often when applying the glue, some would either squint up through the seams, or acidentaly find it's way onto the top surface where we were placing the weights. If you don't mind potentially ripping a couple of the covers of your books..... by all means use books. But bottles seemed the best to me, cause who's guna care if they have some dried glue on the bottom of their beer? Good ideas guys, I really apreciate the comments.

[msd8]

(removed by author or community request)

[kissiltur]

I think the answer is books... in bags! Put them in carrier bags, no worries on adding extra glue to the covers of your heirloom Pratchett collection. The bonus is you have handles to lift the books off again, rather than risking dinting the cardboard when you pry them off. You must have really dried the bottles before you put them on the cardboard. That's a step I would worry about. Glorious idea and instructions, though. Thank you.

[jujitsu-mam]

Hehehe, I think the same. The bags are a little but useful detail!

[msd8]

yeah, books in bags would work wonderfully. Yup, dried them throughly. Thank you, and thanks for your input.

[RustyOlive]

I think I'd have a slight problem with this step.... hahahahahaha

[sp33dstix]

Love the weights you use