Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated with
cloth and Epoxy? I'm in the process now and find that even one layer of
cloth and epoxy
are quite strong. Where the cockpit area is I have used 1/8" plywood as
the surrounding material as it will have the stress of body support. I plan
to use 3 laminations and then polyurethane as the finish . This is just a
simple explanation of the actual process I have used . I shall post
further if it is water worthy !!


Rey

Hi...

Sounds like an interesting project... I look forward to seeing a progress
report. I have been considering building a Kayak for some time now and, was
wondering if anyone had ever tried the technique of "carving" a kayak out of
a block of foam in two halves (top and bottom) and fitting the two together.
I think the difficult part might be to get a uniform thickness of
polystyrene.

Let us know how this works out... pictures please!!

Glenn

Reynaud wrote in message ...
Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated with
cloth and Epoxy? I'm in the process now and find that even one layer of
cloth and epoxy
are quite strong. Where the cockpit area is I have used 1/8" plywood as
the surrounding material as it will have the stress of body support. I
plan
to use 3 laminations and then polyurethane as the finish . This is just a
simple explanation of the actual process I have used . I shall post
further if it is water worthy !!


Rey

There are 3 axis CNC routers. I wonder how they would be for cutting a
block of foam into a hull shape? Anyone have experience?

--
Matt Langenfeld
JEM Watercraft
http://www.jemwatercraft.com

glenn wrote:
Hi...

Sounds like an interesting project... I look forward to seeing a progress
report. I have been considering building a Kayak for some time now and, was
wondering if anyone had ever tried the technique of "carving" a kayak out of
a block of foam in two halves (top and bottom) and fitting the two together.
I think the difficult part might be to get a uniform thickness of
polystyrene.

Let us know how this works out... pictures please!!

Glenn

Reynaud wrote in message ...

Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated with
cloth and Epoxy? I'm in the process now and find that even one layer of
cloth and epoxy
are quite strong. Where the cockpit area is I have used 1/8" plywood as
the surrounding material as it will have the stress of body support. I

plan

to use 3 laminations and then polyurethane as the finish . This is just a
simple explanation of the actual process I have used . I shall post
further if it is water worthy !!


Rey

Foam core is light but not impact resistant. That is why some kayak
manufacturers design bulkheads that flex, so impact stress is spread out.

If you don't mind repairing dings, the idea has merit. Look up surfboard
building for how tos.




"Matt Langenfeld" wrote in message
nk.net...
There are 3 axis CNC routers. I wonder how they would be for cutting a
block of foam into a hull shape? Anyone have experience?

--
Matt Langenfeld
JEM Watercraft
http://www.jemwatercraft.com

glenn wrote:
Hi...

Sounds like an interesting project... I look forward to seeing a
progress
report. I have been considering building a Kayak for some time now and,
was
wondering if anyone had ever tried the technique of "carving" a kayak
out of
a block of foam in two halves (top and bottom) and fitting the two
together.
I think the difficult part might be to get a uniform thickness of
polystyrene.

Let us know how this works out... pictures please!!

Glenn

Reynaud wrote in message ...

Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated
with
cloth and Epoxy? I'm in the process now and find that even one layer of
cloth and epoxy
are quite strong. Where the cockpit area is I have used 1/8" plywood
as
the surrounding material as it will have the stress of body support. I

plan

to use 3 laminations and then polyurethane as the finish . This is just
a
simple explanation of the actual process I have used . I shall post
further if it is water worthy !!


Rey

"Reynaud" wrote in message ...
Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated with
cloth and Epoxy?

We did it last year and you see pictures of the canoe he
http://www.boatplans-online.com/prod...?prod=Hiawatha
We have more pictures in other parts of the site.
We used polystyrene insulation foam, the blue stuff.
We did not expect any good results but we wanted to check a new panel
development software and had some foam sitting there. Once assembled,
since the warehouse guy had nothing better to do, we slapped some
resin and glass over the foam.
To get some impact resistance,we had to use more glass than on our
plywood composite hulls and the result is a boat slighly heavier than
the plywood-fiberglass version. It also cost more because you need
more fiberglass and resin.
There is no saving in weight and it cost more than marine ply plus
fiberglass . . . not a great deal but the question keeps coming up,
probably because of all the "no wood" boat ads.

That question is also often discussed in our message board and we
wrote about it in our FAQ at:

http://bateau2.com

Jacques from bateau.com

"Reynaud" ) writes:
Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated with
cloth and Epoxy? I'm in the process now and find that even one layer of
cloth and epoxy

It has been discussed here before, also foam core plywood construction. I
looked at for light weight construction but from information posted here
calcualted that it would be heavier than plywood, ie no weight savings. It
is not so good for small boats but becomes practical as the size of the
boat gets bigger.

There used to be photos on the Internet of a rough experiment made of rigid
foam board foam covered with thin plywood to protect the foam.

There was also a small sail board made of foam with no exterior covering
on the market. It might be possible for a DIY'er to make a mould and pour
in liguid foam to make something like that.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
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Checkout http://www.ptone.com/boatbuilding2002/ for a one off foam
playboat

Paul
Melbourne

On 19 Jul 2004 15:07:45 GMT, (William R.
Watt) wrote:

"Reynaud" ) writes:
Has anyone here ever built an kayak or canoe from polystyrene coated with
cloth and Epoxy? I'm in the process now and find that even one layer of
cloth and epoxy

It has been discussed here before, also foam core plywood construction. I
looked at for light weight construction but from information posted here
calcualted that it would be heavier than plywood, ie no weight savings. It
is not so good for small boats but becomes practical as the size of the
boat gets bigger.

There used to be photos on the Internet of a rough experiment made of rigid
foam board foam covered with thin plywood to protect the foam.

There was also a small sail board made of foam with no exterior covering
on the market. It might be possible for a DIY'er to make a mould and pour
in liguid foam to make something like that.

Paul Kenna wrote in message . ..
Checkout http://www.ptone.com/boatbuilding2002/ for a one off foam
playboat

Paul
Melbourne


Great job. It's more sculpture than boatbuilding :-) but the concept
is nice.

If you took those fins off, the kayak would look very much like those
short white water kayaks that we have around here.

Jacques from bateau.com