Carl Olsen's PVC pipe boats
j...@webbville.com
A couple weeks ago I came across Carl Olsen's website offering plans to
build boats using PVC pipe for pontoons.
http://www.spiritone.com/~kolsen/
This sounded like a great idea for the tinkerer on a budget.
Unfortunately, it seems like the website is derlict as I have been
unable to contact Mr. Olsen through the Hotmail address provided on the
page. I am very interested in building a boat based on the designs
there. I would however like to have the guidance of a schematic for
certain procedures like the tapering of the ends of the pipes. Would
like to hear from anybody who has purchased these plans or knows of a
way to contact Mr. Olsen.
Thank you!
John Skaggs
j...@webbville.com
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
j...@webbville.com
j...@webbville.com
Jon Graznak
> A couple weeks ago I came across Carl Olsen's website offering plans to
> build boats using PVC pipe for pontoons.
>Would like to hear from anybody who has purchased these plans or knows of a
> way to contact Mr. Olsen.
Well, it is a bit of a puzzle...I also was interested and in late May sent a
check to Mr. Olsen for his plans. I sent the check to the address listed on
the website. Within a reasonable time (maybe 2 weeks) I received a nice
packet of plans and detailed instructions just as offered. However, the
puzzle is that the return address written on the envelope was Vancouver, WA
and the postmark was a postage meter from Portland, OR. A quick web search
yielded no Carl Olsen at either address. I can see several possible reasons
for this, not the least being that I know nothing of Pacific Northwest
geography. Vancouver WA might be the a suburb of Portland....the guy might
have a long commute and use the postage meter at work...anyway I sent him
money and he sent me plans.
Now as for the plans and the boat. First and foremost, the boats are very
experimental and sort of silly looking. I firmly believe that filling the
tubes with foam is mandatory, not optional as he says. Without foam, any
failure of a seam can cause the thing to sink like a rock. The foam will add
about $100 to a $100 project. That said, I played with forming some ends in
the oven as he suggests. Two considerations here. First can you get a 10
foot length of 8 inch sewer pipe into your kitchen? Secondly, how long have
you been married? Mine has put up with this kind of foolishness long enough
to not notice, but it could be upsetting to a young wife. I found even with
the jig he describes, there is more art than science to doing the forming.
It is not hard, but I did buy a extra length of pipe to practice upon. You
are going to have to have at least four ends that look alike. I'm going to
bend some conduit this week and will keep you posted on how it goes.
As for the plans themselves, I was satisfied, but then I did not expect
much. I admire and will pay for others thought and work. However it occurs
to me that some folks would look at 25-30 photocopied 8 1/2 x 11 b&w pages
and think that $22 is steep. In the sense that you can buy Payson or
Gilpatrick or whoever for less than that at Amazon.com and get a "real
book", maybe that's true. In view of the fact that I can blow $20 bucks
wandering through Lowes and not think twice about it, I did not feel abused.
By the way, it takes some time for a post to show up on Usenet. Relax, you
are getting through. My server had your message five times. This won't win
you any friends on the newsgroup.
John213a
tubes with foam is mandatory, not optional as he says. Without foam, any
failure of a seam can cause the thing to sink like a rock. The foam will add
about $100 to a $100 project. That said, I played with forming some ends in
the oven as he suggests. >>
Here is an idea I am trying that might help with others trying PVC experimental
boats. I wanted to make an outrigger for my canoe, so I got a four inch PVC
drain pipe and found that a Large swim noodle nicely fills up the inside!
TaDa! The foam problem was nicely solved and for only about $4 for each four
inch by five foot legnth at KMart. (the large foam swim noodle is the big
brother of the smaller, maybe more fimiliar swim noodles you see kids with in
many different colors) Another nice thing I found was that a two liter soda
bottle cut in half slips snuggly over the PVC drain pipe, TaDa! again, no
trips to the oven, just put it on and Duct tape it. The cap on the end of the
soda bottle will let you drain any water out of it if it ever leaks and the
foam makes it safe if it does get a leak. I realize that this is not the same
as an 8" sewer pipe, but by useing them in groups, maybe some one can go beyond
my experiment with Canoe outriggers and make a improvement on Olsen's PVC boat.
Have not checked to see what a three liter bottle fits, but you might be able
to use groups of the smaller swim noodles to fill a larger pipe and solve the
expense problem on the foam filling question. Just thought I would share a
solution I stumbled upon. Would enjoy seeing more on this PVC boat idea, and
others solutions to how to make a "cheap" boat out of PVC
micwal
were able to bend the pipe to suit our needs with an electric oven that was
specifically made for heating the pipe.
The trick was to get expanding rubber plugs to use while heating the pipe.
These plugs would keep the air inside the pipe and with the heated air
increasing the air pressure in the pipe, the air pressure would act as a
mandrel and allow us to make 18" radius bends in 3" pipe. This "oven"
can't have been too expensive it was just a sheet steel toaster oven with a
hinged hood about would heat 3 feet of pipe at a time
Good Luck,
Remember the Ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic by professionals.
"Jon Graznak" <jgra...@rica.net> wrote in message
news:uN1a5.7944$Q7.4...@news-east.usenetserver.com...
>
>
> > A couple weeks ago I came across Carl Olsen's website offering plans to
> > build boats using PVC pipe for pontoons.
> >Would like to hear from anybody who has purchased these plans or knows of
a
> > way to contact Mr. Olsen.
>
> Well, it is a bit of a puzzle...I also was interested and in late May sent
a
> check to Mr. Olsen for his plans. I sent the check to the address listed
on
> the website. Within a reasonable time (maybe 2 weeks) I received a nice
> packet of plans and detailed instructions just as offered. However, the
> puzzle is that the return address written on the envelope was Vancouver,
WA
> and the postmark was a postage meter from Portland, OR. A quick web
search
> yielded no Carl Olsen at either address. I can see several possible
reasons
> for this, not the least being that I know nothing of Pacific Northwest
> geography. Vancouver WA might be the a suburb of Portland....the guy
might
> have a long commute and use the postage meter at work...anyway I sent him
> money and he sent me plans.
>
> Now as for the plans and the boat. First and foremost, the boats are very
> experimental and sort of silly looking. I firmly believe that filling the
> tubes with foam is mandatory, not optional as he says. Without foam, any
> failure of a seam can cause the thing to sink like a rock. The foam will
add
> about $100 to a $100 project. That said, I played with forming some ends
in
engelbrecht-wiggans richard
> ... Another nice thing I found was that a two liter soda
> bottle cut in half slips snuggly over the PVC drain pipe, TaDa! again, no
> trips to the oven, just put it on and Duct tape it. The cap on the end of the
> soda bottle will let you drain any water out of it if it ever leaks and the
> foam makes it safe if it does get a leak.
Soda bottles are a wonderful resource. I'm not sure if it
would be helpful in this application, but most are made of
some sort of heat shrink plastic. With judicious use of a
heat gun, you might be able to get a tight enough fit around
the pipe so that you can skip the duct tape.
Richard.
Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans, U of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois
email: epl...@uiuc.edu; (217) 333-1088
Stan Witherspoon
polyurathane glues/construction adheasives (PL plus, Elmer's
polysomthingsomthing). For summer fun with water and PET soda bottles,
check out
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/5403/
or put "water rocket" in your favorite search engine.
stan