Projects

EYC's homemade bar plans (how to build a bar)

Boats

Huts & Shelters

Starch Resource Deployment Facilitator (SpudGun/kartoffelkanone)

Spudgun Details Page
- Piston Page
- Valve & Trigger Page

I have 12' spudgun. It is powered by compressed air. The cannon uses a piston to release the air & fire spuds at incredible speeds.

Sailing Canoe

Sailing Canoe Details Page

I am in the process of modifying my canoe so that it can sail. I started this several years ago, and I am picking this project up again. I have just been informed by my Dad that he would rather me not glue a block for the base of the mast to the floor of the boat. I must now come up with a creative way to get around this, I'm thinking a thwart, with a piece of pipe that is like a sheath for the mast. I also have to figure out what I'm going to use for the mast. Right now, I'm leaning toward a 1" metal pipe. I think I will use a gaff rigged mainsail.

Project JIM 2000

Ben and I built a raft based on the "crusoe raft" in the American Boys Handybook We modified it so that we could move it and transport it, we also added wheels from a movers dolly. The raft is about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide. It is made of straight logs about 3-4" thick. We had two cross pieces that held the raft together they had 3/4" holes drilled so each log would have a peg going into it. The pegs didn't work as well as we had hoped. When we attached the wheels, we put two boards going across, parallel to the cross pieces. Each 3/4" board had a screw going into each log. The casters(wheels) were attached to the boards with screws. Our version was not designed to float.

Our school has a tradition on Halloween where seniors dress up for the day. Ben was Huck Finn and I was Tom Sawyer. We won the grand prize:)

Barrel Raft 1999-2000

We are building a raft out of 55 gallon plastic drums and plywood, the drums are attached with steel cable. We tried to just lash them to the barrel, but they came off in the water, and it was not stable enough, We decided to put two 2x4s perpendicular to the plywood, and attached the barrels to the 2x4s, we repeated this in the back. We used 4 bolts on each 2x4 to attach them to the plywood. We have learned to over engineer everything we build. We made little metal things that we epoxies to the barrels and ran the steel cable through them so that the barrels would not slip. The steel cable is tightened with long bolts going through the 2x4s. We did not, but you may have to put blocks under the barrels to help keep them in place. We have not figured out how to steer it and sail/row it. I did find some plans for some quick, cheap oars, I'm not sure if they will work. It has been tested. We just paddled it with canoe paddles, since this is painfully slow, we are going to build oars. We have learned from our experience with the beachcamper that we need to make sure it can fit on or in a car and it can be lifted.

Beachcamper 1998-1999

Oh boy, what a disaster...and a learning "experience".
This was my first boat building experience. My best friend Ben and I wanted to build a boat for the longest time. I designed a boat that was could sail or rowed or just float down the river. I had seen this design for a Beachcamper in a boating magazine, so I came up with a design from what I remembered. It had two benches on each side, six feet long, with a roof over each side. There was a slot down the middle in which another board fit into, so when this board was not there, you could walk from end to end. There was a small deck on the front and another one on the back. These two benches you could either sit or sleep on.. This design was only thirteen feet long and four feet wide.

We decided to build it in shop class. Our teacher thought we should make it so we could easily construct it from plywood dimensions. So we listened to him, I would regret this later. My dream was coming true, I was going to have a boat. I sunk about $200 into this project and that was a lot of money, considering I was 15 at the time. As the boat started to look more and more like a boat, we grew happier. It was the end of the school year and our shop teacher, Mr. Pacenka told us we had to get it out of the shop for the summer. We then realized that we could not lift this hideous monster on top of the car like originally planned. We had changed the dimensions just a little bit, added a permanent roof and about 3 extra feet. This thing was now so big and heavy that we could not lift it. We called around about trailer and the such, after a while, we could not find it. We thought we might saw the top half off and then try to lift it, our shop teacher did not want us to do that. My old man said we should take it apart and then bring it home and put it together or use it for my tree house. So I thought about it and compromise, I would take off the roof and all unnecessary things like the benches and then see if we could lift it. Me and Chris started to take it part. He went a "little" wild.

Eventually we just took it apart and brought it home and the shop teacher and other unknown parties made away with the rest. We would of had to spend another $150 on resin to fiberglass the bottom. My shop teacher gave us the matting and roving, that we ended up not using. If I had not listened to him about conforming it to plywood size, then I might of actually had myself a boat. As of 06/19/2001 I have found out that simi liar designs exist under the names: Jewelbox, Scram Pram, and Birdwatcher.

Treehouses

Fletcher's Treehouse Details Page

We both always wanted treehouses and we both helped each other build them, and, we both lost interest as we grew older.

Milk Jug Raft 1994-1995

We were in sixth grade and wanted to a raft in the worse way. We came across the idea to attach milk jugs to the bottom of pallets. We started to build it, but then decided our design was impractical,because we would have trouble moving it. It was about three pallets long and had a small plywood triangle on front it was going to be steered via a large sweep on the stern.

Sailing Catamaran made out of PVC pipe

I built a raft similar to this called the pvc pipe raft

I thought up this design when I saw a similar craft surfing the net. The pictures were not very good, but I saw that someone had built a pedal boat out of two PVC pontoons. So, I thought I could make a catamaran using this method. I'm not sure how much large PVC costs, but I could use two 8 or 10" diameter pieces of PVC pipe. I later rethought this and decided that I would fill the pipes with closed cell foam, the kind that you mix and it expands. This would make it easier to add centerboards, and crosspieces. I thought that either this could be a catamaran and I could put two metal braces between the two pipes and then attach a orange construction fence over the middle for a place to sit. I could also take a canoe and use the PVC as outriggers and use the same metal bracing and net technique. What to use for a mast?