PVC Kayak Frame
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- The skinning video is here! • PVC Kayak Frame with T... .
My real skin on frame kayak is for sale on Ebay till Sept, 11. www.ebay.com/it...
Check out my site documenting the build of my other skin on frame kayaks waterlightkayak....
This is my attempt to make a skin on frame kayak using pvc pipe for the frame and zip ties. I was working without any plans or official measurements and using only my experience paddling kayaks and building 2 previous CLCBoats kayak kits. I was not able to finish the whole boat during my Christmas break at my mother-in-laws house so the skinning will have to wait till summer. If you are a pro builder of things you may not want to watch this as the sloppy nature may cause you pain. However, it did come out much better than I thought it would.
Thanks everyone for letting me know that I can bend the PVC by filling with sand etc.
Alan McDonald or use a heat gun, won't burn the pipe
The easy way to bend them is to put them in a simple jig or fixture and pour some boiling water in the tubes let them sit for 15minutes then pour in some cold water the tubes will stay in that shape and you can even reheat and bend them again if you make a mistake.
Thank you for vid. I have been thinking about making a kayak for a while now. I tried to make an archery how a while ago (it's not as easy as they make it look). I think is great when someone makes a walk through vid NOT editing out the mistakes is important. Viewers suffer less from illusions about how easy everything is. It looks like you have a good following too. Lots of help and suggestions from them. Kudos for not being chalk full of ego in response
Thanks Stegman.
If you fill the pvc with sand before heating and bending it will keep a circular shape when bent
I was going to joke that this seemed very Florida like...(but with love as 1/4 of my family is from there 😅) and then he actually said Florida.
Interesting and fun looking!
Good job, look forward to seeing it finished
It is finished. The link is in the description.
Vaya chapuza con tantas bridas para mí opinion, no existen los empalmes de PVC en tu país?
Other tip: temporary skin... wrap it with plastic packing wrap.. it comes in big rolls and costs very little. It will be water tight but not puncture proof. Good enough for a test run. After you wrap it from stern to bow ( to prevent edges catching water in forward motion... then cut hole by cutting X or * asterisk pattern and folding in the triangles. Temp skin will hold tight.
Zip tying the crossbraces/etc together. You do know they sell "T" , 45 deg, 90 deg etc., fittings. Much stronger than zip ties
I know. But I wanted to avoid the relatively sharp edges they would expose to the skin and they would also not curve as nicely for the gunnel and chines. I also did not want to be limited to the few specific angles that are offered as that would greatly effect the shape of the kayak.
just an idea, maybe you can shrink wrap it if you want to see the set up float.
Tip: cap off one end of PVC. Then put a funnel on other end. Then heat a tray of dry sand in the oven to 450°. Then pour hot sand into funnel.
Result: PVC will be flexible and bend into any shape.
After watching your wonderful attempt, (no joke, I truly love it) I wish I had done it with you. I now want to make a PVC Kayak using the sand method.
Thanks for confirmation that making a skin-on frame with PVC is doable. I thought about doing the same to build a lightweight dinghy and may pursue that now. I purchased a $10 heat gun from Harbor Freight which does a quick job of heating PVC on the low setting for any forming. I also learned that for any permanent project to be used outdoors that I'm better off using the UV resistant black zip ties, albeit they're more expensive, as the white nylon can fail after a season here in the South. I've also had some success using corrosion resistant bailing wire, though you have to be careful tuck the cut ends away to prevent punctures. Good luck with your project completion later this year.
+Richard Bartley Thanks Richard. I was totally guessing on the zip ties. I did not know about the different ties. For your dingy you should check out the videos by Jeff Horton of kudzucraft.com as he has good ones on skinning kayaks as well as skin on frame canoes. I am reading both his books now. Also see videos by Brian Shulz on skinning.
With the way prices are right now, building supplies are through the roof. It would probably be cheaper just to buy a kayak from academy. Cool video though! 👍
Ive considered doing this for years. I do have some reserves about torsional rigidity. But i think that one might do very well making the ribs out of heat formed pvc flatbows. And wood stringers.
Not entirely a pvc boat, but a pretty good composite.
can you explain how many sizes of pvc are used the top and bottom and how long, more and tall like that, how big is the size of the wood on the front like?
thank you
Check out Backyard Bowyer's artful use of heat-guns for flattening and tapering PVC pipe. Also a construction technique you may consider, rib pipe can be heated and flattened, run through slotted grooves cut in longitudinal stringers. Heating the ribs once they're in will cause them to swell back to pipe dimensions, holding them firmly in, so you won't need ties on most joints. You can semi-flatten stringers as well, making them stronger in one direction, for gunnals, etc..
I've been wondering when I'd find someone who's tried using this idea. I'm curious how it turns out once you skin it and am happy to notice you've already considered info from kudzucraft. I really want to see how durable and seaworthy this boat is after some long term use. Good job!
Also... you can make a tool to round the ends of PVC. By using a piece of wood cylinder (same diameter as PVC) , very course sandpaper and a power drill. Put sandpapered cylinder into drill...
Mount power drill on board. Cut hole in board slightly larger than PVC diameter. The hole will stabilize the PVC as you grind off the inside of end leaving a perfectly round concave. Rough up PVC at point of connection and glue.
Try using a torch next time the candle makes it black a torch with heat it up so that you can do it nice and evenly and you can do it as slow or as fast as you need. But do be careful because the torch burns hotter than the candle.
Your weak points are the couplings in the middle, you can buy 20 foot lengths of pvc from wholesale supplier will make it so much stronger plus add foam inside pvc for rigidity.
You have a very good idea but you need a heat gun are not expensive but you save to buy more stuff, very good project
fyi I know you did this boat on a budget but you can purchase PVC tee's at home depot for about 33¢ apiece it would have been much sturdier that way.
If airtight , it might just be unsinkable. is this true? is it more bouyant than a regular one?
If you are using pipes with joints why did you not just by T joints for the cross members as they could then have been stuck together
That's a good idea but I did not want to lose the stiffness of the solid pieces and I did not want to be that accurate and have to measure everything out ahead of time. This way was also more closely related to how Greenland style kayaks are made. I had just read an Instructables on making Geenland kayaks.
Hi, have you ever thought about using threads instead of gluing the parts?
Thanks, I'll try the dryer next time. I definately did not like the breathing the soot.
+Alan McDonald,fill the pvc with sand when you heat it and it won't crease. You can also use a torch to heat the sand and pour it in the pvc.
hair dryer works well for melting.
Why didn't you use the tees that are made to join pvc? Would've been much stronger
Mostly I did not care about making it perfect or really that strong. I just wanted something to do and to see if I could make a decent shape. I also thought using the joints would be slow. I have not paddled the kayak since the launch video 2 years ago. If you want to see make a real kayak that I will be using in a 100 mile and a 260 mile race this summer go here builds.capefalconkayaks.com/2019/04/alans-lpb-and-greenland-paddle/. I am a bit behind on the posting right now.
for to use fire on pvc... put sand in to pvc so put fire and turn like you want
great video and great idea. did you ever skin THIS frame?
Not yet. I'll edit the video when I get to it later this summer. Check out waterlightkayaks.com for my other build.
+Alan McDonald I did check it out, very nice
Watched a great video on youtube on bending PVC. Apparently very hot water will make it pliable enough to bend.
Don't know why but I would use a but load of fittings and not bend the pipes and zip tie the bugger.
Some of you know I am doing a 100mile kayak race called the California 100, next weekend June 11. It is a fundraiser for Rivers For Change, a group that connects people and rivers.
I have finished building my kayak and now begin the required fundraising part. Check out my site documenting the build waterlightkayaks.com and visit here www.grouprev.com/California100-alan-mcdonald if you feel like helping me reach my donation goal. Cool.
Yes, it's painful to watch-so I skipped over. PVC tends to be heavy and flexy whenever I use it as structural components (not in boats). What does it weigh? Are you going to build more from this material?
I'll be in TX in a few weeks. I'll be finishing it up then. I'm going to skin I with a tarp and put a layer of paint on it. I'll post the weight when I have it. probably 40 pounds or so.
Alan McDonald ñ
Just wondering did you know you could go to home depot or Lowe's and get things like T's and 45's to get the angles you needed with out melting the PVC and kept the strength of the PVC. putting heat to PVC doesn't make it stronger it makes it brittle. any one that knows anything about PVC knows that much.
Andy Sjostrom. I did know about the connectors and angles. In my.opinion the best kayaks are made by Brian Schultz ua-cam.com/video/My3sBCDXacw/v-deo.html. This boat was nothing compared to these real kayaks. Even though this was just a way to keep busy and make a quick cheap kayak that would only be used a couple times, and the tarp skin would last only a few months, and the pvc would become brittle really soon, I wanted to make a shape that would perform well as a sea kayak and not be an ugly bathtub like every other pvc kayak I have seen on UA-cam. As you saw in the video the angles needed to be very specific to get my shape and using set angles would not get the shape I wanted.
backyard bower can Show You how to smelt pvc pipes
Good Luck Man !
+Lee Porter Thank you sir. Check out my new project at waterlightkayaks.com
Y am live in brasil.y like kaiake. Poderia me falar a largura no meio do kaiake. Thank you
Hi Alan.
Hi everyone.
What are the diameters of the pipes?
I think they were 1" and 1.5"
Have you got around to skin it yet?
I haven't been back to TX yet. I'll finish later this summer. I just finished making this one. Http://waterlightkayaks.com.
Me gusta mucho la idea
Why didn't you use pipe fitting's such as elbows, y's, t's and cross t's. From what I have seen you could have probably done all of it by drawing it out in detail ahead of time and buying the appropriate fitting's. Larger section's to a smaller section's could have been done with a reduced fitting 2'' to 1''.
Next time, don't be afraid to go to a hardware and get some help from there plumbing people. A detailed draw and some basic knowledge of fitting's, could have saved you a lot of time and effort, tie's will eventual fail, but a good clued joint, maybe never. Nice first effort, don't want to take away from the ingenuity or effort, but us guy's have a problem with asking for help or direction's, P&L :).
I was wondering the same. Some good 45s and T's would have made this frame much more sturdy, durable, and water tight.
good idea!!!
Gute Idee. Etwas mehr drüber meditieren und die Fehler fallen dir schon auf aber immer weiter so. 🤔👍
why did you glue couplings in the middle of the pvc pipe?
As this was supposed to be just a quick thrown together thing so I just made the joints where it was easiest and how I knew how. This is not an expedition boat.
14:28 I fond Jesus .
Nice.
Heat guns work better for even heating of the PVC. And zip ties tend to degrade easy. They get brittle and snap. T connectors would have been stronger.
you didnt even use the heat gun , you destroied the pvc I cant believe it
The skinning video is here! ua-cam.com/video/P0Yx2I2jQdY/v-deo.html.
Le falta más técnica es muy inteligente
They meant with a heat gun.
From a math guy I just have to tell you that at around 19 min in your video you subtract 2.5 from 18, and you come up with 16.5... I know...long day...it happens...hope you either caught it, or that it came out okay anyways! :-)
PEX would work much better and be extremely tough.
Пипец мужик наколхозил, скрепить стяжками конгениально ) , а о строительном фене он похоже и не слышал. Однако каркас внешне выглядит неплохо
for the next project try this www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-sc250-solvent-cement-250ml/14295
pruebalo
Jajajjjaa va flotar como las piedras
Get a heat gun is not so expencive!!!
Nice idea but you have way too many FLEX points, too much movement.
You're heating the PVC too quick
not a plumber i guess?
POLICE MATRIX ya think ?