Hi guys, looks like I can finally contribute to this board instead of just reaping the benefits of your collective wisdom!
I built a floating dock last year and it's working great. I used $5.00 drums from the local Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottling plant. They have lots of 'em, with tops, screw caps that are water tight and in excellent shape. Can't see why they don't re-use them. Probably costs too much to clean, etc?
Anyway, I built 2 docks that I can connect together. I couldn't find the exact plans tonight, but each is approx. 7' wide x 16' long. I used 2x10 inside stringers and 2x12 on the outside frame - all Press. Treated lumber and galvanized connectors on the ends from Overtons.com . The 7' odd width is based on the lowest cost lumber I could buy at the time without making it too narrow. That stuff's EXPENSIVE!! I used 8 barrels per section. 3 on each end and 2 in the middle, mounted length-wise. May be overkill, but I had no idea how much each would hold and I wanted a floating dock, not a sunken reef! Someone told me that each drum would support the weight of the water it displaced or 450-500 pounds. Heck, I ain't no Engineer, so I used that as a rule of thumb. One thing I did on the 2nd dock was to put waterproof glue around the screw cap threads. I didn't on the first dock's drums and I have one that leaks.
It floats about 1/2 drum out of the water.
I spaced the 2x10 lumber stringers about 2' apart, which fit the drums exactly, allowing me to wedge them in snug, but not too tight. I then used thin strips of galv. metal strapping to secure each drum to the frame. Used 2x6 decking on top.
It was a real hoot building this thing in my basement since I live about 30 miles from the pond and I have no electricity there yet. I built it and then disassembled it to cart it to the pond. Then reassembled it onsite with a friend. The first one took all day to put together onsite. The second one about 2 hours by myself. I have some good photo's if someone can tell me how to post 'em here or I can email them to anyone who's interested.
It works great, hold 4 adults and several kids without much tipping. The best thing is I can move it to any spot on the lake or just float free, by attaching a rope. I used it to move about 20 Christmas trees out about 30 feet from shore - worked great.
I'll be glad to provide more detail if desired.
Dave
