Wow what a great project and result! Makes the 2 docks I am in the process of building (in the water) look like child's play. Weather needs to cooperate here in St. Louis as well. But it might snow here this weekend and that will just put me farther behind on spring pond projects. Nice job! BM61.
Has any one tried putting an anchor on each end of the dock. Suspended from a pulley, one side of cable with 500 lbs of weight and on the other end say 300 lbs of weight, having the 300 lb weight just 3 feet below dock or half of the depth of the water. Float tanks may need to account for extra weight. That way you could have weight on the very end where it would do the most good. Or if you have a stable water level you could just have the smaller weight set on top of the larger one and it would only move when your water is going out of the spill way. Could be a swimming hazard but not much more than a large rock on the bottom. You may want two pulleys and run cable under the dock so the smaller weight could be on the other side of the dock so it would not be tangled with or around the anchor cable of the larger weight. By the way your dock looks great!
Thanks for all the compliments, concerns, and suggestions!
It has finally dried up enough to get the first piece in. I have to tell you that the phrase..."If the Egyptians could build the pyramids, I could build a little dock." has also been very encouraging as I have noodled out the build and install.
I really just wanted to post the next step, mostly because I'm exited to add the next piece this afternoon, but some of you may be keeping up with the progress...
A little background on the design...The blue barrels float the gangway a little high. I have left access to the bungs so that I can add water if need be to sink that end a little. If you look close on the shore side of the blue barrels, I have a place for two more barrels just in case the first two needed some help. Well they don't so I will remove some of that extra work with added extra work. I did not want to need the extra barrels and have to construct the supports on the water, now I get to dismantle those supports on the water(no big deal). I may find that after I add the weight of the gangway decking that it levels out and I don't have to add any water, but we'll see.
It's a little wobbly at this point, but the connections between the 3 outer frames has not been tightened up yet and the decking will surely add some rigidity to it.
That may actually happen Brian, but they should come off pretty easily and that would reduce places for stuff (bugs, snakes, debris, etc) to hangout. And, sometimes, I do things for no real good reason.
Well, I did not have to work in horrible weather to get it done over the weekend, just chilly, windy & cloudy. It floats well. I may have mentioned that I cheated the float manufactures suggested weight per float on two sections. These sections are 12 feet by 4 feet rather than the suggested 10x4, 3 floats per and the added weight of the triangular seats added even more cheating, but the wood is 4 to 5 inches above the water. When I (at 185 pounds) stand on the outer most corners the wood just touches the water so I am calling it a success. I did add 13 gallons of water to each of the two barrels on the gangway, they really floated high. They were holding the second gangway up causing the very end to be dipping down. The addition of the water helped bring the very end up more so than level which helped with regard to the wood touching the water with my weight on it. Here are a few shots...
Thanks for the compliments Guys! I think I did pretty good for not being a carpenter.
I have no less than 120 hours in building it. That does not count the time to research, design, source materials, and get materials. I did most of it by myself. I can give two people credit for helping. One buddy for a couple hours to help mix the concrete and pour the foundation, and my FIL helped for a few hours when I was building the frames in the shop. Otherwise, it was me and my imaginary Egyptians (you know the ones that built the pyramids).
If anyone needs any additional build info on the dock, feel free to PM me and I'll do what I can to help. I'm sure I learned a few things that did not get into the thread.