Pallet & Water-Bottle Raft
by Nikos Papadopoulos
Build a 160 × 120 cm floating raft from two wooden pallets and twelve empty 19 L water cooler bottles lashed into a timber cradle underneath. It suits a confident DIY beginner who wants a calm-water paddling platform for a sheltered lake or slow river, carrying one adult up to 90 kg.
Deck
Wooden pallets
2 standard EUR pallets, each 120 × 80 × 14.4 cm, heat-treated (look for the HT stamp, never chemically treated) — (the deck and main structure)
40
Deck infill boards
8 planed softwood boards, each 120 cm long × 9.5 cm wide × 2 cm thick — (fill the open gaps in the pallet top deck)
25
Galvanised mending plates
4 flat pre-drilled steel plates, 300 × 50 mm — (bridge and lock the two pallets together at the seam)
10
Exterior wood screws 5 × 50 mm
Box of 100 stainless or hot-dip galvanised screws — (deck boards, loose pallet boards and mending plates)
12
Buoyancy cradle
Water cooler bottles
14 empty 19 L polycarbonate bottles with screw caps, roughly 27 cm diameter × 49 cm long — 12 used, 2 spares (all of the buoyancy)
70
Cradle rails
5 softwood lengths, each 160 cm long × 7 cm deep × 4.5 cm thick — (fore-aft rails that form the four bottle channels)
30
End stop battens
2 softwood lengths, each 120 cm long × 7 cm deep × 4.5 cm thick — (stop the bottles sliding forward or backward)
10
Exterior wood screws 6 × 80 mm
Box of 80 stainless or hot-dip galvanised screws — (fix rails and end stops through the pallet bottom boards)
15
Ratchet straps 4 m
6 straps, 25 mm webbing, minimum 400 kg lashing capacity — (crosswise lashings pulling bottles up into the channels)
30
Ratchet straps 5 m
2 straps, 25 mm webbing, minimum 400 kg lashing capacity — (fore-aft lashings over the bottle ends)
12
Clear silicone sealant
1 cartridge, 300 ml — (a sealing bead under every bottle cap)
6
PTFE thread tape
1 roll, 12 mm wide — (wrapped on each bottle neck thread before capping)
2
Rigging & finishing
Galvanised screw eyes
8 eyes, M8 shank about 60 mm long — (rope anchor points around the deck edge)
8
Polypropylene rope 10 mm
12 m of floating rope — (perimeter grab rope with handhold loops)
10
Painter line
5 m of 10 mm floating rope — (bow line for mooring and towing)
5
Exterior decking oil
1 L clear or light oak — (two coats over all timber)
18
Sandpaper
4 sheets 80 grit and 4 sheets 120 grit — (de-splinter the deck and round the edges)
6
Step 1 of 8
Cut list and material check
MATERIALS
TOOLS
Circular saw→ fine crosscut blade
Tape measure
Carpenter's square and pencil
Instructions
• DECK: 2 EUR pallets 120 × 80 cm (butt the 120 cm edges → 160 × 120 cm deck); 8 infill boards 120 × 9.5 × 2 cm. • CRADLE: 5 rails 160 × 7 × 4.5 cm; 2 end stops 120 × 7 × 4.5 cm; cut with the circular saw. • BUOYANCY: 12 bottles of 19 L = 228 L of lift; raft weighs about 60 kg, so max load 90 kg. • Reject any pallet with rot, split blocks or a chemical treatment stamp; reject crazed or cracked bottles. • Cut all timber first, then stack it in the shade — no assembly until every piece is cut and checked.
Time & Waiting
Active work
1 hour
People
1 person
Swipe or use ← → keys
Want to follow this guide step by step or log your own build?
Open in the Makeit App