For those of you who don't know what the PakYak is, its a collapsible Kayak that folds down into a convenient backpack sized pack. (roughly 12" by 6" by 20" in the model I'm building) Which then unfolds into a nifty 10' Kayak. It's comprised of a wooded or aluminum frame that unfolds inside of a waterproof nylon fabric skin to keep the boat afloat. The latest model, which can be seen on Jim Heter's PakYak website linked to the right, is actually a compilation of over 20 years of experience with the "PakYak" design and idea. Also on his website are the plans to his 4th version model.
My goals during this project are: to be able to confidently say that I understand exactly how this design woks, I can say that I've built one, earn a high school credit for doing this project for a research and development class, and finally (as a by product of the previous goal) to contribute to the PakYak through helping to make it easier for others to build by providing isometric views of the design and it's components with my 3D modeling software.
For the time being things will be a little slow since I don't have a prescribed time set aside yet to work on my PakYak with any sort of regularity, but my hopes are high.
So far I've begun to pour over some of the design modifications that were made to Jim Heter's latest design versus the 4.0 PakYak that he has plans listed for on his website. The details that Jim gave to me on the new design can be veiwed here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddvg4hw7_19hs2446cd A lot of this is just going to be wrapping my mind around it and chipping away slowly at the details. I've already started to build my boat digitally in Autodesk Inventor and so far I just have the bare bones to one of the endbraces.
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2 comments:
This is a fantastic project and the 3D pics will be priceless. Jim sent me to your blog for the plans but when I view them in google docs they are all mismatched and jumbled (including holes, measurements and labels). Is there any chance of getting a PDF or doc version emailed to me?
Yes, I can email the pictures and diagrams as I have them right now, but they are still a work in progress. Sorry about the long wait. I haven't been able to check the blog in a while, let alone provide a much needed update. Please send an email to "gage6917(at)Gmail.com"
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