BUCKET DOCK

Abstract

Embodiments for the invention provide a method, system and product for a floating dock or platform using buckets. In an embodiment of the invention, a beam section of a dock or platform may include holes to fit the bottoms of 5-gallon buckets. The bottoms of the 5-gallon buckets are then inserted into the hole and fastened in place. The lids of the 5-gallon buckets are then attached. The section of the floating dock can then be deployed. Multiple sections can be rafted together with rope or other fasteners to create the floating dock or portions of the floating dock.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of floating docks and platforms.

Description of the Related Art

Floating docks and platforms, whether permanent or temporary, are often utilized to increase the size of a property or to create a floating feature for the property owner to enjoy. Floating docks can be very large and are extremely heavy and cumbersome to transport and install. The problems associated with transporting and installing floating docks are worse for temporary floating docks as temporary floating docks must be installed and uninstalled for each event. Thus, there exists a need to develop a floating dock that is modifiable for the design requirements, easy to transport, and rapidly deployable.

Typical 5-gallon buckets are used in many industries, including the food industry, and are often discarded after use. It is normally more cost effective to replace an inexpensive 5-gallon bucket rather than sanitize the bucket and reuse the bucket after a few uses. However, as the 5-gallon buckets are plastic, the buckets often end up in landfills adding to global waste issues.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to floating docks and platforms and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and product for a rapidly deployable floating dock or platform using buckets. In an embodiment of the invention, a beam section of a dock or platform may include holes to fit the bottoms of 5-gallon buckets (or buckets or bottles of any kind). The bottoms of the 5-gallon buckets are then inserted into the hole to be held in place. The lids of the 5-gallon buckets are then attached. The section of the floating dock or platform can then be deployed. Multiple sections can be rafted together with rope or other fasteners to create the floating dock or platform or separate rooms of the dock or platform.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a 5-gallon bucket;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of a beam section of a bucket dock without buckets installed in accordance with an embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a beam section of a bucket dock in accordance with an embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of a beam section of a bucket dock in accordance with an embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 5 is a top view of a bucket dock with multiple beam sections in accordance with an embodiment of this invention; and,

FIG. 6 is a top view of a floatation portion of a dock in accordance with a different embodiment of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide for a method, system and product for a floating dock or platform using buckets (dock and platform may be used interchangeably to refer to a floating surface). In an embodiment of the invention, a beam section of a dock may include holes to fit the bottoms of 5-gallon buckets (or buckets or bottles of any kind). The bottoms of the 5-gallon buckets are then inserted into the hole. As a typical 5-gallon bucket tapers towards its bottom, the hole will hold the 5-gallon bucket in place, but the 5-gallon bucket may be glued in place to provide additional rigidity. Alternatively, there may be a notch on the bucket or beam and an insertion point for the notch on the bucket or beam to form a cam lock to hold the bucket in place. The lids of the 5-gallon buckets are then attached with pressure. The section of the floating dock can then be deployed. Multiple sections can be rafted together with rope or other fasteners to create the floating dock or separate rooms or portions of a larger platform. The sections may include spacers between each section. Alternatively, the sections of the floating dock may include a notch or notches on the side of the section and an insertion point or insertion points for the notch on a side of a different one of the sections to form a cam lock to attach the sections together if no separation is desired. As well, there may be an extra layer around the perimeter to provide stability along with edges. Sections may be layered on top of each other to provide additional buoyancy. As well, multiple buckets may be nested into one another to provide additional buoyancy.

In further illustration, FIG. 1 shows a side view of a typical 5-gallon bucket, FIG. 2 shows a bottom view of a beam section of a bucket dock without buckets installed and FIG. 3 shows a side view of a beam section of a bucket dock in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. As can be seen, a typical 5-gallon bucket 110 is approximately 14.5″H×12″ diameter. A typical 5-gallon bucket has a slight taper so that the bucket can be nested into other buckets when empty. The lid of a typical 5-gallon bucket has a rubber gasket and seals tightly with manual pressure.

A beam section 120 of a bucket dock may include holes 130 that fit the bottom of a typical 5-gallon bucket. As well, beam sections 120 may include holes 150 in order to attach the beam section 120 to other beam sections. The beam section can be made of wood, prestressed concrete, recycled plastic, etc. The beam section may be made by melting down 5-gallon buckets and then forming the beams by extrusion or a mold. The holes can be routed or may be formed by the mold or extrusion process. The beam can be any size or shape and may include any number of holes in any configuration. The beam sections may also include floatation foam in the space between the buckets in order to provide additional rigidity and displacement. The figures are only for exemplary purposes. As an example, FIGS. 2 through 4 show a beam that is approximately 2″×15″×96″ with seven (7) holes routed into the bottom. The bottoms of the buckets 110 are inserted into the holes and glued or fastened into place. The lids 140 are attached to the buckets with pressure. With the example shown in FIG. 3, as each bucket has approximately 5 gallons of displacement volume, the section 120 would have a total of approximately 240 pounds of displacement.

As shown in FIG. 4, additional buckets may be nested into one another before the lid is attached to provide additional displacement. Each additional nested bucket provides approximately 2 additional gallons of displacement volume. Therefore, a single bucket would provide 5 gallons of displacement volume, two buckets nested together would provide 7 gallons of displacement volume, three buckets nested together would provide 9 gallons of displacement volume, etc. This would allow one to incrementally increase the buoyancy of each section. As well, entire sections can be layered on top of one another in order to achieve a greater buoyancy of the entire floating dock.

FIG. 5 is a top view of a bucket dock with multiple beam sections in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. As can be seen, multiple sections 120 are attached together by any means, such as rope through holes 150 of each section 120 or fasteners, in order to form the floating dock or portions or rooms of a larger floating dock. There may be spacers in between in section 120. Additionally, there may be an extra layer around the perimeter of the multiple sections like a footer on a slab to provide edge stability. Any amount of sections in any shape or configuration is within the scope of this invention. The example shown in FIG. 5 is shown without spacers and is approximately 90″×96″ providing approximately 1,680 pounds of total displacement. Thus, if each of these areas were layered on top of one another, two layers would provide 3,360 pounds of total displacement, three layers would provide 5,040 pounds of total displacement, etc.

In order to rapidly deploy the floating docks, the sections may be shipped in trucks or containers. The sections can then be set up by divers by pumping air into each of the 5-gallon buckets before attaching the lid while in the water. The sections would then be fastened together. In order to break down the floating dock, the divers would unfasten the sections, remove the lids of the buckets of each section, remove the sections from the water, and load the sections back into the trucks or containers.

As well, the same system of beam sections with 5-gallon buckets can be utilized to form a bridge from dry land to the floating section in which some of the 5-gallons buckets would be filled with sand or concrete to weight the section down to the dry land. Further, pilings can be made by cutting a circle in the bottom of the bucket's nesting and adding concrete and rebar. Even further, multiple levels can be used to accommodate smaller watercraft.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, FIG. 6 shows a top view of a floatation portion of a dock in accordance with a different embodiment of this invention. As can be seen, bottles 170, such as glass bottles, beer bottles, 2-liter plastic bottles, wine bottles, cans, etc., can be reused to create a floatation section underneath a walkable surface of a docket. The mesh 160 holds the bottles 170 in place and walkable surface, such as plastic, wood, prestressed concrete, etc, can be placed over the mesh and bottles to create a floating dock. Alternatively, the bottles 170 can be used in conjunction with the 5-gallon buckets to provide additional displacement for the floating dock as discussed above. Along with the 5-gallon buckets, sections 120 can include holes that fit the bottles 170 or mesh 160 with bottles 170 can be attached to the sections 120 to provide additional displacement for the floating dock.

Thus, 5-gallon buckets and other bottles may be repurposed to create both temporary and permanent floating docks and platforms.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, those having ordinary skill in the art will understand that changes can be made to the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is not to be restricted, therefore, to the specific embodiments. Furthermore, it is intended that the appended claims cover any and all such applications, modifications, and embodiments within the scope of the present invention.

Finally, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes” and/or “including,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Having thus described the invention of the present application in detail and by reference to embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims as follows:

Claims

1. A method, system and product for a floating dock or platform using buckets as disclosed herein.