Cleats, Console, and a Trailer...

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neil b

Member
Hey Guys,
Here's a few more photos of the boat. I made 5 cleats out of 1" rod. I ground two notches in the cleat tops, then welded in the legs and ground the beads back. The legs on the cleats need to be leveled, then they can be welded to the deck. The console needs the cut-outs for the instruments, and the hand rail welded on, then I can prep it for paint.
The boat definitely looks much more like a boat now that its on a trailer.
Hope everyone is having a fun season,
Neil

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Well, thats quite a project. What kind of welder do you have? I have welded for about 35 years, but mostly stick on mild steel. I bought a TIG welder recently and threatened to learn how to do aluminum. Its hard for me to be consistently good at it. Aluminum seems too easy for me to screw up to build an entire boat out of it. One thing, you don't have to wait for the epoxy to cure, that's for sure.

Your boat looks like it will last 100 years.

Dave
 
Dave,
I have a Miller 350 P with a Aluma-Pro push/pull gun. Aluminum is a tricky material to work with. It either seems to be too cold or there is a nice hole burned through where your aluminum used to be. I have no idea what I am doing and have been making it up as I go along. It has been a struggle at times to say the least, and has taken me awhile to diagnose problems as I encounter them. This is my first aluminum project (minus a beer bucket) so time will tell whether it will sink at the dock or not. I had problems today with the wire burning back into the tip. I'm not sure if I damaged the liner as a I fed in the latest spool of wire or what. It seems like its always something!
Ryan - nobody will be more excited to see it done than me! I have become way too familiar with my angle grinder.
- Neil
 
With no more experience than you say, an older machine and a project like yours, My hat is off to you. Nothing like jumping in with both feet!! Your pictures would not suggest that you have so little experience. What kind of aluminum are you using? 5005?
 
Neil it is not done yet !!!!!! HAHAHA just kidding man looks great , nice job , do you think you wil be hunting it this year ? Keep us posted on this great project .




Dave M
 
Dave E,
I have no excuse for bad welding other than my own inexperience. The Miller machine I have is a Millermatic 350 P, its their pulsed mig rig with an aluminum specific gun. The welder and push/pull gun was bought specifically for this project. But other than my beer bucket, I had only welded one small bead on some steel with a spool gun prior to getting in over my head. The entire boat is all 5086 aluminum. The 5086 comes in different denominations, like 5086 H111, 5086 116, or 5086 H32 (among others). Its all the same metal, with slightly different tempers I think. I think alot of extruded 5086 is labeled as H32. I have tried to read a bit on it, but its pretty confusing.
Hey Dave,
I don't know if I will be hunting it this year or not. I sure hope so, but you know how the best layed plans often end up. Dad and I were planning on working on the boat for a week, then going deer hunting for a few days. But due to work stuff coming up, we are now going hunting for 7 or 8 days, and only getting in 2 days of boat work. The cockpit floor templates are proving to be a pain. There is just enough heat distortion to keep everything from being square. Hopefully I will have some deer pictures to show you, or some photos of some significant boat progress, in the near future.
Hope you are doing good,
Neil
 
Have some quality time hunting with your dad. Sounds like a great time in the making.
 
Neil,

I have been following your build since the plans arrived. I am sure its killing you to only get to work on it every once in a while but I bet it will be worth the wait. I really admire you jumping in with both feet. I assumed that you were a welder by trade when following along with the posts.

Keep the pictures coming as you get them.
 
Neil,
I've been welding for a living since the late 70's, take the wire out of your machine and blow out the liner, my 350P with the aluma pro gun hangs up from time to time to, usally just a build up near the handle where the liner comes into the gun. You are correct about the letter and number combo, they indicate the temper with H32 being formable and T6 hard, T6 will break if bent. 6061 T6 is what most structrial materials are, angles channels ect., I work with alot of 5052 H32 sheet aluminum in repairing liquid and dry bulk tank trailers, and am the QC Manager for our ASME Program.
 
Hey Chuck,
Thank you for the advice. I ended up stretching the lead out and blowing it out with compressed air. I have used CRC Lectro-Motive cleaner to clean the lead and spots I am going to weld before, but I just read an interesting article about that stuff turning into phosgene (spelling?) gas if you hit a puddle of it with an arc. Supposedly the stuff is extremely toxic, can cause bad health problems, and even kill you. I think I will stop using the stuff in the future. Have you heard of anything like that? Go to http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=35736 if you are interested.
-Neil
 
Yup heard about that the same time OSHA lowered the Hexavailent Chrominum Levels for welding. We just blow them out now with every spool change. Pay attn to where the liner comes into the gun handle,just peelback the velcro at the bottom of the handle and you'll see the setscrew to loosen for the actual liner for the gun, that seems to be where we always have our hang ups, you running your pulse at about 50 ppm?
 
Neil ,


You are certainly learning alot from this project , looks like you hooked up with the experienced welder here , you know if your old Scaup takes a trip out west to dad let me know you guys are always welcome to come along with Andreww and i i will let you drive the cakler since you guys inspired me to build it . Just say the word if you need a hand !!


Dave M
 
Neil,

It appears that your boat is low profile, but you are making a stand up console, or is my "scale" off?

If it is a stand up console why for a low profile boat?
 
Hey Guys,
Unfortunately there hasn't been much new progress since early November. I cut most of the cockpit floor but I cooked my skill saw trying to cut too much of a curve in a plate. I need to rent a plasma cutter and learn how to run that to do the hatch cutouts and the topside deck. The boat is in the driveway, shrinkwrapped for now. The guys who own the barn needed the space to do some bearing work on a Brownell trailer, and I need warmer weather to weld.
I have been running my dog almost every day so that is burning up lots of time. And turkey season is almost here. I have most of the components for the boat just waiting to be installed once I'm done welding and painting.
There was a question asked about my console, and yes it is a standup console. I, personally, do not like running boats sitting down. I feel like I can't see as well. Hopefully once the canvas work is done, the sidewalls of the canvas will be as tall as the console top. The console will hopefully have its own slip cover with stubble straps sewn on. Even with a standup console the boats overall profile should be easier to hide than some of the taller hulls.
-Neil
 
I would like to see the pictures I just ordered metal for a 18 scaup and then the pictures vanished any help on this would be great[inline]
 
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