Howdy boaters,
Am presently doin my Clarke Ab 4.3m up and need some advise. Am getting tierd of relying on other contractors to suck my money up for welding jobs. For welding Aluminium and stainless are the Bunnings $300 gassless MIGs any good?????
Oh yer here is some pics of my Project to date. Started of an ugly blue both inside and out so i put some love into her and painted her up. Cut half the aft thwart and placed battery inside with instrument panel on the ouside.(wiring all hiden away) Hooked up the LED lights inside the gunnels, Bulige pump (with float switch) ,anchor light and a beaut stereo system called JENSEN hooked up on a pannel blocking off the forward compartment. Just need some help on where to put a livewell as I would really like to slide on into the front thward but am afraid of losing more bouyancy(have 4 year old boy) Oh , and the misses.!!lol. Need some tips for the floor??Dont want to take console out everytime i have to lift the floor to find something thats been dropped!! Anyhow that should keep a few of you die hards busy. I love tinny tinkering an learning from you people out there , Many thanks
In my travels I have learnt unless you are going to spend a heap on a welder the gasless are crap and also with out gas it leaves a lot of slag behind so a pre treatment spray may be necessary. Have you thought about getting a stick welder as you will get a cleaner neater job than a gasless.
yep forget the gasless welders as they are rubbish. if you have everything all prepped and spottless then a welder should be able to do you a good rate(cash) for the bits you need done. the tinnie looks nice and clean now - what sort of paint did you use? whats on the back? loads of time chewed up spent tinkering with boats - great fun specially if you get your wee man involved.
good old boat there mate, as for the welder unless you set it on gas ( will cost some $$$ in seting it up ) dont bother with it as the post above take your parts to get done..
if you do go with the welder and you are going to Aluminium i hope youknow how to weld it as it takes a lot to get it right and the welders from bunnings just will not do the job you are after as you to set your fine setting to make the job look good and neat you will also need to run a teflon linner so the Aluminium wire dont get stuck all the time ,,,, and stainless again you are better of doing it with gas and you should be fine, if you are going to do it own welding do a taff course so you know what you getting yourself in for it will help so much....
Aluminium can be so tricky to weld if you have never done it before. Aluminium will just melt and you get no warning, the last thing you want is a mess you have to take some where to get fixed.
As for the floor put some stainless hinges in so you can open the floor up to what you need, or put in some trap doors that you can lift out and slot back in.
Hope this helps some what..
Best way is to pay a welder the gas less are ok for small welds and using outdoors but only for steel not for aluminum
something like that is best left in the hands of a pro as aluminum is rather difficult ans should only be done with a tig welder.
For welding ally your going to need a mig on argon gas, knerled rollers for the ally wire, and teflon to the torch. Then it's a matter of turning the wire speed to the max setting, and running your welds quicker than you would when welding steel. For tig you got to be pretty good at welding too, as it's a bit like oxy welding, only with electrickery.
Hey thanks guys for your reply. Guess it pays to ask around before investing as i was about to do..Swanie you right mate..Get it all prepped up and then pay for the job. Just thinking about making up a portable live tank that sits at your feet when stiiting on the front thwart facing back>.. Roughly the size of a deep cell battery but length of boat width ???? Still got Bow rails to be put on and a Bimini, so that will keep me busy..Swanie...mate I used 2 pack Jotun and on the back is an ols Evinrude 30 (88 model) Goes well now Ive replaced the power pack but they never really idle smoothly and no doubt scare the #$@%$ out any fish in the neighborhood..Got a Yammy 40 about to go on her...Barra, Ill have to re inforce the floor to do this which has been put off. Ill also insert some Clark Rubber 10" stripps down each side of the deck so I dont lose stuff all the time!! thanks mate anyhow.
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