Help before i sink

[BONECRUSHER]

My boat has been taking in more and more water everytime i go out, only when im going through swell ( i guess its flexing the crack). but im bilging every ten minutes or so. Does anyone know a good aluminum welder and how much do they cost. I can mig weld metal but never tried aluminium and dont want to start on my boat lol. So help would be great. Still gutted im missing the meet at the basin. :beerchug:

Coops
Bonecrusher

[netic]

Mate i had some cracks in my boat that i got welded and "knock on wood" its been about 15 trips and its still good....i got it done by a boat repairer in Moorebank.

[xtosea]

Coops there is a palace that i deliver from in Brookvale, Old Pittwater rd, Number 104-106, third driveway on your left, unit 3C i think, i will find out for you later, i saw them welding some boats there the other day. Just leave it with me.
Kamil

[BONECRUSHER]

sweet brookie is just down the road, cheers

[Haji]

Chris Tregonning who owns Viking Marine in Mangrove Lane at Taren Point (the Shire) is the best that I know at repairing ally boats. I have seen him virtually rebuild some horror results from crashes as well as designing and installing some magic custom modifications to ally boats.

Chris also owns and operates Viking charters which uses a large ally game and bottom fishing boat that he completely rebuilt.

To give you some indication of his reputation all of the major boat retailers in the Shire and St George area seem to use him when they have any ally or stainless work to do.

Hope this helps?

:luck:

[nimrod]

Coops. If Lidcombe isn't too far away for you. If you know where the cracks are and they are accessable I could weld them up for you, but not this week end as I'm going to Bermi.
Any other weekend and I could do it. Or if you want to leave the boat I could do it sometime during the week.
And if you like I could give you some lessons on welding alloy, have heaps of scrap here you could practice on.
Frank

[xtosea]

Coops, i stopped there today as i was in the compleex picking stuff up,the places is Warringah Aluminium, unit 3A 106 Old Pittwater Rd, Brookie, the guys name is Val, they would be happy to do it, the number is 9938-6144, although i dont know if i could go past Franks offer!

Kamil

[BONECRUSHER]

Kamil thanks for getting that info, franks offer is good. I would really like to learn how to weld my boat as im sure it will happen again eventually.

Frank, that sounds good, I will locate the crack first. This weekend then will let u know. Would like to learn how to weld seeing that i will have to do it again some day.

Cheers coops

[nimrod]

Coops. Any time after this week end and before the big meet week end.
I will mend your boat, then we can have a quiet one together and I can sit you down with lots of scrap of different sizes and shapes and you can have some practice.
It's quite easy really, once you have clean metal ( alloy ) and the right settings, it's just a matter of pulling a trigger and holding your mouth right,
You must remember the tongue goes out the left side of the mouth:headbang: :rolling laughter: .
Frank

[Dog Catcher]

Gather you've got a tinny not plate & the split has occured right next to the weld on the skin ???

A bit late now cause by the sounds of things it started as a small split & grown but had you drill a small hole say 1/16 th " when you 1st noticed it the crack would not have progressed.

It's whats called stop drilling @ least you'll know this in future haven't seen the split but depending on how bad it is will determine if you may need some sort of bracing.

Add to that I'd be looking @ what caused the crack often a underfloor fuel tank not mounted correctly will cause cracking

[nimrod]

9 times out of 10 it's something to do with the trailer that has caused the crack. Other then having an object encounter the metal with force:1yikes:
Frank

[Dog Catcher]

All the weight of an Alloy boat should be taken up by the Keel not the skin not saying it cant happen whilst boat is on trail but think there's a greater chance of cracking when boat starts to bang through swells.

Alloy sheet dosen't have the strength of tensile grade plate add to that undercutting into the skin when boat was originally welded there's the start of your crack

[BONECRUSHER]

Cheers for the info, Next week frank we will tee it up, what do they say you dont have to be a good welder just a good grinder.

will message you to arrange a time.

Coops