The Tin Can Too (Work Begins)((Pictures))

[Bob La Londe]

Well, I figured it out. I think. The first thing is that I just can't get as much penetration as I would like. I did a couple things to make it workout.

First is I took a ball mill in a die grinder and made a nice groove the full length of the vertical weld is I could get my bead in between the two piece of metal some for greater strength.

The I took a magic marker and marked off a one inch segment of the aluminum every 3 inches.

Then I stitch welded it. I went through and burned a one inch weld at each of my marked off segments, and let it cool. It held. Nothing cracked. Then I went back and welded every other section that was not welded, and let it cool. Still held. Then I went back and welded the segments I had skipped.

I took a grinder and smoothed off my bead, but left a substantial mound of the bead above the base metal. It does not look as good as I would like, but no problems. I left the other side alone for a couple days, and then went back and took a look at it. After the metal had cooled there was a noticeable gap (1/64 to 1/32 inch) between the unwelded side and the piece of heavy veritical stock. Instead of trying to pull it together I repeated my 1 inch holding welds as it was. I figured if it wanted to shrink back to that position when it cooled off it would be a lot less likely to crack If I just tacked it place there and welded it in that position. It seems to have worked. I repeated my process and its seems to have worked. I think that I'm going to flip the boat over though before I finish the last couple segments of the bow repair. I'm convinced some of my difficulties would be reduced if I was not welding overhead.

For those that don't know, aluminum expands and contracts dramatically with welding temperatures, and this can cause cracking and tearing if you do not plan for it adequately. Even large steel welding projects can have the same problems, but aluminum is an order of magnitude worse.

[Bob La Londe]

It looks like I have my long weld issue figured out. I tacked it every 3 inches or so, let it cool, then welded every other space that was left open. Let it cool again, and then welded the other sections. Seems to have worked fine.

No I want to flip the boat over on the floor to finish the bow. I probably should have done that already.

[Blind Squirrel]

So I guess I just have one question. Why?

You are taking the cheapest boat made and spending some money and a ton of your time fixing it. Couldn't you just go out and buy one if you spent that time working as a contractor instead?

[Bob La Londe]

Well. I had one spot on the bottom of the bow that was escaping my ability to weld. Finally I flipped the boat over and set it on some saw horse. Then I whipped out my sandblaster and blasted out the area, and then brushed it thoroughly with a good stainles brush.

I took a hammer and a drift to the aluminum to put pieces as close as possible, and welded it. It filled and welded up pretty easily. If I had flipped the boat over to make this weld weeks ago I would be a lot further along already. I guess I just don't have the skill to make touchy aluminum welds overhead yet.

[Bob La Londe]

Yesterday

I was planning to try and leave the bow open inside to route some wires, and use the space as a rope locker, but after much thought I decided I liked the idea of having it filled with foam creating a rigid and resiliant structure out of the entire nose of the boat. Maybe the fact that I finally figured out how to lift the boat so I could fill it right up to the very tip of the nose had something to do with it. LOL. I found some pourable stuff that claims to form closed cell flotation when it hardens. That would be really cool as I sure don't want the stuff Tracker used that will take on water. I'll brush what I can and sandblast the rest up there so the foam should stick really good too.

I just welded in one of the last two pieces to fill in the bow on the outside. Looks ok. I'ld cut the last piece and weld it in tonight, but I don't have lights outside the back shop door, and some moron put a boat up on saw horses right in the way so I can't roll the saw back inside. LOL. I'll snap a picture tommorrow.

[Bob La Londe]

When I got home from work today I cut the last outside piece to finish the shell of the bow, and welded it in. I still want to put a re-enforcing plate and some braces inside. Then as I mentioned before I'll fill the entire nose piece with foam to make it totally rigid. The foam should be here by the end of next week. I'm still planning to cut and fit sheets of styrofoam for the sole to replace the plant foam looking stuff I took out.

Its not pretty, but I think it will hold. I'ld flip it over this evening, but I want to carefully check over all the welds wth bright sunlight coming in the door so I can fix any pinholes before I flip it upside right. I'm not going to put it back on the trailer though. I'm going to just set it on planks on the floor to make it a little easier to get in and out of to work on.

[Bob La Londe]

P.S. Note the current tag? I may just throw a trolling motor on it and go fishing with it the way it is just to freak poeple out. LOL. Well, I would have to throw in something upfront to stand on.

[Bob La Londe]

Dang it! I knew I forgot something. Both oxygen bottles are empty and I wanted to heat up some pieces of aluminum angle to try and bend them to fit the inside of the hull. I got two nearly full bottles of acetylene, and no O2. Dang. Well, I guess I find out tommorrow if any of the welding supplies have saturday hours. Either that or do a cut and weld type bend I guess.

[Blind Squirrel]

So, you never answered my question. Why ???

[Bob La Londe]

Well, mostly I wanted to learn how to weld aluminum. The boat and trailer with a trolling motor was $250 dollars. Cheap enough that if I destroyed it I wouldn't really be out anything. I can probably get that much for the aluminum just for salvage by weight. Add in the trailer and the trolling motor and I could have scrapped it and been money ahead.

Yes, when I add in the cost of repair materials and my time I could have bought two or three hulls like this one. However, I am learning a skill that will be useful for lots of other things. On top of that when I am done I'll have something. If I just picked up a bunch of scrap and practiced welding to learn I would have a pile of aluminum scrap all welded together when I was done. Also, when you take two pieces of scrap and lay them out on the bench to practice the welds all come out better than they do with a real world application. In this case I have already learned basic aluminum welding, but I can also do vertical welding, and to a limited extent overhead welding. Both difficult skills to learn with any material much less aluminum which tends to melt and fall out if you don't get it just right. I have pushed both the minimum and maximum limits of my welder as well, and learned where my limits are as well as the limits of the machine.

I have learend something about setting up my machine for different thicknesses of metal, and even how to patch holes with and without backing to some extent by adjusting my welding machine.

I have to say that I am enjoying the process.

A few years ago I had some minor modifications I wanted done to The Tin Can (the original) so I dropped it off at a local welding shop. My thought was that it would be cheaper to have him do it, and pay his rate then to buy a welder and teach myself to do it. In one way it was, but he took forever to get around to doing it, and then he did not do it the way I wanted it done. Now I can make those repairs myself, they will be the way I want them, and if I find any surprises in the process I can make decisions right then and there.

Does that explain why?

[Bob La Londe]

Well, I finally got around to doing a little more work on The Tin Can Too today. I cut a couple pieces of 3/4 plywood for load spreaders in the bow. Basically they should spread out the force on the bow when loading the boat on the trailer and it hits the bump roller on the winch stand. Then I cut some backing plates and driled some holes to lock it all together. I got a nice rough fit and took it all back apart.

The chunks of ply are coated with epoxy now and hanging from some wires to dry. The epoxy makes an excellent water proofing. I even coated the insides of the holes with epoxy by dragging a scrap of rag soaked in epoxy resin through each one.

Even though the bolt holes in the plywwod are coated with epoxy I'll still squeeze some marine sealant into the holes and around the bolt heads when I get it all assembled. Maybe tommorrow after work.

I've also got some two part closed cell pourable foam for flotation. There are a couple chambers up front that had foam, but the bow was hollow. I have been debating pouring the very nose full of foam for a little more rigidity. It will make a future repair a lot more difficult, but I don't image its very common for the bow of an aluminum boat to get punched in like this one was.

I'm also playing with the idea of putting some rods tubes through the various bulkheads and all the way into the bow section to hold some longer rods. Obviously I'ld have to do that before I pour any foam in it.

I also welded in a couple of the bow braces that will support the very tip of the front deck when I get around to putting it in.

Just to keep on it I pulled the almunimum side panels out and removed the last of the crummy sections of plant foam that was put in for flotation. If I have time I'll look for some 1.5" styrofoam to go in those areas tommorrow afternoon.