AluminumAlloyBoats.com

The boat itself is fine. Pretty well laid out, no real complaints about that. I do like the fact that I can climb out onto the bow without having to go round the pilot house. Storage is O.K.. There seems to be a lot of wasted space up under the bow but I have two in deck fish boxes up there so mayb...

I hate to rely on something as unreliable as a bilge pump, even running 3 of them, on different circuits. It's amazing, but I have a cast-iron sump-pump (Zoeller) in my home, with a Rule automatic as back-up, and it has run faithfully for 23 years, ditto for my last home. Boat pumps are designed to ...

Appreciate all the input, and I've bookmarked this thread. I also need to add power-assist to SeaStar steering due some shoulder trauma. The body does wear out, and mine is the equivalent of a very old Ford Pinto or Chevy Vega, wouldn't be worth fixing w/o a good healthcare plan.

Chaps: the age of your boat scares me a little, as does shipping costs from Seattle to Rouses Point, NY, plus there is no support for Suzuki...I drive a Suzuki SX-4 for a winter car, and service and parts are starting to get scarce. I agree that the Maritimes are in the platinum price range, and eve...

I realize this is not in the same class as a custom 1/4" welded-plate boat, but those are totally out of reach financially, being retired with a pension which could disappear tomorrow, along with healthcare...food on the table takes priority over buying an expensive, fuel-hungry boat. My prime ...

Any experience with pedstal mounts, like this one:

http://shop.coolwaterproducts.com/Stand ... ST10XX.htm

Suspension seat bases range from as cheap as $100, to as much as $10,000 for active computer-controlled ones, typically only seen on military RIBs. Can someone suggest the best "bang for the buck"? I prefer pedestal-mounts, even if the suspension pedestal has to intrude into a a storage-ba...

I had a LEO best friend, whose sister was a "sister", a Catholic nun, in Kenai...I'm not Catholic, so don't understand their hierarchy, but she was attached to an order, rather than to a diocese, and I had known her for decades...spent about 20 years in Kenai, until retirement, "Siste...

If you're in LE and in uniform (?) please accept all our best wishes that you'll stay safe in this time of SJW induced madness for you guys. [My advice is: if in ANY doubt? Shoot first, until your arms are tired; and ask questions of the carcass.] I think the new Federalie Admin. will calm things d...

Kevin, you are a wealth of technical information, and I believe the first person I have ever seen on an Internet forum who knows how to correctly use an apostrophe to form a plural-possessive, or a possessive for words ending in the letter "s"....I'm no English major, and quit being a gram...

My experience, over 20 years old now, was the aggressiveness of caustic-etching was entirely dependent on three factors: concentration of the lye solution, exposure time, and finally, temperature. The process produces off-gassing (hydrogen?) and noxious fumes, and we worked outdoors whenever possibl...

I only see references to acid washing here, but strong alkalis (e.g., sodium hydroxide) do a very nice job, resulting in a uniform matte finish. I used it regularly on a job where I built electronic prototypes, housed in both sheet aluminum and die-cast aluminum enclosures, to give them a more finis...

These may be very naive questions, but here goes: There are products for steel, like "Rust Reformer", which convert ferrous rust to an inert black oxide. Is there a similar product designed to halt aluminum corrosion? Second, do the low-temperature aluminum solders/brazes have any usefulne...

Ordinary blue Loctite is an excellent thread sealer to prevent aluminum and stainless galvanic action, as it prevents all "wicking" of water along the threads. It cures anaerobically, so give it 24 hours before water contact. The blue version can be disassembled with ordinary tools and no ...

I have always been disappointed with powder-coated anything, due to chipping...whether T-tops or patio lawn furniture...I don't see why aluminum hulls would be any different. Few facilities will be able to accommodate an entire hull, anyhow, in their ovens, so future removal/replacement will be a pr...

I have used an ohmmeter on several devices, and found exactly zero ohms between the (disconnected) black grounding wire and the device chassis and metal hulls and its metal mounting brackets. As I stated before, I think the intent is to provide noise/interference shielding, whether it's a stereo hea...

I guess I'm just missing the logic of that. Assume that a device has a 14ga. black lead that runs to the central grounding point, yet is also connected to an aluminum hull via the device chassis or mounting brackets. If I were 12vdc electricity, I would choose the hull return path to get to ground.....

I was under the impression that with 12vdc devices (where there is no shock hazard) that the metal chassis of the device was bonded to the negative lead for purposes of noise and interference rejection (shielding). What do you suggest if an ohmmeter shows zero ohms between the black lead and the mou...

Why wouldn't the hull be used as the primary ground, even if there's a separate (but not isolated) grounding wire for the device, whatever it might be? The return current will be distributed between both the hull and grounding wire, and the hull would offer far lower resistance and thus carry the bu...

Many things like stereo head-units, amplifiers, VHF radios, etc. have metal chassis and normal mounting results in electrically using the aluminum hull as a ground return, even if a separate ground wire is run to the battery neg. or to a grounding block. It would seem that the metal hull ground woul...

Question un-answered: is there a galvanic corrosion problem using a galvanized anchor with a welded alloy boat, or, is it just your preference? Another off-beat question: are sacrificial anodes ever attached to anchors of any type? Like an aluminum anode on a galvanized anchor/chain to extend their ...

welderbob wrote:Your getting an aluminum boat, it should have an aluminum anchor.
Welderbob

Why? Will the chain be aluminum, too?

Total repair cost was estimated at $11,790 with sale tax. New boat is probably $15k INCLUDING THE MOTOR. With those repair costs, vs. replacement cost, the boat is a "total", and many states would issue a "branded" or "salvage" title, making the boat difficult to resel...

Many of the available videos show that the weld is actually stronger than the parent metal...when struck with a hammer, the base metal fails before the braze bead does. Unlike TIG, the base metal is not melted and fused, however. But the stuff seems to have enormous surface tension allowing major op...

Sold by http://www.alumiweld.com as well as Harbor Freight, etc., etc. The Youtube videos of this stuff are impressive, for hole patching, thread repair, even new fabrication using angle and bar, and plate stock. For alloy boat projects, is there any reason to avoid this product, assuming someone do...