AluminumAlloyBoats.com

Here is the tool I've been using the most and I love it! It's called the MANEATER. Garrot at Frontier Fabrication told me about it. He says all the aluminum fab guys use them. Pretty good quality and reasonable price $75 on amazon. You get precise cuts and can reach into corners. You just can't be t...

Here will be the new boat "lines" as I invision it. Nothing is to scale. It's only approximately right.
And a photo of the back wall. I may have to adjust the door and window opening after raising this back wall section 12".

Since were talking about butt up welds in places that need to be ground down and blended in smooth again. Let me show you the job I have ahead of me that will require a huge amount of sanding and blending. So much so that I'm considering leaving the welds show and live with a "Frankenstine"...

Holy Smoke I sure didn't expect to get a "welds look good" comment out of Kmorin this soon. Thank you! I will definitely try your corner technique next time. Without any doubt I had the super contaminated blow back happening on my corner job. When I did the machine bead I was just trying t...

It looks to me like I could stack my puddles alittle closer but overall I am happy with how it welded up so clean! At least now I know my welder can do the job and the possibility to do it correctly is there. I just Have to fine tune my technique. I looked for 2 years trying to find a deal on a Mill...

A little more practice and I'm starting to get the hang I this aluminum welding! This bead is just after welding it and no spatter, no soot. Carbide bit cleaning / welding prep is the way to go!! My thinking now is maybe I don't need a welders help. I can do this!!

I think I made some progress on my welding today. I needed to weld up the 3/16" anchor winch box inside and out. I thought, this will be good practice. Heavy material, out of sight welds, new material to weld on. I first I wire wheeled SS brush to clean the corners. Then I applied acid cleaner ...

That pitted 1/4 x 2" Al perimeter strip has allot of integrity left yet. It only has a few deep pits that maybe 1/8" deep. 99% of the rest is surface and shallow pitting. The 2" pipe I bought is 2 3/8" OD, so it will span all of the oxidized Al. The side walls are 3/16" and ...

I like that groove idea I am going to do that. Thank you for that sugestion! I guess I don't fully visualize were or how your toe rail looks. Maybe I would do it if I could see it. I was planning to do the 3M traction stick on's. I know it won't look great but this isn't a "looker" kinda b...

Kmorin thank you for the comments. I will always listen to any opinion you have. You know your stuff without any dout. But that "narrow strip" of new metal is as high as it can possibly go now. That raised the cuddy roof 5 1/2" on the cabin end of the cuddy roof. That's the difference...

Yea I've been reading allot about AL welding and doing some practicing. I can stick things together alright but making those beautiful, even welds on 1/8" is beyond me right now. I have recruited a retired welder coworker to weld the most visible welds for me at this point. So I've been cutting...

I bought a drum winch and decided to recess it into the cuddy roof so it blocked my forward view less. Now was the time raise the cuddy roof along with the drum winch install. I havnt learned how to make nice aluminum welds yet but I'm commited now! Nothing like having to learning with your feet in ...

I gutted the boat. Under the cabin floor I found the hull had been completely foamed. I removed all foam below the floor and luckily I found no putting and very little oxidation on the hull, even though some of the foam along the keel was wet.

I like the bare aluminum look anyways. And learned to hate paint on aluminum boats after struggling to remove the paint on this boat. I used the boat one fishing trip and decided I needed to make some pretty substantial changes to be happy with this boat. I wanted to raise the cuddy roof 5 inches. I...

First off the paint had to go. Peeling paint and oxidized aluminum not only looked bad, it was destroying the aluminum. I learned allot about what causes these issues on this forum. It was pretty apparent the boat builder did not understand them. Unfortunately I did all my research after I made the ...

I bought this custom aluminum boat last summer with big plans to make it fit my needs. I can weld steel ok so I thought I could buy a spool gun and figure out how to weld aluminum to make the modifications I want. Turns out it's not so easy as it sounds.

I read that Kmorin has had some success with a good type of "toxic" paint stripper he buys somewhere in Alaska. I'm hoping he will see this post and respond and make my life easier. I will post photos I promise! I plan to make a fair number of modifications to this boat this winter, includ...

Does anyone know of a really good paint stripper that will remove the two part marine paint off my 24' custom welded aluminum boat? I have been using auto paint store "aircraft stripper" and is way too slow going. I have to heat it / sand / apply stripper X 3 / cover with plastic / wait / ...