New, new and new

Sides on and Brian cutting out tacks. Very pleased with how she's coming together. The shabby look is the vinyl protection on the plates from the vendor. I weld the chine (inner and outer) from the inside first. And for Kevin (inside joke), they are most certainly short-arced. Perhaps if I were a bionic, I could spray an inside edge to edge .160 to .190 corner, but I'm not. Turn down the heat and up the argon - works every time. With the inside 'backing' weld in place, and after cutting the penetrations out the heat gets turned up, of course, to do the outside welds. A nice outside edge to edge on the outer chine and a hog trough on the inner. So far, we're 27 hours in.

 

Position, Positions, Positioned

Yofish, I see the picture of Brian fetal position to get to the work! arhghhh it hurts to look at it.



I just can't to the quality of work I'd like anymore without the right tools. The Davis Jig, shown here holding the last 25'er so I can dress tacks or starts and stops and weld the deck keyholes in the horizontal....(!)

My MIG is poor now, my TIG not much better; so if I have to add working down below my knees or with my voluminous belly balanced on my thighs- well its not pretty- so we won't go there:!:

Nice shape, looking good, have you told us the deck and cabin arrangement?
tankage, conduits for controls, console, and that sort thing are all interesting to see when time provides.

REgards Green welders site. I think there is a confusion in terms more than anything? I looked at the steel videos and will tell you; for me, that is not what my 'perception' records of aluminum. Now, I'm not a high speed camera and I can only see just so so. But all that being true, I think they're relying on steel weld behavior and not aluminum, since I can't find any high speed Al MIG vid's I don't see how it can be discussed further?

They sure are touchy that's for sure. But then their brand is the lower end 'also ran' not the blue or red leaders in the market, so maybe they think they have to be 'careful' - for reasons that don't seem obvious to me. Oh well, as you say the power supply is working fine, so who cares?

Anyway, if the glue holds and she floats without water in the bilge, I'm for it, regardless if their green forum people don't seem very experienced in aluminum MIG, I didn't read their TIG forum.

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai

 

Sheer flat on and what I call a 'rod holder' tacked in. It intersects the collision bulkhead/float the height of which bisects the distance from the deck to the sheer. I do not like any side appurtenances below whatever the sheer is trimmed with, it's just a thang I have. Not to say I haven't put too damn many on. So this is the stiffening of the side plate. It isn't visible but there are handholds/tie-ups every two feet inside the vertical bar. The picture does not show this well as being a angle section, a 2" rec bar welded 90 to a 5" flange attached along a water line. This also supports two removable athwart bench seats.

The fuel will be a removable rectangular tank that is aft of the collision bulkhd, 12 x 16 x 48 = 40 gals. It stands off the plates by brackets on the sides. Yes, of course, much better below decks but the pain of that is not worth it in my opinion. Now, if the client wants to pay.....This arrangement allows for a fill that is routed up the side and opens at the sheer thus making USCG happy. I've put the fuel in the bow almost always for a bowpicker skiff. Yes, CG is something to consider but as long as the weight is not too much, I've found it not a worry. the I go across the Bay and watch these folks pounding their livers to foie gras in their Hewes, yes, dry in that little fwd cabin but none too happy. This is the gawds truth; I've never built a skiff with a cabin forward nor will this be.

Speaking of bowpickers, my last out-of-the-shop experience was bulwarks and mods with the little green machine on a remarkable piece of marine architecture. A miserable job I only did because I've known the kid that bought it since he was born. He has upgraded from a Matsumoto, so he thinks, but he's never dealt with an IO before.

The Davis jig I lust over.

I agree with you about the green site. For laughs I had Brian look at the machine while I was doing some long welds. It's a long-gone Hobart Porta-Flex that has volt and amp meters and pots for controls. Frankly, I've never paid mind to what the meters say 'cause I just tune her up to where I'm happy. So, basically the boat has gone together thus far @ 20V and 125 amps. If I announced that over there I'd be called either an idiot or a liar. Of course, I will turn it up when appropriate but nonetheless, these settings are far away from this magical 'spraying' that seems to be terribly important to some.

 

More welding, flanges on frames that are to be cut out for deck longs after it’s turned over from finishing the bottom. Deck shelf and their stiffeners are in, sheer shelf tacked in place and leveled. The aft area is less finished because it gets a gutter against the transom for drainage; we are collecting all the pressings to do them in one shot as it’s miles away to effect and the person who does it is a friend so I end up yakking too much. The gutter needs be in place before the deck shelf can be finished.

One thing that I like and is part of the ‘new’ for me is that the ‘rod holder’ welded out nicely with little visible deformation. I was hoping for that. The sides show the ‘suck’ that a fillet makes but did not cause but local disturbance. The deck shelf fillet did not compound it. When the patina takes over, the welds will be undetectable. If it was painted they would be visible but in no way distracting. As I've said, I don't like the visual appearance of anything below the gunwale and whatever split pipe, angle or hull stiffener is added really doesn't provide much protection from bumps.

The 4th frame from the transom forward is water tight. There are four water tight chambers in all - collision bulkhead, frame four, all aft of frame four and what's after the transom.

I'm really pleased with how she's come together and will at the end, sing my praises of ProSurf as a design tool.

On Friday the 13th, (full moon, the radio informed this will not occur again until 2049) my venerable Hobart Porta-Flex got the epizooties and croaked; at least died enough to be unusable and without tearing into it I switched on the little Everlast rat welder to make headway. Since none of the welding has been in spray mode, it’s cooking right along. I have an ancient AirCo CAV II that (I hope) someone will be able to help me remember how to hook up the Miller XR feeder to.

 

Parts is parts, as they say. Pile o’ pressings to finish this off. Several pics of my interpretation of the so-called ‘Ero-Style’ transom. I had an interesting chat with the young man that is the tech at the outboard dealership. I showed him the model and he was perplexed that it did not have an ‘offshore’ style bracket. I replied that I was more interested in the greater floatation provided with what I have over the ‘clear water’, etc. provided by the other. Whereabouts I live, there is a subtle and important ‘performance factor’ which is how the boat navigates in the shallows. I see so many skiffs with a pipe bracket or offshore bracket at low speed that have the bow stuck up.

 

Elements coming together. A miscalculation on my part on the 'batwings' (tapered pieces from the the top of inner transom to the swimstep) sends me back to the presser, otherwise this assembly would have been done today. Progress has been slowed by numerous panicked fisherman late leaving port for welding needs.

 

A little help from a friend. I meant to include this in the last post. This 'hog trough' makes welding outside corners, like on tanks, a dream. I've used many different ways to steady it but a heavy weight on a tab is the easiest to use so far. The 1/4" pipe along the top was a failed experiment to flood the weld area with gas. It worked but was not worth the cost over the resulting marginally better weld quality. The 3/4" UHMW pipe allows the barrel of the gun to slide smoothly along; I can traverse its 20" length without stopping. Whenever I have a straight run like an outside chine or like it's shown on the swimstep, I use it. I don't have the hand I once did and man, does it save gloves, especially the index finger! Once upon a time, I found a source to buy left hand gloves only. Wish I could again.

 

Batwings on and most of the interior welding done; it would float now. Put sump drains in and outside gunwale on and it will be ready to turn over. After that, things will come together fast. The decks are fitted and have plug slots.

 

The light of day!

It's always good to get the creature outdoors to have a look. No matter how many drawings or models there is nothing like the bare facts staring right at you. I'm pleased overall, especially that the interior welding does not grossly distort the side plates. Of course, there is a little nip and tuck here and there that I'll massage into place (maybe) after I see her in the water. My nominal shop does not provide the luxury of putting the sides or the gunwales on indoors. The gunwales are a 'G' section that bend nicely and provide a nice hog trough to weld on one side, the bottom in this case. Kevins method, I think, provides a more appealing and robust looking stop but is also more time consuming to finish. One of the 'new, new and new' parts of this project is a price point, thus some pretties are not happening.

Pictures are interesting because how they may or may not relay a sense of form. When you look at the side view pic the skiff looks slab-sided. As one sees in the bow-on view, that is hardly the case.

Picture of the drain on either side. She goes Upside down tomorrow. When upright again it is a happy day for the end is nigh. My favorite part is the end. Watching what is stacked against the wall move over to become part of the whole and diminish until only scrapes remain.

 

Over

Flipped, and most of the underside welds done today, will right tomorrow. Happy days thereafter, being the home stretch. This time of year the flies are about and with the door open I got some true 'bug holes' for the ******** being drawn to the light. It's amazing how much a blue fly can expand! POW! Usually they don't make it to the weld pool but their water content when they do....

 

Righted, with the deck beams in and then covered with decks.

 

Here's where the hog trough shines best - fuel tanks. Turn up the heat and go, no weave or backstep. TIG over starts/stops and occasional bug hole. I've been stove up with bad back for days so progress has been at a crawl, literally. I had to put doggie out in the morn on the same fours as she. Kevin's Davis jig is in my future for certain. I'm just not the boy I used to be.

 

On monday last, I blew my back out and spent four days bed ridden so progress has been nil. I was able to limp about yesterday and today to get a meagre advance. Here is the battery box hold down that is is surrounded by console seen ready to be welded to the deck. Low box off to starboard is where the controls, cables etc. run within and then up the side on their way aft.

If one were tempted to just weld the angles of the battery box holder to the deck by not welding around them continuously, eventually between the reaction of the copper in the 6061 alloy and good old crevice corrosion, the deck plate underneath would rot. This spring, I repaired a skiff I built over 30 years ago that that very thing happened. I wish I'd taken pictures, the damage was remarkable and only discovered by water in a void; one could not see the damage.

 

Gag! I thought I would be done today. When I welded out the gunwales the sides above the rod self developed duck-puckers. Needs either an internal or outernal (my wife hates it when I use that word which I actually heard someone say) strake to correct. The best planes we lay....

A pic of the installed fuel tank and pretty much everything else done.

 

Fin

At the outboard place. I'll get some shots of her in the water and finish up with my punch list of what was new, new and new about the effort. Thanks all, for the kind comments.