typed by ben's 2001 Lowe 1648M all aluminum build (UD 6/27)

[Country Dave]

Hey bro, tight work.
Looing good................. =D>

 

[typed by ben]

another shot of the glue-free front deck

trolling motor plug will be mounted in the area tangent to the plate dog circle and the minor wall of the weldment, on the left side

shot of another conundrum i ran into subsequent to adding the small hatches for the batteries: my seat mount is now an interference area. i think i can trim it and move the mounting holes to work. just another pain in the neck to work around.

also have to start thinking about what i want to do in the rear. i plan to extend the deck to make a rear casting area. ill need a hatch to hide away the fuel tank/battery compartment. a splashwell would be nice too but might be too hard to work, and maybe totally unnecessary for a boat this size.

 

[typed by ben]

Country Dave » Today, 15:59[/url]"]Hey bro, tight work.
Looing good................. =D>

thanks dave- im actually a little worried about what ill do when this project is over. might have to actually fish out of it!

 

[Gators5220]

Lookin sweet bud!

 

[Flatbotm]

Looking good Ben! It is really starting to come together.

 

[huntinfool]

We use rivet nuts at work for steel application. Is that one a stainless or aluminum? I have another project that I need to use one in.
Man this project is really turning out great.

 

[BigTerp]

huntinfool » 40 minutes ago[/url]"]We use rivet nuts at work for steel application. Is that one a stainless or aluminum? I have another project that I need to use one in.
Man this project is really turning out great.

Rivet nuts are awesome!! I used several in my build to mount my trolling motor and driving lights. We used aluminum ones. You don't need the setting tool either. Google homemade rivet nut tool and you'll see what I mean. It involves a bolt sized to the rivet nut, washer and oversided nut.

 

[huntinfool]

huntinfool » 40 minutes ago[/url]"]We use rivet nuts at work for steel application. Is that one a stainless or aluminum? I have another project that I need to use one in.
Man this project is really turning out great.

Rivet nuts are awesome!! I used several in my build to mount my trolling motor and driving lights. We used aluminum ones. You don't need the setting tool either. Google homemade rivet nut tool and you'll see what I mean. It involves a bolt sized to the rivet nut, washer and oversided nut.

I have several of the tools. We get them with every job. Probably have 50+ in our shop and throw away 5-6 a week.

 

[typed by ben]

huntinfool » Today, 07:50[/url]"]We use rivet nuts at work for steel application. Is that one a stainless or aluminum? I have another project that I need to use one in.
Man this project is really turning out great.

thanks man

im using stainless on this job. just gotta use plenty of oil since im using stainless screws as well. after the nuts have been pulled its real easy to gall the threads.

 

[typed by ben]

MONEY SHOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! first piece of deck is cut.

shot showing the plug mounted in the recess. yes the potentiometer is touching the side. not sure what to do about that yet.

 

[typed by ben]

yeh yeh



just a little more cutting and welding to go. i still have to make a threshold to go between the casting deck and the middle bench.

i also have to decide if i want to put the beauty tabs between the deck and the gunwale to hide the gap. i could go either way on these:

just a .750 strip that i would spot weld to the deck. not sure if it adds any value or not

 

[Country Dave]

looking good as always bro,

It looks like you're going to have an anniversary coming up pretty soon as well. LOL I'm just glad I'm, not the only one who's build took a year. You just cant rush perfection.............. :mrgreen:

 

[typed by ben]

Country Dave » Today, 07:58[/url]"]looking good as always bro,

It looks like you're going to have an anniversary coming up pretty soon as well.

ha good eye i didnt even notice that.

LOL I'm just glad I'm, not the only one who's build took a year. You just cant rush perfection.............. :mrgreen:

haha uhhh yeah thats my problem too! its far from perfect but its going to be perfect for me.

 

[typed by ben]

got some good solid detail stuff done today. as you may remember i lamented for quite a while over what to do with my batteries. well i did some mockups today and this is what i came up with:



all .125. its a flat plate with two gussets welded to the side to give it some real rigidity. then theres two holes countersunk for 1/4-20. those line up with two stainless rivnuts i put in the stringers.

noco box sits in it like this

strap wraps around the whole thing and really ties those batteries to the boat. dont want any expensive batteries floppin around.



i also welded almost all the small filler panels to the big piece of deck, so thats all one piece now. i still have to make the threshold to transition from the middle bench to the casting deck. im not going to over think that- prob just a piece of sheet metal broken on a 45 to give a comfort edge.
one last parting shot

 

[typed by ben]

latest:

had to take a few steps back to go forward.

decided to go in a different direction with the beauty surrounds for my hatches up front. the .063 angle i had just was not going to work right, and it was quite difficult to work with on account of its slight size. unfortunately for me that meant trashing the lids i had already formed and cutting a bunch of new material.

the new hatches are .125 so they are a lot better all around, and dont need any gussets for support so thats a nice feature.

the new surrounds are .080 aluminum with a 1" lip. looks better IMO, and much easier to work with/polish. plus with that 1" lip i can rivet them to the subframe weldment. with the .063 angle, the material was so small (about .375 x .375 angle) i would have had to weld to the deck to secure it properly.

i also decided what to do for my extended rear deck. this feature went through MANY iterations before i got to one that i liked. it had to be strong enough to support the weight of a fisherman and accomodate the fuel tank and batteries with passages for the fuel line, bulb, and battery cables.


im in love with this setup because it does the above as well as boxing in the rear of the boat. now the transom and rear bench are locked together- i think that will greatly help with handling and durability when the gas motor is attached.

slap the deck weldment on top like this:


and a file from the creative reuse department. these are portions of the stringers that i removed from the front, now used to support the weldment in the rear

 

[gillhunter]

Looking good Ben!!! Your workmanship is top notch.

 

[smackdaddy53]

Awesome work man, I definitely appreciate people that do not settle for just "making due" even when it means scrapping a good bit of work and going another direction to be more functional.

 

[smackdaddy53]

Awesome work man, I definitely appreciate people that do not settle for just "making due" even when it means scrapping a good bit of work and going another direction to be more functional.

 

[typed by ben]

thanks guys. im learning a lot doing this. as country dave pointed out ive been at it over a year... last thing i want to do now is compromise to "make due" like smackdaddy said. i dont want me or anybody else for that matter looking at this boat and saying "uhm, that took over a year to do?"

i still want to do some beauty trim between the deck and the gunwale to cover up the uneven gap that my bad jigsaw job did. after i figure out what im going to do there and get a piece of deck over the rear, ill be ready to paint. that day is going to be a little scary- first time ive ever used a paint gun.

 

[hgrego115]

I have a question. I joined this forum so that I could share pics of my boat. I have a 12 foot v hull starcraft that I have been building a deck on. I have not placed it in water yet and I am concerned that it may be top heavy. Does anyone have experience with this?