welding for beginners?

[sparkbr]

I'm having 6 dif. cracks and a reinforcement plate welded on my boat right now, and the guy quoted me $75.
Shop around for a cheaper welder. There has got to be a guy that works out of his garage somewhere that will do it for you cheap.

Go to google maps, zoom in to your county, and type in "welding". I found a dozen places within 10 miles of me.

$75 is pretty cheap, there is alot of prep work in welding aluminum. I'm not sure of how large your cracks are and how big the plate is, but I wouldn't be supprised if there's an hour labor in that. $75 an hour for working with used aluminum isn't a bad price at all. It would be different is it was fab work with all new material.

 

[WhiteMoose]

I assumed that was his total price. This is just a cool old geezer that works out of his garage.
Here are pictures of a couple of the cracks. The worst crack is across the top of my transom (not pictured) and he welding on a 8" piece of angle to splice it back together. (and yes, I took all that steel crap off the front :? )

 

[wasilvers]

Yeah, I still havn't decided what to do. They do it yourself er in me says I can learn and do it. Then the other side of me is pricing new hulls in case I screw it up totally. I'll probably just patch the crack myself - it's think aluminum and I'm pretty sure with practice, I can patch it without an issue. As to welding the whole keel... It doesn't leak now so I'd just be doing prevenative work. Why spend the cash if I might sell the boat next spring...

I should contact my local shop that does all the work on my cars and see what they would charge to patch her up.

Anyway, I'll be working on it in a few weeks once tax season is over, then I'll hit the ground running.

Will

 

[wasilvers]

For any wondering, I listened to Bassboy - with all the risk of really messing up the hull, I'm letting it be professionally welded. It will be picked up Wednesday.

On the other hand, I did borrow one of my father-in-laws welders and will be working with smaller parts, like a battery tray - and if that works - maybe some bigger pieces. If the smaller pieces work out, I can work on welding all I want on my next boat! If they don't work out, I'm not out a whole lot of money.

Will