Who Enjoys a Challenge?

[Dustyhaze75]

boat .....

Let me know how that stuff works signwave. not sure if that'll do the trick. You might have to resort to using a heat source like a tiger torch or something. I don't know. Let me know how it works out for ya. Fire? lol reminds me of my younger days lol. When I was like 15, I worked at a welding shop after school. I was cutting one day and then suddenly I heard a bunch of yelling. I stopped cutting and relized I had like 6-8 foot flames under the cutting table. The cleaning lady swept a huge pile of oil soaked rags under the cutting table the night before. Ive never made the same mistake twice. you'd think I would of seen the rags but I was young and dumb. At least I learned from it. still dumb, just not young .........lol. JJ !
how big of a fire was it? I can picture you hopping around in a panick. lol too funny! should of u-tubed it .......lol. It's ok to laugh, no one got hurt and the boats all good. but man that would of been funny to see the look on your face. lol. as long as no one got hurt and the boats ok. good thing you got it out in time.

[SignWave]

Hahahahaha!! it was kinda funny! big huge bilowing whitish puffs of smoke from the opening in the bow cabinet!!!and it stunk.... it wasnt much of a fire but it was enough that I could see it burning. My driveway is pretty tight right now too as ive got a pile of stuff for donation waiting to go. So i had to take the long way around the get to the hose... The missus says to me.. "bet you wont forgetthe hose next time will ya...?"

hehehehe... she dont know me vewy well do she..?

I also set fire to somethin under the sole of the boat as i was filling in some holes in it. this time though there was no access. I could see the light from the fire nder the deck and a flame about 5 inches tall and the diameter of a pencil shot straight up out of the deck with quite a bit of force..it was bbright red and it whistled kinda like a blow torch!. I freaked because im thinking magnesium style fire and the boat would end up as a puddle in the driveway... Lucky i was able to get the hose into the drain hole... luckily.. so yeah .. no more fires.. im done..( i hope)

anyone here ever seen what happens when a droplet of aluminum hits water while your welding?

[Dustyhaze75]

fire .....

ha ha ha ha sounds like a script for a funny sitcom. what happens when a droplet of aliminum hits water?

[SignWave]

its fascinating. it will hiss and buzz& dance around and around all the while burning bright white. I suspect that the heat stored in the molten aluminum is somehow causing the water to boil. once its boiling the oxygen is released and this feeds the Aluminum and it then burns bright like magnesium. i can make it happen over and over too. so there definetly is something to this..

[Dustyhaze75]

I herd that casting plants have had explosions in the past due to this. is this true?

[SignWave]

I have no idea Dusty.
I do know that you dont pour water into the metal...or else kaboom.
There was always stories floating around metal shop when i was in school about some dumba_s making fishing lures and getting water in the lead... and boom, kid gets sprayed with molten lead and is given a free ride in an ambulance..

Its the same theory as diluting nitric acid, you can add one to the other but the other way around.. Unfortunatly I dont remember which is which so I tend to leave it be.

[KBar]

same way with electric, you can wire a receptacle or light hot as long as you hook up the hot wire first and the ground wire last or is it the other way around.

Electric is your friend until you piss it off

[SignWave]

A before O or up you go!...

always hook up the ground, neutral and then the hot. Hot, neutral ,ground when disconnecting. this is a general rule of thumb. that way, theoretically, you are less likely to get stung because the hot is always out of the way.

[Bert]

SignWave,
just started reading this thread and have to say: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Doing a great job, but you haven't posted for about 19 days! By the speed you were going, I figure you must be in the water by now Have any updated pics?
Thanks for the posts and hope to see the new pics soon!!!!!!

[SignWave]

an update

Hey All,
I havent been in here for a while. Ive got ten things on the go right now and the boat is getting its fair share.
-I built myself a cheesy engine stand so that I could bring the engine inside.
I built it too wide and had to cut it in half, take out a few inches and weld
it back together.... nothing like a little planning... The engine is in the house
now.

-Ive gone through the engine electrical and discovered the problems
hindering its starting and repaired them . Some jackass used "never seize"
as an anticorrosion compound.... on the electrical connectors and the
starter solenoid was fried. Ive also taken the lower leg apart in an effort to
replace the shaft seals. I had to make a couple of tools in order to make
that happen and I welded up the holes and crack in the anticavitation
plate. I just need to put it all back together, but a coat of paint first.
Epoxy sealer and then the finish color and a clear cote.

-Ive raised the height of the console, cut in gauges, put in a steering
wheel. Next stop will be to the boat and welding it in place

-Ive pretty much sealed up all the holes in the hull except for the transom
(its a real mess) and thats going to be the next area of attack. I need to
cut out the old reinforcing 2x6 thats been buried inside the transom and
behind a plate aluminum retatiner.. ITs welded in good.. Not a fun job to
remove.

-In about 4 days I should be getting a box or two of engine parts from Nova
Scotia and that will allow me to put the engine back together. for the
most part the engine is in pretty good shape, but does need some TLC
(alot of TLC...)


Things are moving along.. I just wish I was idol rich and didnt have a day job to worry about... Have a look at the attached pics...

[SignWave]

A few more pics

Just some misc shots that Ive taken as a push forward on this project.
Thanks for looking!

[shott8283]

ive been procrastinating on building a stand for my motor and getting it off the boat for the winter...1970's 85HP old Merc silverstripe, on a 73 glastron 15ft'er .. too many things never enough time!

how did you go about lifting hte motor off the transom.. looked like a lift or "come-a-long" in the pic...

[SignWave]

too many things never enough time!

how did you go about lifting hte motor off the transom.. looked like a lift or "come-a-long" in the pic...

I hear ya on the time thing.... uhg...

I used a come along. the carport is covered by a sundeck so i just layed out a two by ten on the deck, left a few inches sticking out to wrap a chain around and then hooked the comealong to the chain. most larger engines have a lifting eye under the the cowl.

[Dustyhaze75]

boat...................

looks awsome .................................................. ..
I got my gas lenses, material and cleaning supplys. A month later! I started aluminum for the first time last night, and alls I can say is WOW. I got a butt joint tacked but man .............it felt like I was doing a vertical root weld or keyhole weld. I need to pre heat more, too fast on the pedal. the pulse feature,...........now thats a whole new planet. I'm lost ! I set my pulse at 1pps 75%peak and 25% background. havent played with it yet, I only welded for about half-hour last night. Do you have any suggestions? I'm welding 1/8" alum. at 140amps. as soon as I took off the pulse feature I blew through it like it was soft butter lmao lmao. my balance control is at 3 should I crank it to 7? also I think my metal was contaminated because alls I had was 3m pads and acetone. I'm getting a ss wire brush today. I'll figure it out, going back out today. I'm using a metal welders finger and I was getting arcing on the bottom of the work piece while welding on the top. should I not be using a metal welers finger on aluminum? today I'm going to crank my balance control, lower amps and play with the pulse. we'll see what 125pps 95 background and 95 peaktime does. I don't know. My computer is a piece of ****. I've been having problems posting pictures etc.
I'm working on it! BANG BANG ! wish I could weld it better. I got a new miter saw with lazer, stand etc. woo hoo ...............................................
my father in law also just gave us his 14' fiberglass boat with a new eng. I havent seen it yet. he keeps it out at a friends place, out of town. I think it has a 40h on it. not sure yet. hopefully it's bigger he he he . I'll take some pictures when we get it. apparently it's in pristine shape. it has a new roof cover and has been stored in a heat and humidity controlled shop. anywho .............................the control panel looks awsome. I'm jelious !
time to go bang my head off the wall. I'll never give up ................................................da mit.

[Dustyhaze75]

stacked dimes ........................................

Ok, so I cranked up the balance control to 7 and it worked great. I finally got the stacked dime effect. now I just have to play around and fine tune it. today went well. I butt welded tons of alum. with a nice stacked dime look. I was going crazy last night. I tryed cranking the pulse but only got a smooth finish. It seemed to work best on 1pps 75 peak and 25 background. I'll be playing with it for months. I'm one of thoes guys that just cant get comfortable until it's absolutely perfect. once I picked up my travel speed i found it easyer to create the stacked dime look. pre heating also helped out alot. my biggest problems now are cleaning the parts properly and the operator(me).