[MessengerMarine]

I have been busy welding, and welding, and more welding. Just about done with below decks, interior weld out and then on to adding the square tubing for the floor support. Note to anyone thinking of doing this definitely invest in a push pull gun, I cant imagine doing all that welding with a spool gun. Another word to the wise is get yourself in a comfortable position and take the time to setup for each weld, and it will pay off a lot in weld appearance/quality. I have probably been going overboard, but every longitudinal and cross member has full length double sided fillet welds. Ill post more pics when the floor supports start to go in, as there's not much different to look at this point.

 

[MessengerMarine]

Well here’s a couple of some progress. I was able to get the forward floor stiffeners cut and in place.

 

[Reel fortunate]

Looking good!
Does your plan tell you how much weld per connection/peice? Or do you just weld it all 100% just curious as it looks like a ton of weld/work.
This has to be very satisfying in thee end. Keep up the good work. Appreciate to updates

 

[wdlfbio]

Looks like you’re welding your pieces against the hull along the entire length. though you should never get water down there, what happens to the water that will end up getting down there?

water in my bilge can go from anywhere to the bottom and aft.

 

[MessengerMarine]

Looking good!
Does your plan tell you how much weld per connection/peice? Or do you just weld it all 100% just curious as it looks like a ton of weld/work.
This has to be very satisfying in thee end. Keep up the good work. Appreciate to updates

It is a lot of welding for sure, but from what I've read it can help with any rattling noises, and the more weld the stronger. The disadvantage can be the more welding the more chance for plate distortion with heat buildup. The pulse mig is supposed to help with that, but at the end of the day you are still adding enough heat to make the ali melt so???

As far as what the plans call out for welding he just referenced pollards book, and added little snip its from it in the instructions. Specmar is owned by the Pollards so it makes sense he references that book. In the book he mentions that best practice for the front half of the boat, which takes more abuse, to do double full length fillet welds. I'm no engineer, and not a shop needing to turn and burn a bunch of boats so I figured if its good for the front half, it shouldn't hurt the back half.

 

[MessengerMarine]

Looks like you’re welding your pieces against the hull along the entire length. though you should never get water down there, what happens to the water that will end up getting down there?

water in my bilge can go from anywhere to the bottom and aft. View attachment 1054051

I really appreciate that picture. I'm trying to figure out a few things as I go and one of them is the rigging tube and probably inadvertently you included it. I'm headed to the Portland boat show Wednesday to crawl around as many aluminum boats as I can, get ideas on how to mount/ install auxiliary systems.

As far as the limber holes in your picture they are in most of the crossmembers and longitudinals just like the ones pictured. He has it designed to have a few water tight sections though, the front two frames (he called these a crash bulkhead), and the one in fuel void which I plan on running either half rounds or a piece of angle to keep it air/water tight but allow water to flow back to rear bilge pumps. Those cats you have had built are amazing looking machines and I would love to get out on one someday. I've been talking to a NZ designer and I may have a cat designed, and have it be my next build.

 

[wdlfbio]

Let me know when you’ll be a in Westport. Usually have a bean bag available.

 

[MessengerMarine]

Finally done with interior below deck weld out, and making some progress adding new pieces of aluminum. Starting to look like a real boat now. Fuel tank is coming along and I’m working on layout of the top for the fill, two pickups and two separate vent lines. Trying to make sense of the uscg requirements for fuel tank ventilation is not the easiest but I think I’m pretty well squared away now.

 

[stevo]

Did you build your own tank? Looking great!

 

[MessengerMarine]

The tank was bent and the pieces cut by cjm, the company that cut the rest of the sheets.

 

[MessengerMarine]

Raw water pickup installed that should comply with the USCG seacock rules.

Fuel Tank soft patch, that's the removable deck cover fro the fuel tank void.

Interior baffling for the fuel tank.

Pic of the soft patch and front decks in place

 

[stevo]

Awesome!

 

[Reacher]

Do you intend to tig any of it or is the plan to wire feed the whole project?

 

[tntragan]

That's looking amazing. Are there required inspections of a self made boat like this at any point of the construction?

 

[MessengerMarine]

Do you intend to tig any of it or is the plan to wire feed the whole project?

Do you intend to tig any of it or is the plan to wire feed the whole project?

I have "splashed" over a couple of the through tank fittings on the fuel tank, but overall tig is far mare time consuming and far more skill dependent for success than mig, without producing a significantly better weld. From all my research I've done, I've not heard of any boat manufacture doing much more than the tank with tig. Mig only really has problems from your start stop points, and that can be remedied from proper back chipping of the crater and welding into the previous weld point far enough to get a proper tie in. In my opinion tig has been over hyped via social media platforms. You can make pretty, and very strong welds with mig without all the fuss of tig (thats just my opinion). All of my test pieces that were burned in hot enough with mig broke the test plate before the weld came apart.

 

[MessengerMarine]

That's looking amazing. Are there required inspections of a self made boat like this at any point of the construction?

No there are no inspections needed for a home built boat at least in Washington that I know of. I have built the fuel tank to be compliant with epa and uscg standards, which mainly focus on proper venting of the system and mitigating splash back during fueling. As far as my research goes all that Washington cares about is getting there cut of the sales tax, on the goods used to build the boat. You take in all the receipts for materials, and they issue a HIN for the boat. Trailers are a different animal if you wanted to build your own, but I don't plan on doing that so its not a concern for me.

 

[Reacher]

I have "splashed" over a couple of the through tank fittings on the fuel tank, but overall tig is far mare time consuming and far more skill dependent for success than mig, without producing a significantly better weld. From all my research I've done, I've not heard of any boat manufacture doing much more than the tank with tig. Mig only really has problems from your start stop points, and that can be remedied from proper back chipping of the crater and welding into the previous weld point far enough to get a proper tie in. In my opinion tig has been over hyped via social media platforms. You can make pretty, and very strong welds with mig without all the fuss of tig (thats just my opinion). All of my test pieces that were burned in hot enough with mig broke the test plate before the weld came apart.

Certainly not a strength question. Yes many tanks are tig welded but because it provides better control. If you can make “pretty” welds with the mig than by all means but what I’ve noticed on commercial boats is tig welds in the obvious places where you look at them every day, particularly outside corners, and mig everywhere else because it is more efficient. Strictly an aesthetic question.

 

[stevo]

No there are no inspections needed for a home built boat at least in Washington that I know of. I have built the fuel tank to be compliant with epa and uscg standards, which mainly focus on proper venting of the system and mitigating splash back during fueling. As far as my research goes all that Washington cares about is getting there cut of the sales tax, on the goods used to build the boat. You take in all the receipts for materials, and they issue a HIN for the boat. Trailers are a different animal if you wanted to build your own, but I don't plan on doing that so its not a concern for me.

This was my experience as well. My wife was shocked that there is no safety inspection, I think she doesn't have much faith in me.
I sourced parts from all over the place, many through Amazon. Tip, summarize them all in a spreadsheet, including what you paid in taxes on parts. My build came to over $10K but I only paid ~$400 because I documented the sales tax I paid. The DOL lady was so happy to have it all summarized she never looked at any of the reciepts.

 

[earlybird007]

If you’re not going to TIG weld the fuel tank be sure to pressure test.
Ive built plenty of 3,000 gallon fuel tanks that roll down the freeways. Always TIG welded the outside. Always MIG welded the inside. And pressure tested the whole tank..

 

[MessengerMarine]

If you’re not going to TIG weld the fuel tank be sure to pressure test.
Ive built plenty of 3,000 gallon fuel tanks that roll down the freeways. Always TIG welded the outside. Always MIG welded the inside. And pressure tested the whole tank..

Thanks for the advice. I do plan on pressure testing as soon as my last vent valve shows up. Perko seems to be back ordered everywhere. I’ve also splashed over all the start stops, corners and plug welds, with tig. I also fully welded the inside minus the top.