Question:
My BIL was given a small flatbottom john boat by a friend. Its one of the
el cheap o's and is twelve feet long and came complete with about 28
buckshot holes in the bottom. He has a small 110 wire feed welder and wants
me to try to repair the holes in the boat. I have never done much aluminum
welding but plan to give it the ole college try anywho. The welding machine
is a Miller model 422 [I believe] and it says that it will accept 1/16
aluminum wire and recommends pure argon. My question[s] is this. What
grade of aluminum wire do I need to attempt this repair. Most of the better
boats are made from .060 thickness with the generic brands usually running
around .072 so I'm looking for any advice that I can get. I would also
accept anyone's help who would be willing to travel to Texas at there own
expense and do this job for me. By "own expense" I mean travel, food,
lodging, and adult beverages of course. I will be willing to provide the
aluminum wire and a few soda waters........
By any chance would there be such a thing as an aluminum flux core wire or
something that will not require the gas?
Answer:
-Atempting this repair with an old 110 volt MIG without any experience
with MIG welding aluminum, is not something I can recommend.
I think this is an excellent job for an aluminum brazing rod.
-don't try it with that wirefeed,because you will have a whole
lot more holes than 28 to deal with.If it's really .060/.072 you
better get the metal real clean,and use a ac tig machine with probally
5356 wire
-It looked like a road flare, you would clean the area that needed to be
repaired and would light this flare up and drip the molten material to
repair spot. Not sure what it was/is but I have been told it works. I have a
1967 Starcraft 18 foot Holiday (aluminum hull) and would not want to weld
it. By the sounds of this boat you have, mine would be made of a thicker
material, I have been running it with a Johnson 140 HP for 10 years now and
ski the hell out of it all summer. One thing nice about the aluminum hulls
is they are light, mine will jump out of the water in just a few feet, 1000
pounds of boat and 140 horses motivates good.
