Welding Tips and Tricks

Here's the first 12 feet of my 21' boat. Fun stuff.. The frames you see are 1/4" 5052-H32 with a 1/4x1-1/2 6061-T6 flange formed then welded to them. These are tacked and ready to be ground and fully welded. The face edge gets welded and then ground flush also..



Here's one I finished tonight.



The plans don't call for full welds and you wouldn't see this in a store bought boat because it would put too much cost into it. However, it's my boat and I have plenty of time to go the extra mile. Besides, it's good practice doing all that welding and not warping the crap out of it. LOL...

Here's the face edge.



Try bending this all in one piece and do it close enough to TIG it... Gotta remember it's 6061 T6 so you can't heat form it. Don't even ask me how many times I went from back and forth from the bender to fram frame checking it.

Looks good keep us posted with your progress!

Very nice can't wait to see more wow that's alot of Alum welding. Thanks for showing.
Vernon

That looks similar to the Glen-l "Snake Shooter" I'm kicking around building (I'm kinda talking myself out of it, and into finding a different design/getting someone to design one for me, as I'm not crazy about certain features on that).

Why are you TIGing those, and not using your spoolgun?

bassboy1 wrote:That looks similar to the Glen-l "Snake Shooter" I'm kicking around building (I'm kinda talking myself out of it, and into finding a different design/getting someone to design one for me, as I'm not crazy about certain features on that).

Why are you TIGing those, and not using your spoolgun?

TIG is cleaner.. I'll mig all the long inside welds for sure. I was looking at the snake shooter first but wanted a deeper hull. They're both Hankinson designs so they're pretty much built the same way. There were a couple of others out there that I looked at. I almost bought the plans for a Specmar 922 and I looked at some of the kit boats but when it came down to it I chose the Glen-L plans because it saved me a lot of money and I wasn't concerned about time.

The Canyon Cruiser is very close to what North River and Rogue use as a base design and I like the way both of those boats handle. I had a North River Commander. I got it cheap and it was under powered and had a Berkeley 12JC pump on it. I've heard that the same boat with the 502 and the Hamilton pump is sweet. This Canyon Cruiser is designed for a jet or I/O but it's getting a 250 Yamaha on the back with an offshore mount. I'm also switching up and putting the soft top option on it instead of the hard top.

One of the nice things about Hankinson designs is that he basically gives you the hull and lets your do your own thing with the rest. There's quite a few areas that can be modified to suit your wants.

Here's some progress, this is just mocked up to get a feel for how I need to reorganize things so I can still have room to work.

20' 6" on the nose as per the plans.



This is a little fuzzy but it gives you a better idea of the size..

Hey Man,

Really nice looking work! Congratulations. I've built a few driftboats and can appreciate what you've taken on. I'm wondering how you feel about that TIG machine? I'm not looking for a review. Just your quick thoughts if you wouldn't mind. I'm new to the forum and am not sure if this is appropriate or not. Anyway, nice job.

Thanks,
Doug