a buddy of mine, hes learning to weld, has offered to split the cost of welding materials to weld the seams and busted rivets on my jon boat.

question: is this an offer that i shouldn't turn down?

let me know what you think...

Alfred

Be reeeeal careful. Aluminum is very tough to weld. I went to 2 welders who both turned me down before I asked the guys at the marina that build tuna towers to do it.

Somthing about it "arc-ing"? Says you can melt big sections with seconds of overheating. I personally don't know much about it but I do know that the people who do it for a living were nervous.

This was for a gash about 10 inches long. If you are talking about bad rivets, there are lots of other, safer solutions.

LBH ended up with the boat I had welded.  He can give you more info.  He can also tell you how to use a tapered head nut/bolt to fix rivets.  His old jon had like 60 leaky rivets, I helped him do the whole floor w/bolts and it has never leaked since.  My dad now owns his old jon (different one)  but it still doesn't leak a drop 7-8 yrs later.

By learning, do you mean he has dobbed around a little on carbon steel plate or does he already have a tig rig and a little time with it?  Boats aren't usually (depending on the problem and condition) too bad to weld if you have some aluminum experience and the right equipment.   Remember Argon, bottle rental, tungsten, wire, cups and even a stainless steel brush can get pretty costly in a hurry, or were the last time I priced any of them,  if he wants help footing the bill.  There is also quite abit of time involved, so he isn't going to burn out after his boat is repaired or does he want to practice on yours first?

You're getting into a lot more than you realize.  It's one thing to weld a hole or leak in an open area but you're asking for major problems when you start trying to weld rivited seams.  The rivets are so close together, the heated metal is going to distort and there will be more than a good chance a couple of more rivets on each side will leak.  You will find yourself trying to weld every seam  and every rivet hole and every brace inside that thing.   Then, with all that welding, if he's even good enough to weld that thin aluminum, it's going to distort all kinds of ways.   Basically, what you will most likely end up with is a big piece of aluminum you can take to the recycler.

Aluminum isn't that difficult to weld, it just takes some practice and making sure you get everything dialed in just right for the gauge of material.  I did metal fab for several years and 90% of the welding I did was aluminum. If you do decide to let him weld your boat, I highly recommend buying some scrap aluminum the same gauge as your boat.  Let him practice on it before he touches your boat.

I've done my share of light gauge aluminum tigging and I'll say this, if he's just learning, DON'T let him learn on your boat. there is some skill and alot of art to welding light gauge al. and as already stated, if it's not done just right you just end up chasing the whole thing. I would explore every other option before even taking it to a certified welder if I were you.

BE CAREFULL, sometimes free help aint FREE !!!!

thanks guys, you all have shed light on things i hadn't thought about yet.  for now i think hold off on this and just reapir the rivets with the method LBH used.

Thanks again guys, it always helps to have more that one point of view.

Alfred