Yes, these are boat parts. Maybe you can help me figure out whats wrong with them.



Not *too* bad right?

 

Fuuuuuuuk. I knew I had a small crack in it, but daaaaaaaaayum. Hopefully the guys at work can fix it for me...

 

See that one with the big piece missing? That's not supposed to be like that. I'm pretty sure.

That'll be $50 please.

You can pay me through my paypal account.

 

Make sur you use plenty of JB Weld when you put the foot back on, after you replace the impeller in the water pump.

 

something is wrong with these pictures. Theyre parts of a boat and its the end of December.

 

You say that like I haven't taken my boat out when its 35* before... And Yankee, the impellor is pretty new and it'll be welded the real way.

 

isn't that cast? Not sure if you will be welding that but hope you can.

 

I think it's tiome for a new boat.

 

sure, that cast will weld right up...just hook up a ground and weld that thing up! Just dont be surprised when it doesnt work and there's several guys standing there laughing at you...

 

Welding aluminum can be pretty tough. It mostly depends on the alloy. Some such as 20xx series are mixed with copper. When you try to weld them what you actually get is melted copper and melted aluminum. It may cool and look like a weld but if you were to analyze the material it would come back as two separate materials. It might be possible to find a salvage lower unit and save yourself some hassle.

 

Im not gonna say it's a good thing......but it's not that bad. Just get it welded up, primed and painted and you should be good as new.

YES..you can weld aluminum. We do it all the time. Ever see a 50' Sport Fish boat witha tower? Guess what that tower is made of?

you guessed it..Aluminum, and it sure as hell aint bolted together


BREW

 

I know you can weld aluminum but that doesn't look like any aluminum I've ever seen welded. If you zoom in on the pictures you can see it's porous as heck.
Like I said, I hope I'm wrong and he can fix it but I have my doubts. Hope he takes it in tomorrow so we can find out.

 

Ok, I might be wrong and glad if I am. You may be able to Tig weld it. This guy broke his too. They also mention this stuff and of course, JB Weld.

 

I never said that aluminum can't be welded, I said that some alloys should not be welded. A 50xx or 60xx can be welded quite well. The copper based alloys (20xx or 70xx) are the ones to watch out for. I would guess that the towers on your boat are made from 5086 because of its corrosion tolerance.

I would be more concerned with why the lower unit has several cracks. Did you hit something? If it is from age I would be concerned about the fatigue limits that you might be approaching. Aluminum does not have a bottom fatigue limit. This means that given enough cycles the aluminum will reach a point that it will no longer have any strength. This is why aircraft (primarily pressurized) have a limit on the number of years that they can be flown. Given enough flights the airframe can and will fail even though the pilot never pushed the aircraft beyond its design parameters. If you lower unit has a lot of hours on it, there is a chance that some of the parts are near this point.

Edit:
If you do try to weld it I would recommend drilling out the sharp corners and the ends of the cracks. By making the sharp corners round you will relieve the stress concentrations that will build up at these spots. If left uncorrected these spots will be the starting point for a new crack.
Also, if you see any more cracks drill the ends out and fill the holes. This will stop the crack.

 

All I know is this...

X = cost of a normal repair

Hmmm, let's see, welding or fixing that issue will result in X + Y*H where Y is the cost per hour for labor and H is the number of hours required to fix the problem. Figure your gonna get ripped for the labor so the new formula is as follows...

X + Y*2H

Oh wait...didn't I read somewhere above that you said this is a BOAT repair? Hahahahahahaha. If it were a truck repair you could go with the above formula. However if it were a motorcycle repair you'd have to go with...

2(X + Y*2H)

But a BOAT repair. Hold on, let me laugh again. Hahahahahaha

(X + Y*2H)^2

Have fun man!