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  1. Fish Fry

    Battery as balast - can it short?

    I plan to build a small, basically unsinkable, self-righting electric boat with a range of 50 miles or so (good weather). I plan to use its batteries as ballast. If the batteries get submerged in a rollover, will they be shorted by the water touching the terminals? Do I need to seal the...
  2. Fish Fry

    A Good Boat Building Software?

    Is there a decent software that's geared toward boat building, hull stress, etc? Ideally I'd like to make my own small-boat plans and send them to have the pieces cut, instead of using a kit. Otherwise, I'm looking possibly at a $900 Specmar plan. I have no experience with AutoCAD or any other...
  3. Fish Fry

    Minimum welder for new boat?

    What would be a "good enough" welder to buy if I only intended to make 1 or 2 aluminum boats in the next five - ten years? I'm talking a 16-17 foot open top boat for river and bay fishing. Welder brand, cost? I'm willing to have less than perfect, because I'm not gonna use it every day, but not...
  4. Fish Fry

    Aluminum brazing -- any good?

    14 ft Valco I recently did a quick fix brazing some angle aluminum onto my cracked transom bracket for extra stoutness -- should give me a couple years. I will eventually want to replace the transom and bracket. A plumber, I'm no stranger to soldering and brazing, and I found these brazing...
  5. Fish Fry

    Best Rivet Sealer/Epoxy sytetm???

    When I say "best" I'm asking based on several criteria. 1. How easy to apply. 2. How reliable, long term is it? 3. How bad does it screw up future repairs in the same area? Say you want to weld where the sealer has been applied... Impossible? Any other suggestions? :hail: to the boat repair...
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