small stern platform

i did this on a saturday. sorry for the poor pics, i generally only take pics for billing and reference. this boat had been backed into a seawall. pipe frame was out of whack on the horizontal plane. first i cut out the old supports and removed the welds then brought it in to plane as best i could. then i indexed off the stern for the first cross member. there are actually two. there is a 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 by 3/16ths t bar welded in place and on top of that is piece of ladder rung extrusion also welded in place. each piece had to be cut to fit, both the T bar and the the rung extrusion which is a two inch channel with one inch legs . 125 thk.

working from a raft is a challenge, welding from a raft is a bigger challenge. no place for tig welding; spool gun only. used two spools of 5356 wire. this platform looks rough but it is very sturdy and will carry two men easily. there is a cross member in the center running perpendicular that i tied into the brace and the stern. the trick was to keep everything evenly spaced and in the same plane.

each time i made a cut i had to climb out of the raft, up the stern, across to another boat, from the bow of that boat it was about a five foot stretch over water to the deck where my miter saw was. i was seriously worn out after ten hours. that is setup, breakdown and cleanup.

that was actually fairly quick and the company reps were happy that i was able to do the repair with the boat in the water, rather than having to take it to a yard and have it pulled.

you have to listen to what the customer wants. don't give them art when they want utility and vice versa.

Nice work.
What's the ballpark price on something like that ?

nice job nice being near the water i make good money welding pontoons , a job like that were i live would be about 250 or more. when you weld aluminum you always have work near water

i bill at 55/60 per hour plus consumables. on some jobs there are other variables that come into play. this would be one of those cases.

i hate the pontoon boats they leave sitting in the river there so built up with crap takes so long to clean to weld lol had one a week ago that was almost 2 inch thick with crud i get them like this this one isnt bad lolAttachment 7222

yes, cleanup is a pain. forget the two inch SS brush. i use carbide burrs, sawzall, circular saw, ss wire wheel, sander....etc. never did anything in fresh water, kind of surprised at that info.

i have traveled through parker a number of times. really like the colorado river. from i 40 around havasu down to quartzite, made that trip many times. also like the bullhead city laughlin area.

only pontoon work i ever did was to layout the pattern for the transition from round to bow shaped for a guy 30 years ago. tough pattern to layout back then. piece of cake in todays world.

computers put me in the field.

are river eats boat alive Colorado river is so full of minerals

lol i love Florida have family in Pensacola i want to build a air boat