# Building a drift boat



## crazydrake

Very cool... great job,,, keep updating


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## danthebuilder

I absolutely love it. Thanks for uploading pictures and posting this.


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## jmaddog8807

This is awesome dude. Can't wait to see the finished results.


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## BDuff1234

I have great respect for the job you are doing. I could not imagine ever being able to accomplish what you have done even just up to this point! Great job and keep updating us on how it's going!


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## koditten

Thanks for the encouraging words.

Kirk


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## riverbob

looks like your plan is coming together nicely good job n good luck


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## wyandot

Thanks for sharing Kirk, excellent job.


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## omalson

Awesome work!! Looks great. I will be watching this build. Keep us posted!


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## koditten

You bet! It was your boat building thread that inspired me to do this.


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## koditten

Just spent $40 bucks on a bearing that is no bigger than a pencil erasure. The damn idler bearing on the spool gun some how got an arced a divot in the surface. The bearing is a pressure piece for the drive spool. The wire would hit the flat spot, stop pushing out and bam! Burn back with another toasted tip.


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## omalson

That sucks. Spool guns are a necessary evil. Love them and hate them. If you are working on it someday and need some help I would love to check it out. Oh and if it's a Lincoln spool gun I would only run super glaze wire. I tried a few different brands of wire and the Lincoln is a far better cleaner product. 







koditten said:


> Just spent $40 bucks on a bearing that is no bigger than a pencil erasure. The damn idler bearing on the spool gun some how got an arced a divot in the surface. The bearing is a pressure piece for the drive spool. The wire would hit the flat spot, stop pushing out and bam! Burn back with another toasted tip.


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## koditten

Those spool guns are finicky. Mine is a the Miller Spoolmatic 30A.









Presently, I can't tell any difference between different wire manufacturers. I do know the spool gun has trouble pushing the wire when is gets down to the last 25% of the spool. I don't know if it is a tension adjustment on the drive or if it is resistance from the spool. I'm wondering if the wire has a memory from being wound on the spool at a smaller diameter. Getting lots of burn back when I reach this point on the spool. I'm going to try unspooling the wire then coiling it back onto the spool looser.

When the guns work good, they work damn good. When they act up, things can get frustrating fast.

If you ever get down to the Midland area, I would love to show you the boat and pick your brain. I would wait til after the holidays. No one has any time this time of the year to spare.


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## tuckersdad

I too run a Miller spoolmate but find using the TIG 2000 more enjoyable...but with the yardage u are covering the gun is the way to go...if I had a plasma cutter I'd be making one too...+1 on the Lincoln wire (attended the Lincoln Welding School TIG class) the lengths they go through to produce this wire is amazing...good luck and please keep posting!


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## troutguy26

Awesome build!


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## QuackerWhacker

Fantastic!


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## koditten

Thanks guys.

Just came in from doing some welding. Nothing new to report. So looking forward to some fabrication. These long welds are tiresome


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## perchdog2003

I think your doing a great job and what a great project !!

I just started MIG welding at age 52 after wanting to learn how to weld most my adult life, I bought a decent miller few years back and a spring class at the community college. I am a real hack, just got done doing a project out in the garage, its a rack for oxygen and acetylene tanks made from 1/8 wall tube and 3/16 flat. I have a hell of a time not blowing through on the thinner materials and .024 wire is a pain, i could only imagine the frustration level are at when the gun starts acting up with amount of work you already have in..

If you were to trim a little closer could you get tip in better ?


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## koditten

I sure could. That really isn't the trouble. I can deal with the stick out, its the problem with the spools of wire. When I get down to the last 1/4 of the spool, it hangs up in the gun. I've pretty much resigned my self to the fact that I will be tossing that part of v the spool into the recycle pile.

The thing welds great with a new spool. Talking to others, this is common.

I haven't tried the Lincoln wire, but I will be getting t some soon after these holidays.

Thanks for the support.

Kirk


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## perchdog2003

i believe your approaching the right way. kind of a waste of wire but peanuts in the overall scheme of things. hope to see this floating in person someday


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## AdamBradley

Wow! Very awesome progress! Not sure how I missed this thread for the past couple weeks! I'll definitely be following the rest of this build! Really wish I had the time, space, knowledge, and patience to build exactly what you have going! Please do keep us posted! Great work!


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## koditten

I took a few minutes after work this morning to to some preliminary leak checking. As I've mentioned, the spool gun acts up and the result is some pretty fu..err, messed up welds. It happens.

I want to get started and doing some of the outer chine trim and bow trim, but there is no sense in doing this until I'm sure that the boat is water tight.

To save time before I fill it with water, I took a short cut on finding if my bad welds are going to be water proof.

I spray the outside of the boat with leak detection fluid (Dawn dish soap and water). I take my compressed air nozzle and blow a high pressure stream of air on the inside of the boat along the questionable weld. If the weld is porous, bubbles will form on the outside weld of the boat. I mark this spot, clean up the weld with the angle grinder then re weld that point. 

Just because a weld looks bad, does not mean it won't be water tight. Hopefully this little cheat will save me some time.

After doing the bubble test and all locations are re welded, I'll fill the boat with water. I don't really want to have to do the water test more than twice.

I don't know how good you can see the bubbles, my potato takes so so pictures. But there are some, and they were easy to see in person.

I only got to leak check a few feet of the boat, I needed to head up to the house and grab some sleep. It was Christmas after all.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kirk

I


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## koditten

I've had several people ask me questions about my build in private messages. I thought it would just be easier to answer the questions in my build thread. 

Since I'm stuck at work for the next week and have no opportunity to work on the boat, I might as well get some questions answered. It is relative to the boat build after all. 

I'm just going to copy the questions from the PM's and answer them one by one in as much detail as I can.

Question #1)
What plans are you using for the build?

I had a hard time finding plans for my boat build. I was having no luck finding plans for a 56" x 16' Al boat. Everyone wanted to sell me plans for a 48" x 15' boat. 

Doing Google search after Google search, I landed on site that had plans for the boat I wanted, but they were for a wood boat

Anyways, curiosity got the best of me and I shipped off a question to the owner of the plans. His boats required 1/4" wood and I wanted to use 1/8" aluminum. I asked the owner if there was a chance his plans would work for my Al constructed boat.

Sandy Pittendrigh of Montana River boats supplied me with the plans for the building of this boat. I was informed by Sandy that no one had ever used his plans for an alloy boat, but saw no reason why it wouldn't work. Basically, he talked me into buying his plans. So far, the layout info has been spot on. Presently he is watching my build on his forum and has expressed great interest in my boat build.


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## koditten

Question #2)
How did you lay out your cuts?

With The plans that I procured, the cuts are all straight when making the bow/sides. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that straight Al pieces can be bent to make the shape of a drift boat.

It takes 2, 4 'x 8' pieces of sheet Al welded end to end for the sides. These get ripped in half with a skill saw to make each side. The plans give you the locations to make your marks for the bow and stern cuts.


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## koditten

Question #3)
What type of aluminum are you using for the boat?

I can't remember number Al sheeting I used. I don't even think I have it on my receipt. I do remember talking to my metal suppler and asking him to give my something that was easily welded and commonly used to build boats. I'll have to ask him next time I grab materials. I'll get back to you on this one.


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## koditten

Question #4)
What thickness are you running for the hull and sides?

I used .100 for both the sides and the bottom. Many boat builders would use .100 for the bottom and .120 for the sides. I just figured the little bit of weight gain and cost of material was not worth the hassle. Besides, thicker material is always a bit easier to weld.


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## koditten

Question #5) what is the going rate for the material ?

Presently, I'm sitting on just shy of $800 in Al sheet stock, Al angle stock and Al tubing stock. I have a fairly large pile of big pieces left over. I plan on using those pieces to make some benches and a fly deck.

I've spent around $80 on Al welding wire and another $35 in welding tips.

Looking at the prices of these boat, the sticker shock is pretty heavy. $5000 for the exact boat I want to build is not uncommon. I'm thinking the price savings should not be the only reason build one of these rigs. The joy of making something useful should outweigh the money savings by a long shot.


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## koditten

Question #6) I've only MIG welded a few times but do you think with some practice it would be feasible?

I had to think on this question. 

I'm completely in favor of one learning how to MIG weld. MIG welding is the fastest form of welding that requires the least skill. MIG welding machines are getting more and more popular.

I've taught 2 of my teen age nieces to lay quality beads with a MIG welding rig. 30 minutes later, they were making welds that were indistinguishable from a pro. That said, they had guidance to help them get the machine properly set up. I think anyone can MIG weld with practice.

I'm sure I'll get some push back, but I really don't think one needs to take a welding class to learn how to MIG weld. If anything, welding safely is much more important than the welding instructions. Introductory classes for welding will spend a great amount of time on safety.

With the aid of the internet, one can find all sorts of examples and videos of proper MIG welds. Us old timers didn't have the internet 25 years ago. What I learned watching skilled MIG welding welders in person, anyone can see the same thing on the internet. A huge head start.

With that said, MIG welding aluminum is a very different animal.
I've mentioned that when the spool gun welds aluminum good, its damn good. When it acts up, its a huge pain in the dick!

Almost all issues with a spool gun are going to be problems with burn back. This is when the wire vaporizes inside the contact tip. Most times it is traced back to the wire not coming off the spool in a smooth manner. The wire starts to get jerky and then the weld looses its smoothness. Bam! there goes another tip!

I mentioned tips. When welding iron, I usually go thru 2 contact tips for 3, 44 pound rolls of wire. Welding aluminum, I've been going thru 3 tips per 1, 1 pound roll of wire. Very frustrating.

I think anyone who wants to take on this kind of project and has had at least a small amount of exposure to MIG welding, will have no issue putting their own boat together. Just be prepared for the burned up tips.

I would almost think a person who has done little MIG welding iron would have an advantage. The technique for the 2 different metals is very different. I kept wanting to revert back to my iron welding style for the aluminum. They are not quite the same. It is very hard to unlearn your style of welding.

It took me 25 minutes of practice before I could get any decent aluminum welds. It will you , too. 

I've only used 1 type of spool gun. Mine is the Miller Spoolmatic 30A. I can't offer any feed back on what units work better or worse. Hopefully others who have had the joy of using different spool guns can chime in.

Thanks for the questions. Please feel free to ask. 

Later

Kirk


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## Sublime505

I'm stuck on which plan to get. 

One of the reasons I'm looking for a drifter boat is cheap power. I plan to put a little long shaft outboard so I can putt to and from. I'm trying to keep this a budget build as much as possible without cutting corners. 

Ideally I would like to fish 3 sometimes 4 people. Which means that I need around a 17' boat. One of the reasons that's lead me to aluminum is you practically can't get a wooden boat much bigger then 16' without some serious skills. You loose 6" in the scarf joint so most people end up with 15'6" or there abouts. I've been hunting for a 17' x 60" plan since that size seems ideal. 

I'm hesitant to scale up plans because I know what small changes in boat design can have drastic changes in how it will handle. I've looked at some spec mar plans but throwing down $350 for plans that might not work is something that I'm not comfortable with yet. 

Any ideas ?


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## koditten

Those Spec Mar plans annoyed me too. That company did not work very hard to try to sell me plans. I passed on them, too


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## omalson

Build a flat bottom. Forget the drifters. Haha. Flat bottoms sleds are easy to power. And easy to row. 16' 60" wide with a 25 hp will do fine. Ran one like that for a couple years. Not gonna win any races but it's practical. Keep posting pics. Enjoy this process.


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## omalson

Some weekend I would love to come check the build out.


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## koditten

I'm taking vacation the week of the 12th and 13th of January. I'm just chilling around the house that week. Give me a heads up and you are welcome to stop by. I'm 5 minutes from the Waldo exit.

I sure would like to compare notes on welding up these boats.

I picked up roll of that Aluminum welding wire from Lincoln. I hope that stuff works better than what I got now.

239/9919 is my number

Kirk


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## Ranger Ray

*"Almost all issues with a spool gun are going to be problems with burn back. This is when the wire vaporizes inside the contact tip. Most times it is traced back to the wire not coming off the spool in a smooth manner. The wire starts to get jerky and then the weld looses its smoothness. Bam! there goes another tip!"*

Ever try this stuff? Not cheap but works.


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## koditten

Ill look into it. Thank you.


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## tuckersdad

Save that left over wire...you can cut it to length, fashion a hook to put in a drill and twist it up to make TIG rods...it works great...I've done this with my MIG wire...


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## tuckersdad

Do you think one could TIG that construction? I've been playing with Alum pulse settings on 1/8" and, while it would take longer, I would be more confident in it as opposed to my MIG spoolgun...when you have time could you PM me your alum supplier? I might just have to do this next season...thanks!


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## koditten

This boat could most definitely be TIG welded. In fact it would be superior to spool gun MIG welded. It so much easier to control the introduction of excess heat. This would reduce the amount of deforming the aluminum sheeting undergoes.

Who, knows, it might even be faster, too. You won't have the issues of malfunctioning spool guns to deal with.

I just don't have the patience to TIG weld. My MIG welds look just as good as TIG welds...after a coat of paint

I don't see a reason to PM the material supplier. I get all my metal supplies from Midland Steel Company.

I sure would appreciate if you people would complete your avatar info. A city location would be very nice. I kind of like knowing what part of the state people hail from. I don't need an address, just the nearest city.

Thanks

Kirk


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## koditten

A bit of an update.

I found out what my problem with the spool gun was.

The gear box that sits on top of the DC motor was bad. After I changed out that assembly, the spool gun rocks! It operates very similar to welding iron 

I was to the point I was doubting my welding abilities. Turned out it was the spool gun drive motor.

Talking to the guys at Air Gas, this is a wear part...I just want expecting it to wear this fast.


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## koditten

Here is a pic of the part i changed.


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## koditten

I was able to weld on the floor suports today. I used my floor Jack to push down the tube so I wouldn't have a huge gap to weld.


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## koditten

As I hoped, was able to get the final coat applied to the inside. I mixed traction sand with the paint and applied it with a coarse roller. Grip is much better than I was expecting. just about done painting in this shot.


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## koditten

Done with the top coat. Just waiting to dry.


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## koditten

Loaded up my cool







er bases and stadium seats. Test sit was a home run!


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## koditten

Close up of the coolers and the stadium seats. I'm waiting for a sale for a smaller cooler for the back seat. Once that is strapped down, the boat will be done.

I will be using web straps to hold the coolers down to the deck. You can just see one of the hook loops to the edge of the cooler. The strap will go across the center of the coolers, but I don't see them getting too much in the way. I've tried them out, the cooler bases are very stable with the simple strap holding them down and easy to remove for cleaning/theft prevention.

My intention was 1 cooler for keeping things dry and the others for food and "liquids".


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