Is There a Boat Welder in the House?
Printed From: ProfessorPaddle.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Whitewater Forum
Forum Discription: Open Discussion Forum. Whitewater related subjects only
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9797
Printed Date: 17 Sep 2025 at 11:13pm
Topic: Is There a Boat Welder in the House?
Posted By: SplashDaddy
Subject: Is There a Boat Welder in the House?
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 7:59am
Is there anybody in the area doing any serious boat welding?
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Replies:
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 8:08am
Charles at AquaSports does it, or used to.
I've had decent luck with my heat gun and slices of an old hull...
If I do it again I'm going to buy this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/plastic-welding-kit-with-air-motor-and-temperature-adjustment-96712.html - http://www.harborfreight.com/plastic-welding-kit-with-air-motor-and-temperature-adjustment-96712.html
I had this one, but the regulator was worthless, and of course it requires a compressor... I'll pay the extra money... I wound up returning the cheaper one...
http://www.harborfreight.com/plastic-welding-kit-41592.html - http://www.harborfreight.com/plastic-welding-kit-41592.html
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H2O please
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Posted By: SplashDaddy
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 9:00am
Yeah, I've welded a bit of linear myself using a torch or heat gun, but I've never had the equipment to weld crosslink.
A bad line over the weekend turned an otherwise nice boat into junk, unless a very talented welder emerges.
I'll check with Charles at AquaSports.
The good news is, it's not my boat. :-)
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Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 4:45pm
From all I've heard you cannot weld cross link no matter how good you are...
However, my old Y I am pretty sure is cross linked and I welded it... it's still holding though I have welded different cracks near the original 3 times...
I am actually starting to think that if the crack isn't too bad, just drill the ends of the crack.... then 3-M vinyl Mastic on the inside... The stuff sticks to anything and remains flexible.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-ROLLS-NEW-3M-SCOTCH-SEAL-2229-COMPOUND-3-75-X-10FT-/280501564844?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414f3235ac - http://cgi.ebay.com/2-ROLLS-NEW-3M-SCOTCH-SEAL-2229-COMPOUND-3-75-X-10FT-/280501564844?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item414f3235ac
It's 3M 2228 (in case this link ever dies and somebody wants to google it)
It's expensive, but I have two rolls of it and would sell a bit of it if anybody is interested...
So far my patch is holding great like that, I like it much better than my old tons of duct tape method...
Good luck.
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H2O please
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Posted By: SplashDaddy
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 6:27pm
Easy way to tell if your old WaveSport boat is crosslink or linear.
If it says Y(or X, XXX, Z) on each side of your boat, at the knees, it's crosslink. The W in the WaveSport logo is styled to look like a wave and a WS logo that looks like a smoking pipe.
If it says Wave Sport, in an Asian like font, on each side of the boat, at your knees, it's linear. The Y logo will be centered on the bow deck.
I've seen several welded crosslink boats but I've never tried welding crosslink myself and the current broken boat isn't likely a good place to start.
They say that the vinyl mastic makes for a good repair. He may give that a go.
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Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 7:54pm
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if the weld doesn't work try some bituthane.
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Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 30 Jun 2010 at 4:35pm
It's BituthEne... and back when I looked into both I decided that the 3-M stuff looked better, and you can actually purchase it. I couldn't find anywhere that actually sold the bituthene, and was told to "just go talk to roofers..."
Only way I found that stuff was by the pallet.
I'm sure either will do the trick, but aren't cheap or readily available really...
When paddlers refer to it they usually say bitchethane...
http://www.chemind.com.au/datasheets/CP-Data%20Sheet%20-%20Bituthene.pdf - http://www.chemind.com.au/datasheets/CP-Data%20Sheet%20-%20Bituthene.pdf
it's made by "Grace" and if anybody sees it, it'd be cool to compare it to the 3-M stuff.
http://johnsexcavating.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/102_1697.142133436_std.JPG - http://johnsexcavating.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/102_1697.142133436_std.JPG
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H2O please
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Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 01 Jul 2010 at 1:33pm
Keel Brightman in the White Salmon area does stuff too.
http://kbkayakwelding.blogspot.com/
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The line will become apparent
978-273-7723
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