Chris Craft cut water

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I made of of these a few years ago for one of his other boats and now he's restoring another two.  They are for 1930's chris craft boats about 32' long.. I'll try to get some photos of his collection.  Because the haul varies from the top to the bottom, I had to take degree measurements every so often.  After mapping the two boats, I burned out some wedges on our cnc plasma to hold them in place (last time I used spacers and clamps which was a real pain).  I marked out the material, placed the wedges in the correct areas and tacked 1/4" bolts to hold the wedge in the place while I tacked the rest of it together.  I ran my tig on DC and just fusion tacked the plates every 2 inches.  Then I found some 1/16" filler rod and a particle mask.  Tigging brass is chaotic because of all the zink trying to escape, but I eventually got the job done.  I used TIG because I was concerned about too much warpage with O/A.  All in all, the first one took me about 4 or 5 hours.  The material was somewhere around 1/16" also.  When I am finished with the second one, they will go off to get nickel plated. Attached ImagesCommon sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Reply:I used a 4.5" 60 grit flapper for the rough sanding and finished with a 120 orbital.And here are a few more pictures. Attached ImagesCommon sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Reply:That is some fine work. I gad a 19' Chris Craft years ago. Cost me $100.00 every time I walked past it.
Reply:That was out of the water too I'm sure? Nice work brainfarth.Bruce The Welding ChefLincoln Weld-Pack 3200 NORWELD StickStanford Hill Farm
Reply:Nice job brainfarth.  Have you ever tried to mig the brass using silicon bronze? It puts a lot less heat in the metal than tig. Not knowing what brass you used color match could be a problem.  But with a good fit up not much would show.
Reply:Originally Posted by QuickNice job brainfarth.  Have you ever tried to mig the brass using silicon bronze? It puts a lot less heat in the metal than tig. Not knowing what brass you used color match could be a problem.  But with a good fit up not much would show.
Reply:Looks really good...  How many amps were you using to weld this baby together?  Bare LFB for the filler rod?Cheers,Miller Diversion 165120 amp Buzz BoxVictor Oxy/Ace Oxy/LPGSmith "Little" Oxy/LPGHypertherm Powermax 30Lot's of Misc. tools n' crap....
Reply:Thanks.  I averaged from 40 to 60 amps.  I found that feeding the filler from the backside of my travel direction worked the best.  Also, I dont do enough of these things to justify spending $110 on 10 lbs of .030 silicone bronze.  I dont know exactly what the filler rod was other than it was brass.Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Reply:Originally Posted by BrainfarthThanks.  I averaged from 40 to 60 amps.  I found that feeding the filler from the backside of my travel direction worked the best.  Also, I dont do enough of these things to justify spending $110 on 10 lbs of .030 silicone bronze.  I dont know exactly what the filler rod was other than it was brass.
Reply:You got to find another place to buy your wire.  For brass and aluminum I use a spool gun and the 2 lb brass spools  are $10.46 ea and 10 lb spools are much lower per pound.  I have not bought brass filler rods for some time so I don't have a cost on them.
Reply:I forgot to ask since you are having this nickel plated why did you not make it out of stainless?
Reply:I asked the guy the same question a few years ago.  He rebuilds these things to as close as possible to the original specs and s.s. wasnt used.  I also thought I heard somewhere that you had to do another step to get nickel to stick to s.s... Maybe I'm wrong.Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.