Fisherman'sMemorial: Model Welded Boat

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A fine young man in our area, whom I'd known since his birth, passed on a few years ago due to a heart condition that reduced the length of his voyage here.I know his father well, in fact he's a long time friend of our family so I volunteered to do a favor in memory of his son.  Johnnie B, the man who inspired our memorial here, was an offshore hook-n-line fishing guide in the Southern Cook Inlet.  He had a 'six pack' license and fished a Glacier Craft welded aluminum boat, built in Anchorage, Alaska.Here is the boat out of her element, a year ago this spring, when I caught up with her to get some images for the memorial.She's 30' LOA, has a pair of 150 Honda's and is uniform in body section aft her master station; just in the forward cabin.  This type of boat is heavily built and has lots of deck to work halibut rods over the stern quarters and along the side.Skipper John B was also getting into building welded aluminum boats himself and that made his father's request for a little help with a memorial more appealing.His Dad dropped by our shop and we discussed his ideas for a small memorial on a flat topped rock about 4' x 3' x 3' in Dad's yard.  At first we discussed the entire piece as just a plaque and a small 24"-30" boat mounted to the rock.  My first concept sketch in SketchUP shows the plaque and boat model but no real context or scene for the memorial.A bird's eye view of the original idea as first discussed by John B's father; a plaque on a rock with a model of his boat.  I work free hand with pencil for most ideas or a marker on a white board, so I have to stop that and work on the PC to model images like this.  I wanted to express different ideas to Dad and John's Mom so I took a few minutes to make a model of the boat and put it in these scenes.It was helpful because doing new free hand images from lots of angles is time consuming as you need to put some degree of scale in a sketch to give an idea of how things will really appear when built.  So the time to model is worth the countless images you can have of that model in a very short time; modeling is a time saver over drawing each view to scale by hand.Boat modeling software is now very inexpensive compared to the features- lots of tools have become less expensive and much more capable.  Our TIG and MIG power supplies will almost weld for us now- in the next generation they'll come with a built in espresso machine and lounge chair!I used Delftship Pro marine modeling software to create the lines of the boat by placing a few photos into a 'background' layer and "drawing on top".here is a screen shot of Delftship Pro showing a photo of the boat in the background of the outboard profile window.  By moving a set of control mesh points you can create a copy of the boat in the background and that is what I did.Once the model file is ready you can output the developed plates of the boat into an AutoCAD file that can be converted to CNC tool paths with a little effort.Some places my model behaved poorly and gave me lines on the panel outline profiles that were not accurate.  I then saved the model to different files and simply worked in the various parts like the deck/sheer clamp, cabin brow and bow bulwarks' shapes shown here.In the real boat a man can weld between the trunk cabin and the bulwarks but I wouldn't be able to get in there on the model so I had to add them externally.I modeled the boat and exported to a ShopBot NC router and cut the 0.060" and 0.080" 5052 on the 'bot.  This was and experiment for us as we'd only used the NC router for other purposes so cutting boat models was new but worked fine.During the modeling process, before cutting the hull parts I was able to export the model into SketchUP to make the preliminary sketches for the owners.As we visited more I began to imagine we might want a 'seascape' or 'scene' for the memorial.  I did a few different images with some sheet metal waves and that feature was added to the overall composition.So, after beginning with photographs in Delftship Pro's background layer, I modeled the hull and output the model to help show the overall piece of work.  Then editing those image files we added waves and also used the basic model panel files to cut the parts on an NC router.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:It turned out that welding 0.060" was a chore.I've welded it before in different settings but not this small a scale boat, I think my final welds are about 6"-8" across in scale!I never did get 100% on top of this weld series even though I tried small electrode and 0.025" filler wire and lots of TIG settings.  It should be noted that it took a long time to do the work because I couldn't afford to stop my day job and pay 8-10 hours to the memorial.  I like to think I'd have done a nicer job if I'd been at it more continually instead of intermittently. nearly welded out, bow on, in the tack up cradle you can't quite see the welds but they're too large by 3x - that much is obvious.Another outboard image during hull welding- large beads not as uniform as I'd have liked, but that thin material might be something I need to spend some time getting my in?Anyone try to make sheet metal water?  I thought it would be a minor feat but I was wrong- it took more effort than the boat!  Here is the E'Wheeled blanks of 0.100" 5052 that we rolled/formed to give me some 'water blanks'!From here on out this is strictly a shoot from the hip build; not only because I hadn't done this type of work before, but because I couldn't find anyone to discuss it with.  I'm confident that someone's done something similar but I couldn't find them to chat about this -so I have a few parts that didn't make  the final piece!At these photos' stage of build I'm still  just laying parts together and walking around - or spending time in the "builder's chair".Eventually this will be the 'front' of this memorial but there's a little way to go.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:In order to look half way presentable the boat needs to be down in the water a bit, and the waves were chosen for a little 'drama'- not to exciting seeing a boat in a flat sheet 'mill pond'- right?[The Art Critic is looking into the camera in the background wondering when we'll do something worthwhile instead of bend metal and make noise?]Down we go, the hull is being lowered into the wave faces and the waves are getting more defined as well.The surface of the waves are getting some work and texture so they're more "water and less metal"Waves are more 3D and closer to final shapes, bow spray is being added to the hull and bulwarks are on the forward deck flanking the trunk.Cabin brow and bulwarks still need fairing, leading edge of the wave field is getting some final curled toes and the frame is under the entire piece at this point.Clear view of the sheer of the bulwark which is hogged upward and needs trimming, the brow of the cabin hooks downward to much and will need to be sanded back a bit.I had absolutely the dickens of a time finding modeling info for Honda outboards.  I  think their engines are the finest, but the people in the US who support them?  I'm embarrassed for their ineptitude; in two months of trying I never got Honda to even acknowledge the request for engine drawings.  Shameful in my opinion- if you ask Cat, Cummins, Mercruiser, Mann or JDeere- you get full files and fast- the Honda guys, in the US distribution, are not living up the company's rep.These two images show the outboards but not the finished wake - I had to do it a few times so I could get a series of forms I could leave.  Another stern too- image.  I had mentioned this is not the front of the piece ; in fact this is the back where there will be some traffic but not much compared to the bow end.The outboard stop at the waterline near their cav plates and they were a not made as plate modeling.  I had to carve them form solid aluminum because the time to figure out the shapes and cut and weld and fair them was too much- I quit with a few hours in one model 150HP Honda.By using two pieces of 1" x 4" x 4" long and cutting an outboard profile in all four pieces I would have blocks big enough to make scale outboards.   The two sets of blocks were beveled along their centerlines and TIG welded and then bandsawed and sanded to this shape.  Took most of a day for both models.The final memorial is not fully installed but I'll post more when I get the Coastal Quest in her final mooring.I'd say it was easier by some to build a 20' skiff than a 30" skiff, now that I've done one. Likely all my learning is what delayed the work so long.  I had to figure out how to make some tools I didn't have, how to use them once I did and what the piece would look like using those tools, but the folks are happy with the memorial's look and that's all I cared about bringing about.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Very Impressive and I say it will be a Honor to his dad and a great memorial, You are very talented, thanks for sharing
Reply:Amazing, beautiful work Kevin, I'm awestruck. You've brought an inanimate object to life....Mike
Reply:Absolutely beautiful, very nice work. Can't wait to see the next pics.If you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:Amazing work! I'm sure the dad will love it.TodHH140HF 4x6 band saw (cut straight right outta the box!)"-Of all the things I've lost... I miss my mind the most."
Reply:WOW!......Just.......WOW!     As a fisherman, I really appreciate this. As a weldor/fabricator, I appreciate this ten times more."Where's Stick man????????" - 7A749"SHHHHHH!! I sent him over to snag that MIC-4 while tbone wasn't looking!" - duaneb55"I have bought a few of Tbone's things unlike Stick-Man who helps himself" - TozziWelding"Stick-man"
Reply:Very very nice.
Reply:A very nice memorial, I am sure it will be appreciated by all who see it.Miller Auto Invision 456 + S-62 wire feederC6240B1 Gap bed lathe16 ft3 air compressor16 speed pedestal drillHafco BS-912 Bandsaw
Reply:That is very very nice  Wonderful piece of work"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Your metal work is absolutely amazing!MM350P/Python/Q300MM175/Q300DialarcHFHTP MIG200PowCon300SMHypertherm380ThermalArc185Purox oaF350CrewCab4x4LoadNGo utilitybedBobcat250XMT304/Optima/SpoolmaticSuitcase12RC/Q300Suitcase8RC/Q400Passport/Q300Smith op
Reply:Kevin your work is flat awesome.  As a commercial fisherman myself I hope to make a impression on someone to do a piece like that for me when I move on.NetmanLincoln Power Mig 300 with PythonLincoln SquareWave Tig 255 Hypertherm Powermax 45 HH120 w/argon
Reply:Kevin your work is flat awesome.  As a commercial fisherman myself I hope to make a impression on someone to do a piece like that for me when I move on.NetmanLincoln Power Mig 300 with PythonLincoln SquareWave Tig 255 Hypertherm Powermax 45 HH120 w/argon
Reply:That thing is way cool,I love it.Great looking piece of art.......RedLincoln Percision tig 225 (Water cooled)Lincoln 350MP Power mig (with spool gun )Lincoln GXT 250 With Tig  ModuleLincoln Ln-25 Pro Dual PowerCentury 50 plasma cutter.now Lincoln .
Reply:Kevin, I've spent a lot of time on the ocean and you really nailed it. I can almost feel her pitching in the waves. Your are multi-talented. Their going to love it.
Reply:I spent a few years commercial fishing in the PWS area near you.  Took a couple trips over to Cook Inlet to tender some fish from there---a nice area.  You have an ability to bring an inspiration to life and I am in awe when I look at those pictures. Absolutely amazing work!Millermatic 252"Don't worry, he's got a welder, he can fix anything"
Reply:Hello Kevin, I live in an area that is very heavily associated with both sport and commercial fishing. Probably better than 50% of the population have fishing boats and another large percentage are fishermen without boats, of the group with boats there are numerous ones that fish the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, there are others as well who are Alaska bound with the coming and goings of their seasons. If any of these folks were to see your memorial to this fine young gentleman I am sure that they would all shed a tear or more. That is a really awesome piece of work and I know the many hours that you have spent with the various aspects of it. I have an elderly gentleman who has been a resident of our welding shop for 30 years or more, during that time he has created metal sculptures and many other artistic pieces from metal/wood/and other mediums that are just astounding, students are left in awe by the pieces that he has created. You have a similar talent and vision, certainly continue to apply your skills in such a creative and meaningful way, you obviously have an eye for detail and emotion. Very appreciative of your work, best regards, Allanaevald
Reply:there are no words to describe this WOW beautifulLincoln Pro Core 125Lincolin sp 100Miller Big 40Lincoln Idealarc SP250miller matic 212http://www.facebook.com/hdwelding?sk=wallwww.hdweldingbeds.com
Reply:Fantastic. I especially like the bow wave - nice touch.Yeah, I carry.House keys, wallet, some change, usually a newspaper, maybe a pen.
Reply:Originally Posted by jon1996Very Impressive and I say it will be a Honor to his dad and a great memorial, You are very talented, thanks for sharing
Reply:This is just awesome work!!!  Enough said.
Reply:Very nice skills indeed, to say the least! I'm very impressed.Do you work with DELFTship profesionally?
Reply:Kevin,That is truly some awesome work.As on old boat guy myself, my first reaction to seeing the drawings of the boat sitting on the stone was, "needs water".  I see you agree.A lot of people may not realize the difficulty involved with building a model such as this.  From your previous posts (boat for your wife), it was clear that you have an unusually high level of capability and talent.  This model just further reinforces that.I really can't think of a better memorial to a "commercial fisherman".  He's fortunate to have had friends like you.Syncro 250 DX Dynasty 200 DXMM 251 w/30A SG XMT 304 w/714 Feeder & Optima PulserHH187Dialarc 250 AC/DCHypertherm PM 1250Smith, Harris, Victor O/ASmith and Thermco Gas MixersAccess to a full fab shop with CNC Plasma, Water Jet, etc.
Reply:I'm impressed every step of the way, man what insight and what a nice job!Technical: 10Presentation: 10Quantity of pictures: 10Cad skills: 10Heart: 10I absolutely LOVE IT!I don't even know what to say!HH187Hobart 500i plasma cutterClark 4.5" GrinderDewalt 14" chop saw30 gallom 1.6 hp compressor10 gallon pressure pot sand blasterlots of hand toolsTruly a beautiful tribute to your friend.  I know it's not what you intended, but I know people would love to buy art like this.  Perhaps you have another calling...America Needs AMERICA'S Oil!!!"Global warming is the greatest scam in history ...There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril."--John Coleman, Founder of The Weather Channel
Reply:Hats off !! You're truly talented.Don't let that iron in your lungs, turn to lead in your @$$!!!!
Reply:I'm speechless.  You guys are true artists.  Cheers!
Reply:Thank you all for the kind words and appreciation for Skipper John B's memorial seascape.I no longer build welded aluminum boats full time, which I did between 1977 and 1989 but I would have loved to have had Delftship during that time.I hope to have this piece mounted this week, 05/24/2010, weather permitting and will follow up with images of the final installation.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:As long as this is a project thread (?) I do other art work that may be interesting too?  I carve fairly large pieces of wood in a style called pierced relief -where the background is gone but the images aren't full 3D in the round carving. I'm a power carver not a edge carver, this type of work takes long enough with power tools, doing it by hand isn't interesting to me.To do work in large format wood slabs you have to handle very heavy wood.  To carve wood you can't just work in one or two positions, it requires a rig to hold a large pieces safely, and to provide means to move them easily and rapidly to follow the cuts needed at any time.   I welded together from square tube and concentric pipes, a set of (nearly) cube frames that roll, provide lights, electric, air headers and hose reels and support for the slab being carved.This is a pretty complicated picture because is shows most of the carving jig and a carving in the jig too.  The shop mess will have to be ignored so you can focus on the green square tube frame.  This frame is matched by another in the near foreground. On the facing sides of both frames is a 2" square tube 'mast' with a riser in side and a 2.5" pipe split clamp at 90 degrees.This view, across the 'back' of the carving, shows the offset rolling/pivoting bar of 2" pipe that forms a J or fishhook and is aligned by the bolted on Unistrut common between the two sides.  This channel lines up the two pipes and they pivot as one pc, when the slab is rolled.In the near foreground, another pc. of deep Unistrut runs between two bolts that are anchored into the maple slab.  By drilling and inserting threaded metal insert sockets 7/8" OD x 1/2" ID, four 1/2" mild steel bolts hold the slab to the turning jig.You can tighten or loosen the bolts at the top of the split clamps/pivot pipes to add or relieve tension/friction on the pivots.  This allows you to roll the wood slab and have it stay in one or another angle- or position.  A balance of tension and freedom of movement for most positions allowed me to roll the wood at anytime and have it remain fixed in rotation for carving.This is another view of the back support showing the Unistrut bolted through two bronze spacers and washers into the thread inserts in the back of the slab.Here is an example of the wooden slab laid backward, the tension in the two side clamps plus the centered wt of the slab make handling pretty simple- even for an old fat boy.The common maple slab, from Maryland, is 8'-4" long and 5'-2" wide at the jog where an old limb was cut off to the right of this image.  It has spalting, striping, ribboning, birds' eye and worm holes- all in one piece of wood.Looking up at the calf at the top of the panel, the overlap (cheat) is shown between fluke and tail, one of the composition issues with hanging images in 'space' is to overlap them in a way that appears to give a little depth?  And at the bottom edge of the panel another overlap, this time with the cow's head and the other calf's tail.  One of the 'tricks' is to find ways to leave the images hanging in the cutout - it all has to be one piece- no gluing, no scarfing-in, no adding parts; but I might add a filler if I had a big crack to fill?  Speaking of big cracks, this slab opened up at the top enough for me to pass my hand completely through the border at the very top of the upper most calf's tail.  Over a year, I increased clamping pressure on a fit to the edges clamp system that pulled the huge check back together. Once tight again, I glued and fastened it together to keep that from opening up again- but working with large slabs always requires new tools, jigs fixtures and other hardware because most hardware isn't intended for this scale of work.After having this piece hang around for years, I've gotten back to work on it, the right hand calf always was a question.  Now I've recut the head of the right hand animal and have even considered finishing this panel!!Having to work for a living is a real slow down, use to be I'd get in a shift and then spend half the night working on something else.  Now after 8-10 hours pushing things I'm not energetic enough to put another four or five doing what I 'should' .  Wonder why that is?Hope you guys enjoy this carving.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Cool! As! Heck!HH187Hobart 500i plasma cutterClark 4.5" GrinderDewalt 14" chop saw30 gallom 1.6 hp compressor10 gallon pressure pot sand blasterlots of hand tools
Reply:While we're at it, I guess I'll show this eagle panel of the same type carving as shown above.Same carving jig but this time the wood is redwood. Now if anyone is upset that I had a redwood cut down, don't be.  The tree was hand logged with horses (!) and was a permit cut tree in N.California that was supervised by the State's forest service  and the logger was 'green'.  All that aside the piece is 7'-4" long but only 38" wide at the narrow end. As with all the wood I try to use live edge (cut bark to bark with the bark on, if possible?) and you can clearly see the growth or sap wood top and bottom as well as the bark.  I had to refasten the bark from the back of the slab to keep it with the the final panel.A 'head-on' view of the panel showing the full composition, the mountains are unfinished and the bird and border are fully surfaced and finished.A detail of the head of the bird, one thing I found very appealing about this slab was the old growth rings are so close together this few hundred year old tree sure did grow slowly.This type of work is "looking through the log" into what might be there?  I'm what is called a stylized carver, not too realistic because while I don't ignore anatomy I'm more concerned on the curves and shapes and not as much about the exact feathers or other body parts.Hope this encourages others work whether it be welding projects or any other type of work, get in the shop and build something.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Very nice work, thanks for the carving lesson! That has an interesting effect (leaving out the background).If you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:at long last the memorial to the Skipper Johnny B is in her final harbor.the rock has the plaque and now the seascape as the memorial.we drilled the legs (SS studs and tube liners) into the rock and set the piece in "bondstone" and epoxy made for this purpose.this is the 'front' view.a view off to the port side bow, and moving 'behind' the display.looking down a bit more to see into the overall look as you stand over the monument.This is the 'back side' as there isn't any gravel here so its not expected to be seen here that much. But for the welders who wanted to see around, we'll keep walking around the back.Stern too.These final wake details weren't show in the previous posts, but they were added after the last pics were taken.surface's textures don't show too well in sun light, but the waves are all sand blasted and the boat is not, the boat is etched with phosphoric acid to remove mill scale and allow it to weather more uniformly.next post a few more images,Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Last post hit an image limit so here are a few more shots to conclude the welded aluminum memorial seascape to my friend Skipper Johnny B.Detail of the wake and engines, as finished.  The earlier photos didn't show this level of final wave and wake form, the edges to these shapes were added and softened where they meet the rest of the wave but a line is left to define the wake.  The outboard are to port just slightly as the Coastal Quest meets a port sea by the bow.Almost full circle of the final mount.Aluminum is a work out to paint correctly.  To keep the paint in the name plate at the bow I used a CNC router [Shop Bot] to mill a 0.060" deep set of lettering in a 0.080" piece of sheet -5052 H32.  Then I etched the entire name plate with hydrofluoric and phosphoric acid to allow a chromium oxide solution to substitute for aluminum oxide which won't hold paint well.Then I primered the entire engraved or milled recessed plate and top coated until the letters were nearly full.  Finally, I sanded the name plate clean to bare metal leaving the etched, primered and painted lettering recesses painted.  Lots of steps to get paint to stay on the Coastal Quest's name board, but hopefully it will remain visible for years to come??Now that this piece is complete my impressions are that its really less effort to build larger boats than smaller ones because you can get inside larger boats (I'm not talking about the Queen Ocean LIners!) and tools are more to scale in 'life sized' projects than in smaller models.Thanks for all the kind remarks and comments.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Thanks for taking the time to post the pics of your work, I've enjoyed looking at them (many times!). Loosing a friend is tough, you've kept his memory alive. Hopefully it therapeutic for you too.If you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:So cool man.  Terrific job.browndogwelding.com@welderassassinMy Blog on The Fabricatorfacebook.com/BrownDogWelding