Tools for working aluminum.

In this section I discuss the tools I am using to build my boat.

I cut the all the plate with both a professional quality Festo pendulum jigsaw and a worm-drive HD 77 Skilsaw with a 7 1/4" tungsten carbide blade designed for cutting decking/nails (Saw $165.00 + remodeling blade - tungsten teeth negative rake angle on teeth - $18.00 from Sears). The Jig saw where I needed it, was very useful but the Skilsaw is what did most of the cutting. The light weight saw, HD77 MAG, I aquired was fitted with an aluminum sole. This was no good for cutting aluminum as the chips got under it and galling occured, making smooth forward progress impossible. To avoid this, I simply fitted a thin plywood sole to the existing aluminum base, with some countersunk bolts. Worked great.

At work with the Skilsaw. Note the hearing protection - this is not something to do to your neighbours on a Sunday morning. Also notice all those aluminum chips. That takes some cleaning up each afternoon.

The negative rake round tooth saw blade. A pleasure to use. I used no lubricant at all on the blade and so bought a second one just incase I broke a tooth. But never really needed it. The blade does get a little dull after a lot of cutting, but the saw just keeps on turning. Cutting corners and bends, plunge cutting etc. proved very straight forward (no pun intended).

Originally contemplated using this jigsaw for cutting everything, but actually it is much too slow! Also working with sheet on the ground makes it less useful. Still it did a fine job on the tricky bits.

I planned to use a V- cutter (never did find one though see below) with my air-powered Chicago Pneumatic 1/4"die-grinder. The role of this tool is to open up a small V-shaped slot in the plate from the one side of the boat, after completing the root weld and to clean up - that is back chip - that root weld to shiny unoxidized metal. Remember in that first pass from one side of the plate, the back side of the weld is exposed to the oxidizing atmosphere This back chipping is critical to good fusion when I weld up the second pass (final pass) from the back side. I also have a cone shaped carbide die-grinder burr which is useful for cleaning up welds, edges and fiddly bits.

"V"-cutter tungsten carbide burr for back-chipping aluminum welds (photographs courtesy E.H.Sims). This burr has a 1/4" or 6mm steel shank suitable for use in a die-grinder. Also notice the zero rake of the v-cutter burr teeth, so there is no chance of it biting uncontrollably into the work piece. I would think this tool is custom made as I never managed to locate one.

Cone-shaped carbide burr (cost about $20). Note the widely spaced flutes on the cone shaped burr, essential for aluminum.

I am using a 115mm angle grinder for flatting the weld beads in a few instances. This works okay but don't use the the special aluminum grinding wheels I have shown here. They contaminate the very first welds did and I had caused me a huge amount of bother cutting them out with the skill saw and re-doing. Instead use aluminum-oxide sanding disks.

Lots of G-clamps and 4 x 8' sash clamps for holding plates in place.

A couple of come-along (sort of cable-ratchet winch device) is an essential tool for pulling plates into alignment. Wedges and wood for working the hull to the right shape. A rubber mallet, crowbars, a funky wood-chisel, and a hydraulic jack, proved most useful for the rest.