| 1. The first thing needed is a welder. The most popular among boaters are ones from Seelye and Laramy. Shown above is Skip's Laramy Model 30-10. It's pretty much a standard industrial welder designed for shop floor use. It's a perfect unit for most type of boat repairs. The welder comes with a simple tacking tip that while useful, is not the best for whitewater boat repair. You'll need to buy a high-speed tip. Expect to pay $300-$700 for a welding setup plus another $75-$150 per tip. Note that Laramy and Seelye welders are not compatable although Seelye does sell an adapter that allows Seelye tips to be fitted onto Laramy welders. Skip choose the Laramy with adapter since tips from both manufacturers could then be used. |
| 2. This is Skip's extra (el-cheapo) backup welder from Chicago Electric Power Tools, available from HarborFreight.com. It's good for occasional use or as a backup welder if the primary fails. Boaters who don't anticipate repairing a lot of boats might like this. It comes with a regulator but no air filter, the heating element will probably burn out quickly, but it's cheap (only $29 plus S/H). You'll still need to buy a high-speed tip and once nice feature of this welder is it takes Seelye tips. Harbor Freight also sells small welding rod, however the rod is really too small to be useful for most boat repair. |
| 3. With any welder you'll need to buy a selection of welding tips. |
4. Tips fitting the Seelye and Chicago welders (and Laramy with adapter).
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5. Tips fitting Laramy welders.
(Note how the Laramy high speed tips come with a plunger that
allows the operator to easily clear the plastic feed tube when
it gets clogged.)
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| 6. Most welders require a separate air compressor. This is a small unit easily transported. (Postscript: Turns out this small unit doesn't put out quite enough airflow required by the high speed tips. The air gets slightly too hot and the surface of the boat gets scalded a bit. So Skip is still looking for the perfect small air compressor: portable, light, small, high airflow, and oilless.) |
| 7. This is Skip's first air compressor setup. Put together with parts purchased on eBay and at Sears. It's small enough to fit in a small suitcase, however once you include all the connectors, fittings, gages, hoses, etc, the final cost was higher than an off-the-shelf model. |
| 8. Another important tool is a die grinder. This is Skip's electric Makita Model GE0600 1/4" Die Grinder that was special ordered from Home Depot for about $95. (The electric ones are very hard to find.) |
| Skip also has a cheap (backup) 1/4" die grinder, American Tool Exchange Model #10122 purchased on eBay. Harbor Freight also sells this Chicago Electric model for $29, although no one we know has tried it. |
| 9. Here are some bits (or burs) for the die grinder. These are likewise hard to find (even more so then the grinder itself). You won't find them in the standard places for tools, searching locally a source was finally found by looking for Milling Machine parts. Online, HE Long, Quality Carbide Tool, Advanced Carbide, and MasterCut Tool all appear to supply burs for die grinders. |
10. Other tools.
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| 11. Clamps are sometimes needed to hold boat pieces in place. |
| 12. A band saw is useful but not required. |
| 13. A bench grinder (or floor model, the one shown here with the workshelf temporarily removed) is also useful but not required. |
| 14. Some sort of heat-resistant gloves useful with working hot sheets of ABS that you put in the oven. |