Pushing my Luck

The other day I needed to blow some steel screws out of some aluminum boat ribs because they were rusted off and seized in place. I tried a couple different toothed cutters before trying the plasma cutter.

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I take it you left big smokin' holes rather than salvagable threads in the aluminum.

On old cars and small engines I usually have to replace the rusted screw with a new one.

Could be worse, I met a man who was rebuilding a Rolls-Royce Nene jet engine with a large, closely spaced circle of small corroded screws in aluminum.

Yep. I'll flap wheel it flat, and use rivets to reattach the sole when I am ready. In the short term during fitup of everything I'll use stainless steel screws. The screws will get pulled and replaced with rivets when everything is right.

Yep. I'll flap wheel it flat, and use rivets to reattach the sole when I am ready. In the short term during fitup of everything I'll use stainless steel screws. The screws will get pulled and replaced with rivets when everything is right.

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In case you or others don't know, #5 screws have a diameter of 1/8" and are good temporary assembly substitutes for 1/8" rivets if you don't have or the space is too tight for Clecos. #10 screws work for 3/16" rivets.

Talk about lucky. I have a couple boxes of #10 wide head (not sure if they are called washer head or truss head) stainless sheet metal screws and several bags of 3/16 closed end wide head pop rivets for the blind holes. For accessible through hull stuff (other parts of the project) I have 3/16 and 1/4 solid rivets. Just haven't decided what to use for a sealant under the solid rivet heads yet.

I'm leaning towards DAP tub and tile clear. For machine enclosures and in the past for outdoor surface mounted junction and equipment boxes it has done a better job over time than all but the most expensive marine sealants and is much easier to work with. Because it finishes clear squeeze out is unnoticeable in most applications. If I do have a rivet leak or two it will be in the older rivets I didn't remove anyway. Even then it wouldn't be anything that would kick a bilge pump on more than once in a day. Probably not even that often. The guy who gave (sold cheap) me the boat used to camp out in it for days at a time. All the new stuff is above the waterline anyway. Yes its a very off label application. Its rated for indoor use, but I never had a problem with it when used between surfaces.

I will need to weld a few things before I am done, but that can all wait for now. I'll be able to return my buddy's cord long before then because my own extra cord will be arriving this week. I thought about making a 6x3 cord of my own, but that is some seriously expensive wire. Paige wire calculator says I can run a full 50 amps over 100ft of 6x3. Its just more than I want to spend. If I really need to do a lot of heaver welding up front I'll just cover/abandon the outlet box in the back and install one directly below the main sub panel for the shop. That is much closer to the front of the building, but a 50ft cord would still reach the back door with room to work. That would be much cheaper than a 100ft 6x3 cord.

...If I do have a rivet leak or two it will be in the older rivets I didn't remove anyway. ...

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Just hammer them tighter.

I'm leaning towards DAP tub and tile clear. For machine enclosures and in the past for outdoor surface mounted junction and equipment boxes it has done a better job over time than all but the most expensive marine sealants and is much easier to work with.

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Thanks for the advice. I've generally had poor luck with sealants used outdoors in sunlight, except for a Silicone (brand??) in the joint between aluminum siding and aluminum window trim covering which has remained intact for ~15 years.

I used those washer/truss head screws to fasten down corrugated panels on a roof extension because the flanged hex heads meant for them snag the snow rake. Sealing washers punched from red rubber sheet from HD deteriorated at the edges from sunlight. Inner tube rubber is worse.

Not sure what you might use it for, but it comes out of the tube "thinner" than most other sealants I have used. Makes sense since it comes in a squeeze tube.

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Not sure what you might use it for, but it comes out of the tube "thinner" than most other sealants I have used. Makes sense since it comes in a squeeze tube.

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Outdoor lights and cameras, TV antenna and solar panel wiring, sealing car rust repairs, ...

Should be right up that alley. I don't know how well it weathers extreme cold. We usually only get a couple nights a year that drop below freezing just before sunrise. Some years we don't get any.

Should be right up that alley. I don't know how well it weathers extreme cold. We usually only get a couple nights a year that drop below freezing just before sunrise. Some years we don't get any.

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Thanks, that's a good thing to test. Tonight's low is predicted to be 0F, or I could put a sample in the freezer to see if it becomes brittle.

The manual for my Alpicool freezer claims it can be set as low as -40 C/F. When vaccines were near release I mentioned the 20 liter model to several medical professionals as a possible vaccine freezer that operates from a 12V vehicle battery and carries as easily as a picnic cooler. My larger 60 liter one transports like wheeled luggage. I set it up to automatically use solar, else grid, else battery power and it's costing less than $1.50 per month to run.

Well, I now have 100 feet of 8/3 welder extension cord. I can now reach well out past the 20' concrete apron on the front of my shop. I may no longer have a need for the little 120V ProCore MIG. Gonna keep it anyway. I would have liked 6/3, but its was out of my budget.

Of course now I need to cleanup the shop so I can actually roll the welding carts out front. LOL.

Of course now I need to cleanup the shop so I can actually roll the welding carts out front. LOL.

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Bulldozer blade on the front?

One of the specs GM required for custom factory equipment was that it be forklift-proofed, meaning that internal wiring was in grounded metal conduit so the operator wouldn't get a shock if they drove the forks into it. Rather than bend EMT to fit tight spots we used a lot of Sealtite, which also met the hose down spec. I've seen less well waterproofed wiring on a submarine.

Honestly, probably yes. Drive the tractor through with the front loader down.