On occasion, Mac's Misc. Metals veers into the marine side of the house. A customer, who's a fisherman requested an aluminum hatch to be made to replace his old one. Goal #1: It has to be watertight. You climb through the hatch to enter and exit the interior of the boat, but more importantly, it has to keep water out of the interior of the boat.
Aluminum can be a bit tricky. Gas Tungsten Arc Welding is always your best option. There was a lot of welding on those verticals and that lower angle-bar frame to keep the hatch watertight.
After all of the welding, I cleaned up all the welds as good as I could and loaded it on my flatbed. I ended up bringing it back to the shop and welded the bottom angles fully. Initially, I was thinking some caulking would be used on that lower seam.
As you can see, all of the vertical and lower seams got fully welded to ensure its watertight. My customer installed wooden planks where those inserts are. Those planks are very helpful when he's out on the water bringing in fish.
Here's another view of it in place. The boat in the background makes this picture. If anyone needs any aluminum welding done, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Anywhere in New England is doable.
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