Corroded Aluminium

[Hartley18]

The original owner of our little Hartley was a bit of a skin-flint and apparently wasn't one to fork out money on quality stainless railings.

Our aluminium pulpit (front of the boat) and pushpit (at the stern) have been with the boat for many a year now and are looking a bit dull and shabby and one of the pushpit uprights has now got a crack in it from the weight of the mast when on the road.

I was planning to get custom replacements - until I saw the price!! Maybe I'll still have to, but in the meantime is it worthwhile painting them or getting them anodised? Or would this be just a waste of time and money.. What do others do with aluminum railings??

[Faster]

Though we have aluminum stanchions, other than custom built aluminum boats I've never seen aluminum pulpits/pushpits in our area..... so as for what "others do", really can't say.

Painting's a possibility of course, after a mild etching and primer, but if they are beat up and cracking is it worth it?

Such SS works are usually custom jobs, so not cheap, as you've noticed! How about buying a welder and some tube...get good at it and you'll probably never have to buy your own beer again!

[negrini]

Trash it, it shows clear signals of weakness, and this is something you should avoid when you really need them. Don't waste time, nor risk yourself experimenting, go for SS !

[brak]

Aluminum is an interesting beast. On my boat all the cleats are aluminum, and 36 years old. That said, most seem to be in a good shape but one had a small nick of corrosion and - just like that one of it's screw bases broke right off without much warning. So yes, aluminum is good while it is good but if there are any signs of deterioration, it may be time for a replacement.

[Boatweb]

If you are handy you can make up all the components yourself in stainless steel and just get the metal fabricator to do the welding part (maybe the apprentice can do it on a Saturday morning). I'm fairly sure you can hire those fancy tube benders from a tool hire shop to do a neat job. Most of the rest is just sawing, drilling and filing, and a bit of sweat.

Cheers

Ian

[sailingdog]

Just one thing about aluminum... it fatigues much more readily than does stainless steel and can fail with little warning. I'd recommend going with stainless. Boatweb's point about doing the bulk of the fabrication isn't a bad one... would certainly be worth looking into.

[Hartley18]

Thanks, guys!

I'll look into costs of getting some tubing and hiring a tube bender - being a wood-person, welding is not my strong point and I've heard somewhere that stainless welding is something else again.

I'm assuming that marine-grade stainless tube and plate is reasonably readily available. If I was going to do it myself, am I going to have to get special tools or is anything okay for mild steel generally okay to cut/bend stainless on a project scale??

[pfatyol]

Cut off wheels and grinders that you would use on low carbon steel will work on Stainless steel. The one thing is that with the tool steel dies at on the tubing bender may leave some iron on the surface, must be cleaned off or you might see some surface rusting.
Welding SS is eaiser than low carbon steel, Just make sure you know that you have 316 SS tubing and tell the welder so he can match filler properly.
Have fun.

[Faster]

Also if you do try this yourself or with help, make sure you don't use regular wire wheels for cleanup and "polishing", for the same reason as Pfatyol mentions - embedded iron bits rust quickly, making your new rail look very "unstainless" in a hurry. Use a SS wire wheel and emery/crocus cloth for polishing.

[sailingdog]

If you need to use a wire wheel and can't find a stainless steel one, get a nylon one with embedded grit. They sell them at Sears...