house boat

[daedong]

I know this is not the right forum but i Know there are plenty of cluey people on TBN thats why i am posting this here, I hope this makes sence.
I intend to build pontoons for a houseboat, the design i have chosen are hexagenal 3mm steel, baffled every 1200mm and fabricated in 1200mm sections. To achieve the hex shape i will have steel sheets 1200mm x 1800mm folded with two folds per sheet @ 60 degrees then will weld two sheets together to make the hex making 600mm sided hex, i will then weld these sections together to make 12mt pontoons.My question is this when welding these sections togther what is the best sequence to weld them together. I assume i tack each corner first, then do i weld one side then the opposite side and so on.

 

[itsmecindi]

Uh huh.

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Pffft....I dunno, you lost me when you said 3 mm steel, but I would give my eye teeth to have a house boat. As far as I'm concerned, I could live out my life happily on one of those things if it was tied up in the right spot.

 

[bgott]

The last one I helped build we tacked a bunch of 55 gallon drums together and built prows to put on the ends. That made it easy to replace damaged or leaky sections. That was a fresh water boat, I don't think I'd do it in salt water. I'm sure someone with more experience with welding long sections of sheetmetal will chime in but the way I've done it is to swap side to side and also skip welded it. By skip welding I mean weld an inch or two, swap to the other side and do the same and then go back to the first side and skip about as much as the weld and do it again. When I hit the end I go back and fill in the skips side to side. That way seems to let the heat dissippate enough to keep the metal from distorting much. I'm also fair at shrinking metal with a torch and wet rag so that helped work out any distortion I introduced into the metal. You also want to use a wire feed welder, it makes life a lot easier.

 

[itsmecindi]

Lemme ask a question too for when the knowledgable person comes along. Could you say use those big thick squares of heavy duty styrofoam for flotation and encase them in sheet metal to protect them from gouges etc? Also can you build the base of the thing and put it in the water and then build the house on it while it's anchored?

 

[daedong]

Hi
Sorry about the metric measures in the first posting. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Thanks for all the ideas, i'm taking them all in, so keep them coming for me to chew on.
I went to the city yesterday, Adelaide, about 170 km (100mls)away and ordered all the steel and organised the cutting of the baffles and the folding of the plate. forty sheets 6'x4'x1/8' (1200x1800x3) and 10 sheets 8'x4'x1/8 (120x2400x3) It should be here late next week.
I have also bought a new mig welder 220 amp and my old mig I am having it set up for welding aluminium and also treated myself with a new automatic shield. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[pruntyc]

Then I am wondering why you didn't go with aluminum instead of steel. Steel rusts pretty easy. That is what the army uses for its portable bridges, I know I use to weld them. If steel I would go along with the one about the drums, as he said you can replace just the ones that have a problem. A lot of folks that I have known have used them in rivers for floats to have their boats tied to and fish from and they hold up good.

 

[pruntyc]

And I have a question for you. Isn't the steel going to be awfully heavy?? Even 1/8 inch unless you reinforce it with pipe, or tubeing, it may not hold up too well. I am assuming, you may hit a rock or something with it some time and steel will dent pretty bad, unless you do reinforce it. I think that is why most most of them are made out of aluminium. They are a lot lighter and easier to repair, if needed.

 

[daedong]

In Australia we have many very big house boats and 90% of them are built with steel pontoons then painted with epoxy tar paint (2 pack) last 10 years before they need mooring and repainting. The link below is of hire houseboats in my neck of the woods.
http://www.murrayriver.com.au/houseboats/default.htm

 

[itsmecindi]

Good Lord, don't use any of my remarks. I'll sink you like a rock. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

These are things that I was curious about.

 

[bgott]

I think foam fill works best with fiberglass. Have you ever seen the picture of a Boston Whaler cut in half but still afloat? I'll bet that there have been a few steel pontoons filled with foam but I can't say I've seen them. Foam fill would deaden the tin can sound from waves lapping on the side but might introduce extra corrosion problems. Pontoon houseboats aren't rough water boats nor are they designed for speed so you can get away with some interesting " experimental" designs.

On edit, not only can you build the house part when the pontoons are on the water you can put ramps down the thing and back you camper onto it and tie it down. I think you can rent pontoon boats for doing just that.