Northwest Dive Club

I'm going to add some tank racks to my RIB, anyone deal with people locally that have done some fabrication in aluminum or stainless?

Anytime I need anything fabricated out of any metal, I go to Mann's Welding:

http://www.mannswelding.com/

Tim can build anything you need.

Ha, I've dealt with Tim before-I should have thought of them.

No kidding? Yeah, he's great. We've had them build some oddball stuff for us in the past, and always for fair prices. I bet he'd enjoy building something like a tank rack.

I have had work done at WhiteFab in Kent. They did a very nice repair on some stainless boat stanchions for me and seem to do a lot of aluminum and stainless work for the fishing industry.

Joshua Smith wrote:No kidding? Yeah, he's great. We've had them build some oddball stuff for us in the past, and always for fair prices. I bet he'd enjoy building something like a tank rack.

Yeah, they installed the hitch on my current vehicle, and did some mods to my trailer so I could fit it in the garage (cheaper than making the garage bigger).

He does geek on this stuff. My only thing is getting the boat to him, maybe I can do that Wednesday before turkey day.

Damn, they don't do stainless or aluminum, the two metals I was thinking of. Tim gave me a couple other options.

McVay's welding in Bothell, they are certified Marine welders (Whatever that means) ask for Rocketman.

That's a good one as well, thanks Matt.

Any welder named "Rocketman" is ok in my book!

http://www.ballardsheetmetal.com/

My buddy's company. Over 100 years of marine supply fabrication!

dsteding wrote:I'm going to add some tank racks to my RIB, anyone deal with people locally that have done some fabrication in aluminum or stainless?

Can't help you there sorry. Have you considered using PVC pipe and fittings to construct your own? Works well for me.

Dang.....I can't believe I didn't think of them. Of course. I use them for Stainless fabrication all the time, but it's usually for stuff like range hoods; I guess that's why it didn't occur to me.

scottsax wrote:http://www.ballardsheetmetal.com/

My buddy's company. Over 100 years of marine supply fabrication!

Joshua Smith wrote:Dang.....I can't believe I didn't think of them. Of course. I use them for Stainless fabrication all the time, but it's usually for stuff like range hoods; I guess that's why it didn't occur to me.

scottsax wrote:http://www.ballardsheetmetal.com/

My buddy's company. Over 100 years of marine supply fabrication!

I chatted with them, seem like great people to work with. But, I found a good fabricator up in Everett that I'm going with.

whatevah wrote:

dsteding wrote:I'm going to add some tank racks to my RIB, anyone deal with people locally that have done some fabrication in aluminum or stainless?

Can't help you there sorry. Have you considered using PVC pipe and fittings to construct your own? Works well for me.

No, PVC would last ten minutes. This is for storing tanks (including doubles) upright off the floor of the boat-it has to be pretty damn strong to take a beating. Good thought though.

I'm going with 3/8 inch aluminum plate, 1 5/8 inch aluminum tubing, all welded and gusseted together.

Pictures please

dsteding wrote:

Joshua Smith wrote:Dang.....I can't believe I didn't think of them. Of course. I use them for Stainless fabrication all the time, but it's usually for stuff like range hoods; I guess that's why it didn't occur to me.

scottsax wrote:http://www.ballardsheetmetal.com/

My buddy's company. Over 100 years of marine supply fabrication!

I chatted with them, seem like great people to work with. But, I found a good fabricator up in Everett that I'm going with.

Cool. PLease let us know how it turns out; and feel free to plug for them if it's to your liking.

Joshua Smith wrote: Cool. PLease let us know how it turns out; and feel free to plug for them if it's to your liking.

Will do-should be end of next week. I'll post pics.

dsteding wrote:

whatevah wrote: Can't help you there sorry. Have you considered using PVC pipe and fittings to construct your own? Works well for me.

No, PVC would last ten minutes. This is for storing tanks (including doubles) upright off the floor of the boat-it has to be pretty damn strong to take a beating. Good thought though.

I'm going with 3/8 inch aluminum plate, 1 5/8 inch aluminum tubing, all welded and gusseted together.

Sounds pretty cool - I'd like to see photos when it's ready. FWIW, my PVC rack is showing no signs of wear after a lot more than ten minutes worth of abuse in my boat. If you use Schedule 40 or better it is plenty strong enough. I like it because it is light, quiet (no metallic cacophony from the tanks bouncing around when I'm running in rough water), and kind to the finish (and stickers) on the cylinders. The cost was under $10 and I put it together on short notice - took about 25 minutes. It spends most of its time strapped in to the boat, but it has also proven handy in the bed of my truck.

whatevah wrote:

dsteding wrote: Sounds pretty cool - I'd like to see photos when it's ready. FWIW, my PVC rack is showing no signs of wear after a lot more than ten minutes worth of abuse in my boat. If you use Schedule 40 or better it is plenty strong enough. I like it because it is light, quiet (no metallic cacophony from the tanks bouncing around when I'm running in rough water), and kind to the finish (and stickers) on the cylinders. The cost was under $10 and I put it together on short notice - took about 25 minutes. It spends most of its time strapped in to the boat, but it has also proven handy in the bed of my truck.

That looks nice, I'll post photos when I'm done.

whatevah wrote:

dsteding wrote:

whatevah wrote: Can't help you there sorry. Have you considered using PVC pipe and fittings to construct your own? Works well for me.

No, PVC would last ten minutes. This is for storing tanks (including doubles) upright off the floor of the boat-it has to be pretty damn strong to take a beating. Good thought though.

I'm going with 3/8 inch aluminum plate, 1 5/8 inch aluminum tubing, all welded and gusseted together.

Sounds pretty cool - I'd like to see photos when it's ready. FWIW, my PVC rack is showing no signs of wear after a lot more than ten minutes worth of abuse in my boat. If you use Schedule 40 or better it is plenty strong enough. I like it because it is light, quiet (no metallic cacophony from the tanks bouncing around when I'm running in rough water), and kind to the finish (and stickers) on the cylinders. The cost was under $10 and I put it together on short notice - took about 25 minutes. It spends most of its time strapped in to the boat, but it has also proven handy in the bed of my truck.

10 bucks? where do you buy your supplies, my drysuit hanger cost about 35

Maverick wrote: 10 bucks? where do you buy your supplies, my drysuit hanger cost about 35

The local plumbing supply place. I probably had some of the 90s already. You must have some kind of amazing drysuit hanger - would like to see a photo if you have one. My drysuit hanger is basically a small "E" made out of PVC, with a hook to attach it to the ceiling - the boots of my suit wedge into the "E" and then it hangs upside down in my garage. I think that probably cost less than $5.

Yeah mine is a pain to take the suit off of but works great.

Update:

Rack is done and in the boat. Worked great yesterday, four tanks up front, and probably enough room for a couple AL40s. I worked with Duralum in Everett, Kim, the main contact there, was a great guy to deal with:

http://www.duralummfg.com/Welcome.html

I'll post pics when I have them. Thanks to Richard for helping install, we had to cut some HDPE feet for it that seem to be working fine and do some other finessing in terms of getting it in place, but it went well.

Okay, as promised, some pics. The rack works great, can hold four single tanks (two rigs and two extra tanks) or two sets of doubles and a couple deco bottles.