welding a tower?

[mosh706]

Water got in my tower and it froze and split. Can I weld the tower without taking it of the boat? Its a 2000 pan. Im just worried about frying the computer.

[rcazwillis]

I would worry more about gel coat, vinyl, and carpet. You can isolate the electronics

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[s_kelley2000]

Was this an FCT/NDT tower? If so I wonder if I should drill some weep holes in mine to prevent this.

I agree with the above post that I would be more worried about gel, vinyl and carpet getting damaged by the heat or an errant spark. I don't think you need to worry about frying the computer. If you have speaker/light wires running through the tower near where you will weld then you may want to remove those to prevent them from melting. If it were me I would probably remove the tower to be safe. It shouldn't be too hard to remove and then reinstall if you have an extra set of hands.

[Paxdad]

Water got in my tower and it froze and split. Can I weld the tower without taking it of the boat? Its a 2000 pan. Im just worried about frying the computer.

Some additional information would be helpful:
Material that the tower is made of: aluminum or stainless steel?
Where is crack located in relation to the foot?
Are there speaker or light wires inside the tower where weld is required?
Photo of the crack would be a benefit.

[mosh706]

Its aluminum. The crack is by the cross bar on a fct1 tower. Tig weldin does not produce sparks. Im a welder so its not the issue I just wanted to know if any of the grounds in the boat went to the tower. I dont wanna take it off cause its a pain to pull the speaker and light wires out.

[Paxdad]

Its aluminum. The crack is by the cross bar on a fct1 tower. Tig weldin does not produce sparks. Im a welder so its not the issue I just wanted to know if any of the grounds in the boat went to the tower. I dont wanna take it off cause its a pain to pull the speaker and light wires out.

Typically there should not be anything grounded to the tower. And for the life of me I cant imagine why anyone would ground anything to it. You must have or have access to a good AC machine since it is aluminum. I have a Miller Econotig 200 and love it for small aluminum stuff. I also have a Thermal Arc GT190 Stick/ tig for everything else.

[mosh706]

Im not sure what the model is. I work for a large highway construction company and we build alot of are own trucks. the machine will do everything except carpon arc and plasma cut its awesome to have access to. I didnt think the tower would have a ground on it but I figured I would ask.

[dudebro]

Just put your welder ground as close as you can to where you are welding and you'll be fine. For sparks you won't have any with TIG welding. Just make sure you clean the aluminum really well other wise it won't weld worth a s***

[AirTool]

Can you post a photo of said crack?

[mosh706]

The boat is in storage i wont be near it until sunday but I will as soon as possible.

[DanielC]

Use the existing speaker, or light wires to pull a piece of steel wire into the tower. Weld away. When done, use the steel wire to pull the light and speakers wires back into the tower.

[tommer12]

Here is my pickle off my 2005 SANTE. My guess the tower swayed pretty hard at some point for it pull like that. I guess I need to pull the lower tower mount off and have it welded.

[AirTool]

^^^^I would try to get a new base/pad and get it welded on.

[tommer12]

Finally got around to taking the rear leg off my tower. Brought it into a guy that does aluminum welding and he did an awesome job straighting the plate, then welding the fractures top and bottom. I forget the type of weld that came from factory, but he said the type of weld he put on is stronger. He said cutting the plate off and doing it again would be very hard to match the height, angle, etc.

Getting the leg off/on take some time and you need an extra set of hands to hold the screws while someone ratchets the nuts off the bases underneath. Since I was doing this work, I checked all the bolts on the port side tower leg and sure enough, the front leg bolts were fairly loose! you could not tell just by looking at it from the deck, but if I were you and have a similar tower, check all your bolts. Even though they have lock-nuts on it, they bolts were loose. Crazy.