Choosing your welding wire:
Plate to plate – When choosing your welding wire the correct filler is 5556 or 5183 for 5083 marine grade aluminium, the 5183 is recommended. Filler wire 5356 should not be used as it does not match the strength of 5083 plate. If you are welding together 5052 grade aluminium plate the correct filler wire to used is 5356, you may use 5183 filler wire between both plates.
Plate to extrusion – Joining your 5083 or 5052 grade plate to a 6XXX extrusion alloy, such as 6061T6, the recommended filler alloys are 5356 or 5554. There is no advantage in using the higher strength fillers 5183 or 5556 in this application, but you may if you wish.
Welding process:
When you are starting to weld out your new CNC Marine kit, you will notice some weld markings scribed onto the plate. These weld markings are there to show you the stitch pattern for the structural components of the vessel. These stitch patterns are determined by Australian Standard AS1665 – Welding of Aluminium Structures.
NOTE: It is important to follow the assembly drawings provided with the kits and place as much structure and bracing into the build as you can before completely welding out the components. When welding out areas such as stringers and girders make sure you stagger the welding and avoid welding large areas at once, resulting in overheating the aluminium in that area. This will cause the plate to deflect and can be avoided by welding to a point in one area and then transferring to another component to weld out there until the structure cools enough to start welding again.
Plate pressing:
CNC Marine kits utilise pressed parts to give you a professional finish and reduce the amount of time behind the welder when putting together your new boat. The pressed components have an internal radius of 12.5 mm (or 1/2”) so it is important when choosing your plate presser to make sure they can press marine grade alloy with a 25mm dia. Press as knife edge bending may result in cracks along the bend line.
Car Toppers:
Please note that for car toppers the 5052 plate is to be pressed at the thickness of the plate.