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[macey666]

Hi all - first post on a great forum.

 I'm was planning a 1/12 narrowboat from wood using plans from a lad on this forum but since wondered about building the hull as an all welded steel or aluminium construction. Has anyone ever tried doing a hull like this?

Macey

[dreadnought72]

You may hit a problem with regards to the strength.

Most narrowboats have ~10mm bottoms and ~6mm sides. Scaling steel or aluminium down (by a twelfth) to as little as 0.5mm might make for a flimsy hull.

Andy

[macey666]

I figured that 0.5 would be a bit flimsy so going to try with 1 mm sheet (steel). Will be making a start in the next couple of weeks - if its of any interest I'll post a few pictures as I go.

Macey

[Proteus]

This may interest you


http://users.eastlink.ca/~jbentley/Tug2.html

Proteus

[Jonty]

  The traditional method, very popular before WW2, was to solder up the hull from tinplate. Much easier and less likely to cause distortion than welding.

[macey666]

Nice link Proteus - Thanks

Did think about tinplate but am going to have a crack at a steel hull and see how it goes

Macey