Assembling boats - soldering

 

My intention regarding the assembling of the bits for my 100 boats was to get a welder to spot weld the  pieces together. The welder asked me why I wouldn't just solder them together myself and save the expense.

There were three reasons for my not doing this task. First, I only have the use of one eye and am often fearful about flames and spitting metal - crazy when you think of all the other things I do - so a pair of safety glasses dealt with that as they do in all my work. Secondly, I did not have a small gas soldering iron - dealt with by Fiona and I purchasing the small unit below. The third reason - lack of skill - to be dealt with by following the instructions on the packet; doing a few practice runs; and dredging up knowledge from my high school days and a jewellery workshop I did.

Anyway as you can see from the opening photo I have assembled 20 boats.  

A few process photos follow including a very busy work bench.  After soldering a few of the boats I began to work out techniques that would make life easier for me including cutting grooves into the sail and hull so I could lock the pieces together for soldering; holding the pieces at different angles in the vice; and shaping small lengths of solder into u shapes so that they stayed in place as I applied the flame to the metal.

I now need to form another 80 hulls and progressively solder the pieces together over the next couple of months. My soldering is not as good as the professional welder; but now I can say the whole of each boat is my work. I need to be able to transport100 of the boats to Scotland in early August for the exhibition in September.