FRUSTRATING!!!

FlyingDutchman

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Last year in October-November I took out the water tank as it had a tiny leak.
This was one h**l of a job as I had to take apart half the boat to get it out.
The aluminium had a tiny little hole causing a drip. Had the tank welded and assembled everything again.
As the boat was out of the water, it was not possible to test it.
Now it is back in again so I filled up the water tank.

DRIP DRIP DRIP.

I hope it is a connection or something like that because that would be a little easier to repair. Hate the thought of taking the tank out again!!!
 

FlyingDutchman

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Thanks, I will consider that but first I will see what the problem is. The welding looked exellent so I don't think (hope) that it is the tank itself.
Also, I noticed, that the dripping was getting less after we stopped flushing and filling the tank so I have a little hope that it is the hose connecting the filling point on deck to the tank itself.
Will give an update after the weekend though.
I sort of wanted to blow off steam!
 

Norman_E

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If you need to do the welding again, there is an amateur aluminium welding kit available for an outfit called Lumiweld. I have used it to make a big aluminium drip tray for a lathe, so I know it works. Essentially the problem with aluminium is that as soon as you cut it a skin of oxide forms on the surface, preventing a good weld. Lumiweld is a process that gets round the problem in two ways. First you clean the area to be welded with a stainless steel brush which they supply, then you heat with a blowlamp until a piece of their welding rod melts on contact. At that point you scratch through the oxide layer with a stainless wire (also supplied) to make a sound weld. The molten weldind rod lowers the melting point of the aluminium it is in contact with, and forms a true weld rather than a soldered joint. You do need to have a pretty good blowlamp as something like a water tank will conduct the heat away from the weld area quite quickly.

A search on Google just failed to find Lumiweld, which was the name when I bought it, but the same thing now appears to be called Techno-weld.
 

FlyingDutchman

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Thanks for your input!
Last weekend I took out the kitchen and the floorboard again to inspect the attachment of the filling hose and the venting hose to the tank. All was ok.
Last year November I visually inspected the tank after the welding and the people who have done the welding have pressure tested the weld. All looked OK as well.
I did find a little leak where the hose to the water tap is attatched under the kitchen sink. Maybe this leaking water has found its way to the bilge.
Anyways, the amount of water is not worrying (1 drip in 5 minutes) so I think I will keep an eye on it. Could it be condense water from the cold tank?
 

BobE

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Further to the LUMIWELD comment... I confirm that it really does work... In fact for a short time I worked as an agent for them selling to the MBike outlets.. Then I fell off... But I've used it meself to rethread a crankcase stud hole in the Laverda which has, would you believe, M9 threaded studs! ( Helicoils were not easy to get at the time for that size) and no probs if instructions followed and enough heat available..
Good Luck 'n Cheers Bob E
 
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