Pontoon houseboat construction begins.

by Larry
(Tennessee River, Alabama)

Construction and building of the bow pontoons has begun. Construction is back on track after a few setbacks (one being a bad back).

All three pontoons are built and pressure checked except front or bow (I guess you would call it in nautical terms) on 2 pontoons. Then I will be framing up the rest of the framing and putting down the floor.

It will be exciting to start putting down the floor as building pontoons has been a long process. My aluminum welding has improved considerably and I have learned some thing about how to fabricate and fit panels so the weld will hold up to a pressure check.

When you pressurized a basically rectangle it tries to go round and pulls on your welds. If you do not fabricate to cut down on the stress on the welds, they will flex and break. Can't wait to get back to work.

Thinking about starting a web site or a blog on the construction. Larry.



Reply - Answer
Well Larry, thanks again for the great picture and information on welding aluminum pontoons. Like you said, a rectangular pontoon has the tendency to go round when you pressure test them.

Interesting that there is both styles available in pontoons, rectangular and round ones, however, both require different designs and welding techniques.

As to creating a blog or website, you probably should concentrate on houseboat building for now if you want the boat to finish, because building a website takes a fair amount of work & time, trust me I know :)

I'm sure that I speak for others who are also following your posts, I am always looking forward to the next stage. Keep them coming, we love reading them...


Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their houseboat building tips and experiences. Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found at the bottom of this page.


Thanks again for sharing, IAN - from www.all-about-houseboats.com

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