Skeg Repair - Perfect

[mercedes522]

When I hauled my 30 Sea Ray with I/O's - in gear I hit a rock at the ramp -
very slight bend in skeg - 3"x4" piece of skeg broke off.
Went to a metal shop, got a piece of 4"x5"x3/16" aluminum - (free scrap) -
held it alongside & against the skeg & marked the outline of breakoff -
cut it out - mixed up "[DEVCON" - TITANIUM EPOXY - 'Lightly' glued in the cutout piece of aluminum in place with a 'squeegy' with Devcon to let dry overnight.
Next day, it was hardened - then filled in the voids with DEVCON & smoothed it out with a 3" brush with thinners on it to a smooth finish (leaving a slight buildup" -next day, hardened - gently sanded it with a sander and sprayed it with outboard primer & paint. You cannot believe how beautiful and perfect it turned out for an amature do do it and it's strength is second to NONE.
A small fortune saved - AND, and no removal of lower drive unit.

 

[Lakester]

Re: Skeg Repair - Perfect

hello,

can u post any pix? where did u get the T epoxy?

regards

lakester

 

[achris]

Re: Skeg Repair - Perfect

I hope you use the same grade ali as the leg, otherwise you have just set up a galvanic corrosion cell. Either the leg metal will be more 'noble' and the insert will be eaten up like an anode or the insert is more noble and the leg will act as an anode for it. If your boat is moored (which I suspect being 30 ft) then make sure the active cathodic protection is check when you put it back in the water.

Chris.......

 

[j_martin]

Re: Skeg Repair - Perfect

You glued on a piece of metal with a material that has about 1/10th the strength, not to mention different thermal characteristics, etc.

Let us know how the repair looks after the first time you "touch" the bottom with it.

Good news is that a torch and a stainless wire brush will clean the epoxy out of the way so a proper weld can be made.

John

 

[wilde1j]

Re: Skeg Repair - Perfect

How long do you think that piece will stay there if you hit something again? It's there solely to protect the prop. You should have had the aluminum welded (not glued).

 

[MercFan]

Re: Skeg Repair - Perfect

Would the grade of aluminium really matter that much? Won't a zinc trim tab override a slight difference in aluminium grades? Reason I ask is because you don't get aluminium billet and cast aluminium in the same grades. Closest you can get will be a 6000 series aluminium billet, which is weldable. If you go for a 7000 series billet it is not weldable, too much copper. I believe the 6000 series should be pretty damned close to the cast grade used by merc, as they weld perfectly together using the same tig welding rod.

 

[achris]

Re: Skeg Repair - Perfect

The grade matters because it's closer to the metal that you don't want to disappear than the anode, significantly closer. The variation will be in the galvanic value of the metal. It doesn't have to be much, any difference in the galvanic value and you have a corrosion cell.

Chris......