On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:55:44 -0700, Bob La Londe wrote:

I need a short piece of 1" ID tube for the drain on an aluminum boat I
recently repaired. I've started realizing that may not be so easy to
find. I figured for a scrap piece Ebay would be my friend, but no such
luck. Then I checked Speedy Metals and Discount Steel on-line. Still
no luck. There is plenty of 6061 options available, but no 5052. I'm
about at that point where I am thinking I may have to make a piece of
tube.

It doesn't need to be accurate to tenths, but it does need to be pretty
close to 1" when finished. The rubber expansion plug can make up for
quite a lot of variation though.

Where I am running into issues is how to actually go about making a tube
that small, that I can weld. I can weld down to .08 pretty fair with my
Miller 212, but that's not really easy to form. Also, the only .080 I
have are the scraps I removed from the boat before cutting in my patches
and welding them. The original drain tube was crushed when the boat was
damaged. I've got plenty of .1 and .125 scraps laying around.

Any suggestions?

Are there any alloys that are compatible that will work instead (5083 is
available from McMaster, but I have no clue how easy it'd be to weld to
5052, or how long it'd last in the water if you did)?

Can you make a bolt-in or screw-in drain tube from 5083? Or plastic?
Possibly with a gasket that prevents galvanic contact? If necessary you
could weld in a reinforcement plate where the tube bolts on.

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