Stainless Railing Exploded!

While doing some work on my 36' marine trader sundeck today I noticed that the railing has split (See pics below). I'm guessing that there was water trapped in the railing that expanded and split the railing. The boat is currently shrink wrapped in New Jersey, where we've had a bitter cold winter.

All of the railing is welded, so I'm guessing that I will need to cut out the bad section and somehow splice (How? Where to buy?) it back together or have a new piece welded in ($$??).

I'm looking any advice or comments the group might contribute. Thanks in advance!!!!

Here's the pics I hope!

When all else fails, read the instructions. Here's the pics......

Might contact some welders first. Should be able to squeeze it back together, maybe with a pair of half circle jigs and reweld the seam.

Ted

Why would anybody live in New Jersey?

Have you found the source of leakage into the pipes and drained them?

That shouldn't be too hard for a good welder to fix, but I would drill a small drain hole in that area when it's done so it doesn't happen again. Kind of odd that water would have filled that horizontal area though - your little weep channels in the stanchion bases must be plugged solid.

Wouldn't saturated core suffer a similar fate in freezing weather?

sunchaser said:

Wouldn't saturated core suffer a similar fate in freezing weather?

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I'm not sure what you mean by saturated core -- in hollow stainless pipe rails?

Believed sunchaser was referring to cores in fiberglass hulls/decks.

Oh sorry, of course, I didn't read the previous post carefully. Thx.

A welder that installs or repairs SS counter tops in commercial kitchens can tig weld that or replace that section of pipe and polish the seam to the point you will never see it. They weld SS counter tops all the time and polish the welds. You have probably seen some and never realized it. Small tig welders are very portable, use 110 volt AC, and are not that expensive. If you are handy, go on U-tube and check out a cpl videos. Check your local pawn shop for a portable Tig. Get a scrap piece of SS and some SS rods and practice a little first. I find that I can do most things myself and are often more satisfied with the end results. I agree you need to find the place the water is getting into the tubing and repair it or make a cpl small drain holes to let it out.

Or just pinch the pipe back to its original shape and polish it if there are jaggers. It'll let the water out next time and you won't see it anyway. Use wood scraps/strips and a c-clamp.

Xsbank said:

Or just pinch the pipe back to its original shape and polish it if there are jaggers. It'll let the water out next time and you won't see it anyway. Use wood scraps/strips and a c-clamp.

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Odds are if you manage a good compression you'll not need to weld it.
It's on the bottom , if you really want to fill the hole , throw some JB weld in it. The magic to this repair is really how good you are at reshaping the tube. Or I could send one of my tig welders to the boat and take care of it, but I suspect the price will just about kill you.

I had a rail do this too. Also on a nearly horizontal section. Confusing, but I'm going to try the c-clamp bending technique and jb weld solution and see how that goes. Thanks for the tips ALL.

Xsbank said:

Or just pinch the pipe back to its original shape and polish it if there are jaggers. It'll let the water out next time and you won't see it anyway. Use wood scraps/strips and a c-clamp.

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I would advise welding it up versus leaving that crack as is; with the vibration in the rail underway, however minimal, and thermal contraction and expansion of the metal the crack will likely propagate and grow. If you choose to not weld it I would drill a hole slightly larger than the width of the crack at each extreme to reduce stress concentration and the likelyhood of propagation of the crack. JMO

windmill29130 said:

Why would anybody live in New Jersey?

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I used to live there too much traffic on the High Way to get out.

I have removed quite a bad kink in a rail using a block or oak, drilled across the grain, then sawn in 1/2, to make a form. I had to use heat from a propane torch the quickly clamp with several hefty c clamps. The heaping turned the stainless blue, but it polished right back up.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I decided to start with XSBANK suggestion of using clamps to pull the seam back together. It worked!!

It took a lot of repositioning of the clamp to slowly move things back to the original shape. I had to use lots of pressure on the clamps.

I'm going to use MBEVINS suggestion and put some jel-weld on the seam after it's polished. I'll also drill a couple of holes that RADION suggested.

I'll keep an eye on it and if it starts to get worse I'll have it welded properly, but for now it's a cheap fix!

I now need to polish the seam. Any suggestions on the best method? Grind? File? Sand?

Thanks Again!

Greetings,
Mr. 1. What you DON'T want to do is initiate your polishing with an abrasive (file,sandpaper,grinder) that is too aggressive initially. If you put any deep scratches in the SS it will take forever to remove them if you can at all. I recently "polished" all 85' of SS rub rail on our vessel using a die grinder and a 3M Scotchbrite (Scrulox) pad.

One has to use a light touch to avoid too many swirl marks. I think you may achieve acceptable results if you use something like this in an electric drill if you don't have a die grinder...

What RTF said. For SS fabrication/repair/polishing, I use 3M "Roloc" or "Hook & Loop" disks. They come in different diameters and grades of coarseness. Brown is course, maroon is medium, blue is very fine and there are other disks that will polish SS to a mirror finish.

I would use a die grinder as RTF suggested not an electric drill. The pads are rated to 20000-25000 rpms. With an electric drill you'll be there a while.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/...cts-for-metalworking-catalog-bookmark-pdf.pdf

Just remember to remove any c!eaner/polish if you apply JB Weld.

mike_nickens1 said:

I now need to polish the seam. Any suggestions on the best method? Grind? File? Sand?
Thanks Again!

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I have not used the "scotchbrite" type pads so can't speak for that approach.
If the scratching is very light (shallow) you should be able to get away with little or no hard abrasives. I have been using cotton & felt buffing wheels on a bench grinder for many yrs w/ excellent results - different compounds are used for different materials and cutting vs polishing. Here are a couple of links that cover the approach in more detail - and describe the process better than I can...


Polishing Stainless Steel and Aluminum

AN INTRODUCTION TO BUFFING & POLISHING

This site has a link to "download the complete booklet" - it shows pics of various tools, wheels, etc that the short article doesn't include.

Harbor Freight has some inexpensive buff sets w/ 1/4' shaft for use in drill, die grinder, RotoZip or Dremel type tools - higher RPM is definitely better and higher HP motors better but for small areas you can probably get away w/ drill or one of the lighter weight alternative tools.

I forget which color buffing compound is recommended for SS but you can find it online if not given in the above links... again one is better for cutting and another for final high luster polish. Last time a bought some polishing compound it was a large flea market that had some tools vendors but I'm sure you can find it online or possibly at a Sears which is where my original set of 4 compounds came from.

Good Luck - again... let us know how it works out