Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

I've always thought it would be sharp to curve the platform to follow the rubrail. Probably talking more than $1,500 then.

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

Famous last words ... ! :D :D

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

It`s always a ''buddy''. :D

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

go to a exhaust shop, talk to them about the "stainless" pipe they use for exhaust. Welds like steel but has very stailess properties. A friend of mine had the pipe 1 1/2 bent at a shop for around 85.00 and then went to a welder and had a nice platform made for around 250.00. An exhaust shop can make anything you want out of pipe they do it all day long...

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

I'd think twice about stainless pipe. Weld up enough of it to make a swim platform, and it's going to be a heavy SOB. An aluminum one is a handful to install, so a stainless one would be real tough.

Extreme Marine's are all aluminum, so are most of the other brands.

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

the exhaust tube he used wasn't heavy, I could pick the whole platform up myself....

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

IMHO,
There is a huge difference between having a welder (or even running one) and being a fabricator. this is a nice performance boat right? Do you want something to match or do you want something that looks like a ranch hand bumper? (and ranch hand is actually well made, just crude in design)

Think about resale- is the next owner going to drool over the work of art where you saved $600?

Factor in "x" feet of aluminum round and oval tubing, lots of filler wire, waterjet cut plate, jigging it square, parallel bars on the same plane etc, time with a tig welder (assuming your buddy has a tig welder and the talent to weld Aluminum with it.) non skid, powdercoat + transportation, your time, knowing it'll fit right the first time and the Pro's are offering a reasonable price.

If it comes out tweaked after all your hardwork now you have an expensive lesson to ad to the cost of your pro fabbed platform (which you cig is worthy of)

just my .o2

Good luck

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

$1,499.00 is hundred less than what I paid for having a new one made for my 28 Cigarette. Are you getting the new rounded style or square?
It's amazing how much the new style changes the look of the boat.

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

Sorry, meant to say "hundreds" less.

Re: home made swimplatform? is it worth doing.
 

I was looking at the square kind. Didn't know there was round until today. But I'm leaning towards extreme marine.