Re: Rub Rail end cap aluminum casting
Mrlassi1,
could I suggest that this would be easier to make than find?
All this shape consists of, using your photos as reference, is a pair of barely inclined plate arcs and some barely formed convex facing. This could be welded and routered to make a near exact copy from alloys that will last lots longer than castings.
I think you could make all that was needed by buying some 5086 0.187" or 0.25" thick plate, band sawing the top and bottom arcs using the pieces you have as patterns. Next, buy a 6063 pipe bend of 90-110 degrees, I don't know the arc, in the pipe size that has the same OD as the vertical front piece.
By cutting the front half of the pipe bend in the same wood working band saw that cut the two arcs of plate, and that would be easiest with a 6- 8 tooth per inch blade lubricated with Pam [the fried food pan spray], you could pretty easily cut your three parts needed to weld this hollow curved channel.
Any aluminum TIG welder can join the three parts and you can run it through a standard carbide round-over bit on a table or with a platten, again lubricating with pan spray. By rounding the weld with a bearing guided router bit, it becomes machined to a very smooth edge.
Finish by using three color variants increasingly finer grits of the 3M buffing pads, like Scotchbrite only hook and loop for a 4" grinder, and follow up with a metal polishing pad and you'd have the part better than new.
I've made plenty of welded versions of this vaguely similar types of hardware and the replacement is much more durable than the original, but then it's probably 50 times the cost as well.
Cheers,
Kevin Morin
