Looking for an underwater welder..

[Desertcarper]

Hi there. I have a small lake in Northern France and have need of a welder with water skills. Essentially the shaft and plate which are the plug for my lake have separated and I cannot operate water exchange, the depth of the issue is about 4 meters and the water is fresh and reasonably warm and clear to work within.

I have a very nice onsite cottage and we are very close to lots of places to visit so thinking if someone wants a free holiday and travel covered for what might be a reasonably quick and straight forward job.

Forgive me if I shouldn't be posting this hear or please feel free to make any suggestions of where to ask.

Many thanks for reading.

Simon

 

[Jim Davey]

Try Seatech Commercial Diving in Southampton.

 

[AndersK]

Dont know if regulations is the same all over EU but here all underwater work must be carried out by a diver certified for it. Also air supply must come from surface, diving helmet and so on. This means a minimum 2 man work plus lots of heavy equipment.

 

[Desertcarper]

Thank you guys for your replies. Much appreciated.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I will try and find the details of the guy who taught me to weld, he does diver and underwater welder training and is always up for a good deal

 

[awemawson]

Can a conventional diver not bring the pieces up to the surface for them to be welded in fresh air - be hugely cheaper.

Is it a sliding sluice gate or what ?

 

[owas]

might be a reasonably quick and straight forward job.

I can imagine underwater welding to be neither of those

 

[Bill Edwards]

Is there no way for a diver to pry open the drain to allow the water out to weld it as normal? Taking precautions not to get sucked through of course.
Or perhaps drill and tap a couple of holes with which a chain could be attached which could be pulled from the surface, again making the welding part easy?

 

[Desertcarper]

Thanks all for the replies again. The water pressure is huge as its a 5 acre lake so millions of gallons held under pressure. The plate itself we think is held in some sort of framework so has limited movement to either be open or closed so I can't attach anything to bring it to the surface. I've managed to bring the shaft to within 30cms of the surface so was planning to get my go pro and take some shots of what is left on the end of the shaft to try and figure out the break and if in fact if can be welded back again. Cheers,

 

[Bill Edwards]

I'm not necessarily talking about bringing the bits to the surface but emptying it then welding it in situ where it wouldn't be underwater and could be done by an ordinary welder.

 

[HMB]

Thanks all for the replies again. The water pressure is huge as its a 5 acre lake so millions of gallons held under pressure. The plate itself we think is held in some sort of framework so has limited movement to either be open or closed so I can't attach anything to bring it to the surface. I've managed to bring the shaft to within 30cms of the surface so was planning to get my go pro and take some shots of what is left on the end of the shaft to try and figure out the break and if in fact if can be welded back again. Cheers,

Not quite so. Volume doesn't decide what the pressure is. Depth does. If it's at 4 metres it will be roughly 1.4 bar pressure. .4 more than on the surface. And yes I dive

 

[awemawson]

Coffer dam round the outlet ie interlocking temporary piling. Pump water out of coffer dam. Pull out the old, and install something new that has a planned maintenance strategy.

Brunel would have had it done before his breakfast

 

[Woody.v8]

 

[I'm getting on a bit]

Brunel would have had it done before his breakfast

Ahh the good old days before h&s

 

[addjunkie]

Piling into mud is easy enough, if you have the big digger, with the right hammer thing on the arm, was watching piling the other day for a job im involved in down to 6 m, getting it water tight enough might be the hard bit, or getting the digger to it if its mot at the edge. Id suggest you get a diver or your go pro, and get pictures.

Does this gate lift or turn? Lift attach an air bag! Turn divers and stillsons?

Under water commercial welding isnt cheap. Most divers probably dont own the kit either, unless you can find a little micky mouse type firm who fix old barges and dry docks and stuff.

 

[awemawson]

Your problem really is that you don't know what it consists of, and any diver cannot accurately be instructed what to do. You might find, having located your expensive diver, that just welding it back isn't the answer. It needs inspecting properly and a plan formulating.

I assume this is a fishing lake? Surely there must be locals who've previously been involved who know what's down there ?

 

[HMB]

Or pay a diver to do a survey, video etc and work your plan out from that

 

[skotl]

Dont know if regulations is the same all over EU but here all underwater work must be carried out by a diver certified for it. Also air supply must come from surface, diving helmet and so on. This means a minimum 2 man work plus lots of heavy equipment.

Seconded. My mate did this before he moved to sat-diving.
His issue with the low-level work like this was several days of assessment, H&S write-up, risk mitigation reports, then set up of the boat (even 2m from shore) and rigging, all for 5 minutes of work.

I doubt this will be cheap (to do properly).

 

[Shox Dr]

Seconded. My mate did this before he moved to sat-diving.
His issue with the low-level work like this was several days of assessment, H&S write-up, risk mitigation reports, then set up of the boat (even 2m from shore) and rigging, all for 5 minutes of work.

I doubt this will be cheap (to do properly).

A mate of mine is a bank manager for what used to be British Waterways, he's managed many lock gate refurb's requiring divers, he said it would be far from cheap nor quick

 

[Desertcarper]

Thanks to everyone for their replies and for educating my naive understanding of the matter. Going to be a lot tougher than I hoped so I think it's a diver to first survey the issue and see if there are alternative solutions like some have suggested. Again, many thanks.