It Can You Cut Twice...

...If you weld in a length between cuts.

Started the day by grinding rust off of all the steel that I wanted to use today.  I am sick of grinding rust.  I think that this will be the last of the rusty steel that I will use, the remaining steel is 1x1 square tubing that will probably be cheaper in aggravation by just buying new steel to finish.

I cut the dented end off the short half and took the cutoff from the other half and lined them up to be welded.

Then welded them together and ground the welds off flat.

The steel is shiny, so it reflects light really well; it looks allot more wavy in the picture than it does in front of you, and will look fine with some paint on it.  It will also be camouflaged somewhat by the gussets that I will be putting in later.  I then cut it to the correct length and there is only 5/8" actually left of the additional piece.

After all of that I welded in the front and the side top rails, and it started to rain.  I decided to put the Jeep away before it got so wet that it dripped all over everything else on the floor, after skidding it back on on half of the garage floor.  Realized that it was time to feed the dog and determined that I had enough of this for today and called it quits.

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Another Lesson

I found out last year that when you buy a 20 foot standard length of material that you don't always get 20 feet of usable length. There is always a chance of having the ends battered and no longer square or circular. Well now I found out that when you determine what you need and the cut lengths to fit in a borrowed trailer the dude running the saw doesn't measure to carefully when he cuts the requested length.

Now I have to add a quarter of an inch to the last piece of top rail, which is conveniently located on the 1.5 inch cut off from the other half.

What a pain in the ass.

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Progress

I welded the four corner posts onto the frame; these are the main support for the sides, front as well as the tailgate.

Only managed one top rail though. The rust was a pain in the ass, I spent more time grinding on rust than anything else today.

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It's a Trailer...Sort Of

Had more time for the trailer today and was able to loosely bolt the axle on and start working on the walls.

The trailer sat all winter and got a little rusty in spots, including a few welds, in particular the inch and a half space between the spring hangers where it is impossible to reach with a grinder. I am contemplating just taking it to have sand blasted and powder coated instead of messing around with getting all of the rust off myself then priming and painting it with rattle cans. It will cost more but be far more durable, and probably cost less in aggravation.

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That's How I Roll...

It was warm today so I finally got out in the garage and welded the axle stubs to a square tube of appropriate dimensions. I installed the springs on the frame and measured several times to cut the axle tube. Now I am off to the hardware store for a 1/2 drill bit.



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Time to Get Crack-A-Lackin'

After the SNAFU of ordering and finally receiving my ordered parts, it was to cold in the garage to be messing around out there. Now that it is almost April and the temperature is tending to be above freezing it is time to get back at it.

I have been thinking about how to measure the width of the axle that i need to build, and I have decided that I should just build one end of it and space the tire appropriately away from the frame then take a few measurements on how long the tube needs to be cut to start the other side.

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I Hate Waiting...

Well, still waiting on a pair of 3500# hubs for my axle.  Called Northern Tool, and they don't know whats going on, and had to call me back.  It turns out that the hubs are still on back order, but the shipment of hubs to their central warehouse from the manufacturer that was available earlier this month (when they first said that they would be here) wasn't large enough to fill all orders, so I had to wait for the next one.  I could start fabricating the top of the trailer (box sides, tailgate, ect) but I wanted to do that after I had the axle on it because it is getting harder and harder to turn over by myself, and the additional weight of the walls would make it that much harder, particularly with the full weight weight of the trailer resting on the walls.  Well, it wouldn't be a problem if it was just resting upside down while I put the axle on, the problem would be rolling it over for the last time with the entire weight on the upper corner of the wall as it rolls.  The front would be supported, but the rear wouldn't be, and I think it could bend.  So I have decided to just follow my original plan, which means waiting for the hubs to show up.

Ugh.

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The Red Cars Win!!!

nothing new in the shop, still waiting for parts (hubs), but i did watch the Grand Prix of Italy at Monza today. Almost the best possible result. Ferrari won the race, and Lewis Hamilton (PPPTTTTTT) crashed out in the frst lap. The second Ferrari team car finished third. the only way it would have been better was if Ferrari finished 1 2 and MClaren didn't finish in the points (one of their cars finished 2nd, Hamilton (PPPTTTTTT) of course didn't finish, thus earned no championship points.

so, heres to Ferrari winning their home Grand Prix. I think I will have pasta with RED sauce tonight. Ace celebrated by putting on his red collar.

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Gussets Finished

Finished welding all of the gussets today.  I ground off the welds from the top of the frame to allow the floor of the trailer to lie flat as well as make it easier to position the corner posts of the walls square with the frame.  With them gone and the top of the frame flat, the square 2x2 tubes will lie much flatter and form a stronger weld than the irregular gaps that would be there if I balanced the tube on the welds and just filled them.

Now I am waiting on the hubs from Northern Tool.  I have the axle stubs for the axle.  I also need to get another stick of 2x2x.125 wall square tube to fab the axle.  unfortunately, I will also need to buy at least one wheel/tire combination to get the length of the axle correct with 100% certainty.  I want to keep the overhand of the axle as short as possible, which means keeping the tire as close as possible to the frame of the trailer without actually hitting it.  Typically, a space of one inch is used as the distance between the tire and frame.

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What the Hell???

Well, I had an interesting problem with the welder while doing the last gussets. The wire welded itself to the liner where it enters it inside the machine. I ground off what looked like a tack weld on the end of the liner and tried to pull out the wire from the nozzle end, but even after I got the very end loose, it wouldn't budge. There must have been another area where it was melted inside te liner. Nothing was inside the machine cabnet that could have contacted the power source connections and the liner so I don't know what happened. The guys at the welding shop don't either. I bought a new liner, installed it, and everything works as usual. Maybe it was a freak accident. In any case I now have a great wire fish (the old gun liner) for getting the trailer light wires down the frame.

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