Jerry, did you decide to go with a removable trailer swivel jack? Or an A-Frame style jack? I think you may have mentioned it somewhere in this thread, but I couldn't find it. While the A-Frame jack is what I really want, I'm questioning whether or not it'll really limit my offroad clearance because of the way it hangs down. So, what are you doing about that?
camping trailer build...
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Is Glen's welder the Weldpak 100 ?
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Jim, I'm using the pipe-mount style jacks, so they are both swivel and removable. A-frame mount was never an option, it'd be stupid spending this money on a custom trailer with 20" of clearance and then drop in a jack. Lol One on the tongue that I'll put a caster on (currently just a flat piece) and two on the back for extra stability when the tent is open. Those will stay in the trailer until I need them.
Keith, yeah the 100.
Ed, thanks for the advice, I'll mainly just use home depot for convenience... Well if I need to. They're open a lot later than Fazzios. I've got a variety of steel in my garage, angle, box, sheet, etc with a mix of thicknesses. I'm confident that I can do a decent job. But, if I don't post photos of the welds, you'll know why.
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Anybody think that I can get the trailer through inspection without fenders? I can't find any that'll be big enough to cover the tires... probably 4-6" uncovered. I'll have to make them, but that'll take some planning once everything else is finished.The metal liquidators in New Port have new trailer fenders you can buy. As you walk into the warehouse turn left, walk all the way back to the wall and look up.
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oh, I didn't know about that... I'll take a tape measure with me when I go this afternoon to pick up the steel order. I didn't even know you could go into the warehouse, I just went to the office. I'll ask them about it when I'm there. thanks
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Not sure how recent your last visit was John, but most of the fenders tools etc. are inside the office area now. They have done away with a lot of the surplus stuff too.
Jerry, If you didn't do so,walk around that entire inside office area., it goes back pretty far. There are tons of trailer parts, fenders, chains receivers, welding supply stuff, d-rings and bullk bolts out the ass. You can also walk through the warehouse and pick what you need. If you walk straight in the big roll up door and head to the back left corner there are lots of short sections of angle, flat stock, box etc...that's usually the first place I look for small projects. If you don't see something definately ask, they can have it brought down from the Jersey location within A day or two. If you are ever near the jersey location make sure you stop. That place is love end all be all of hardware store/surplus/steel supply houses. It makes this place look small....It's friggin awesome! -
I browsed a little but not much. Did notice the nice prices on bulk fasteners, though. A lot cheaper than buying at True Value. I'll try to spend more time today
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Not sure how recent your last visit was John, but most of the fenders tools etc. are inside the office area now. They have done away with a lot of the surplus stuff too.
Jerry, If you didn't do so,walk around that entire inside office area., it goes back pretty far. There are tons of trailer parts, fenders, chains receivers, welding supply stuff, d-rings and bullk bolts out the ass. You can also walk through the warehouse and pick what you need. If you walk straight in the big roll up door and head to the back left corner there are lots of short sections of angle, flat stock, box etc...that's usually the first place I look for small projects. If you don't see something definately ask, they can have it brought down from the Jersey location within A day or two. If you are ever near the jersey location make sure you stop. That place is love end all be all of hardware store/surplus/steel supply houses. It makes this place look small....It's friggin awesome!Also, when you go in the warehouse, and go straight through and out the opposite roll big garage door, they have a few bins of scrap pieces, good place to get smaller pieces of diamond plate and other stuff.. These bits will be super cheap
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so, yeah... 2x3 will be overkill. lol I found the fenders, back in aisle 10. They have a 12" wide fender but it's only 32" long and I want to have room for a 35" tire... we'll see.What thickness wall did you end up with?
These are a bit longer. Keep in mind also it will sit higher than the horizontal centerline of the axle to allow for upper movement of the axle so it won't actually have to be as long as the tire is in diameter.
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And if it sits too high, you can always hang a piece of rubber off the backside to act as a mud flap.
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Post some pics!
I took a welding course at Sussex Vo-Tech a long time ago.
The instructor gave us a 2" thick text book on welding and told us to take it home and read it in the bathroom, because "You can't learn to weld reading a book".
Practice vertical welds also, because you won't be able to weld it all flat.
And practice joining a tubing end to the side of another tube. The cut end will tend to burn thru much faster than the straight side.
You will probably have to run multiple passes when welding to the 1/4" stuff. At least I would with the welder you are using.
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And if you look at the backside of the piece and it changed color where you welded, you know you got good heat.
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Vertical, dragging up. Couldn't see where I was at the top.
Mix of wire speeds and movement speeds... The horrible ones were with too low settings.
The smooth ones were growing red over to the edge of the plate.
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You are probably going to want to run that at close to maximum.
Keep in mind that machine only has a 20% duty cycle at max output.
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Two more horizontal... Getting dark in the garage now (east facing) so I'm gonna stop and eat dinner. Tomorrow I'll set up the saw and cut some of the flat bar to practice butt and flared welds. And if I feel confident enough, start cutting the frame lengths and do some real welding.
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Jerry, when assembling my frame and after making some ugly welds, I figured out that it's best for me to spend a few extra minutes to manipulate the frame so that I'm welding on a horizontal (or near horizontal) surface. For rookies like me it helps, but for the seasoned pros vertical welding -- and maybe even inverted welding -- is no big deal. I did notice my horizontal welds tend to look better than my vertical ones. FWIW, I am enjoying welding with gas. Flux core can kiss my grits.
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Jerry, when assembling my frame and after making some ugly welds, I figured out that it's best for me to spend a few extra minutes to manipulate the frame so that I'm welding on a horizontal (or near horizontal) surface. For rookies like me it helps, but for the seasoned pros vertical welding -- and maybe even inverted welding -- is no big deal. I did notice my horizontal welds tend to look better than my vertical ones. FWIW, I am enjoying welding with gas. Flux core can kiss my grits.Anything other than flat horizontal welding is considered "out of position" welding and is more difficult for anyone. And vertical up while much more difficult than verticle down is preferred.
And x2 on Mig vs flux core. The only time I would choose flux would be outside where it was too windy to use mig. And truthfully, I would probably just grab the stick welder for that.
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