# Suywp P3a



## RandyM

Well, it was time to do a bolt bin up-grade. The one I had was a yellow commercial oversize unit that served its purpose very well. But, with Craig's List you can now do some serious organizing. I found this 100 drawer unit with dividers and couldn't pass up the deal. I decided it couldn't sit on the floor and now was an opportunity to organize my threaded rod supply as well. I made a three bin rack as part of the stand. I think it turned out pretty well. Here is my starting and ending pics of the fun.

Let's see your creations.


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## chips&more

This is something I did a while ago, but this site has not seen it. This is a welding and also wood project I did. All the metal and wood work for the stairs took me 6 months from start to finish. Not pictured is another 50 feet or so of railing. The railing is bent up metal, a little hammering, some store bought ornamental elements and then it’s all wire welded together. The curves in the wooden hand railing are strips of glued together white oak. The curves where glued in fixtures in place on the steps of the stairs. Used a slow dry glue and wire ties for the clamps. I tried regular clamps but the wire ties worked better. It took three tries to get that ~260° turn done right. And all the sections of hand railing are finger joint assembled together. There are no simple wood butt joints in this picture or anywhere in the house. I like to see the natural grain of the wood, so no paint anywhere. And because of the clear finish on all the wood, its joints must be as tight as possible (can’t use a filler). So, no simple butt joints and no cross nailing anywhere, they must be tight and strong. I did the hard wood floors with feature strip and all of the molding in the house too.  Even made the form cutters for the moldings from tool steel.
	

		
			
		

		
	

View attachment 79808


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## RandyM

WOW! Things are gettng really artsy. Very nicely done.


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## Stonebriar

Marco Bernardini said:


> Rick, you gate seems pretty large! (other than nice, of course!)
> How do you prevent it from bending?
> The usual wheel at the end or something more sophisticate?




The gate post is  a 5" square 1/4 thick. The hole for the gate post is also part of that column base so it is held by a 3 1/2ft deep X 3'x3' hole full of concrete. The gate is 14' wide. I calculated the gate weight but I don't remember what is was now. I use a thicker gauge for the bottom to stiffen it. No sagging.

Randy i'll get some close ups but I don't know if much detail of the welds will show since they are powder coated.

Rick


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## John Hasler

Stonebriar said:


> The gate post is  a 5" square 1/4 thick. The hole for the gate post is also part of that column base so it is held by a 3 1/2ft deep X 3'x3' hole full of concrete. The gate is 14' wide. I calculated the gate weight but I don't remember what is was now. I use a thicker gauge for the bottom to stiffen it. No sagging.
> 
> Rick



Without some sort of support it will eventually sag.  A wheel would ruin the look and should not be necessary anyway, but large gates should always be designed so that they are not hanging on the hinges when fullly open or closed.


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## RandyM

Stonebriar said:


> Randy i'll get some close ups but I don't know if much detail of the welds will show since they are powder coated.
> 
> Rick



No need to get too detailed, just curious on joints and the center decoration. Powder coating is the way to go, good choice.


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## Firestopper

Finishing up a 14K dump trailer. The box/fenders are a retrofit. The frame is 6" channel welded with a 350P .035 at 425IPM. 90/10 shielding gas.


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## Cholmes

Great looking trailer firestopper.
Here is one we rebuilt this year. It's a 14k tilt bed for moving forklift and other equipment. Started with a trailer that was going to be junked because of a bent tongue. We fabbed a new tongue and it just snowballed from there. We got rid of the old 5 spoke wheels and hubs and went to 8 lug hubs, putting brakes on both axles, pipe fenders, flattened the beaver tail to about 10 degrees, mounted a 12k electric winch and battery box, chain & binder box and new stubby ramps. All LED lights. Now we are just waiting on the Oak timbers for the bed to get here from the sawmill.


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## Firestopper

Nice work Cholmes,
I could not get the pictures to open, but the from the thumb nails, the trailer looks very nice.


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## Firestopper

Paint done, also got the onboard status/battery charger, lights, and warning stickers installed. Also mounted a flap access for the power cord to charger done.


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## Firestopper

This dump trailer project is done.


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## FOMOGO

Nice job on the trailer, and I like the rig for moving it around with the fork lift too. Looks like really nice shop. Have you given a tour here yet? Mike


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## RJSakowski

My premier welding project has to be a boat trailer built from the ground up in the 1980's.  It was designed to carry an 18' Great Lakes fishing boat.  It features a 6" dropped axle, hydraulic Surge disc brakes with an automatic bypass valve for reversing.  a combination of roller and bunks for support, and a streamlined frame.

The dropped axle was made using salvaged Pontiac spindles (the wheels were the same as my S10 of the time, eliminating the need for a separate spare).  An adapter plate was made for each wheel assembly and welded as well as bolted to the assembly.  Alignment prior to weld-up was done using a then new digital level.  Leaf spring suspension was used.

A combination of roller support and bunk support was used in the design.  Rollers were implemented under the keel to facilitate loading and unloading the boat.  The rear rollers are mounted on a pivoting mechanism, controlled by a separate winch, to drop out of the way and transfer the load to the bunks.  To permit the use of the dropped axle, a removable cross bar, held in place by pins, was used. The over width clearance lights were mounted to this bar as well.  Fenders were purchased from Northern Tool.  Re-enforcing diamond plate decks were welded aft of the wheels.

The frame was designed on quadrille ruled paper (no CAD back then) and the curve plotted out with offsets from a reference line every foot or so.  These curves were then  chalked on the shop floor using a thin strip of flat bar as a French curve. The major build occurred at the welding shop of a close friend and fishing buddy.  The main frame was built from 3" structural channel.  We would make a bend in the channel and evaluate it on the layout pattern, tweaking when necessary.  Once one side was done, we used it as the pattern for making the opposite side.  4" x 1/4" square tube was used for the tongue.

A weekend of work was sufficient to get the trailer to the point where I could tow it home.  At home, I welded 3/16 x 3" flat to the 3" channel to create a box.  Cross pieces were also boxed in.  All joints were then completely welded and ground smooth.  7018 rod was used for the first pass and 7014 for a finish pass.  My buddy also had a Diesel engine driven sandblaster and four 55 gallon drums of sand and an afternoon later I had a completely bare metal frame.  The frame was primed and painted with a custom mixed implement paint to match the boat trim.

The overall project was a success.  Doing it over, I wouldn't have gone with the six inch drop.  The back end can bottom out going in and out of driveways.  A four inch drop would have been sufficient. I compensated somewhat by modifying the spring shackles. Going to a larger tire would help as well.  With the Surge disk  brakes and low slung profile, it pulls like a dream.  No wind resistance nor any push from the trailer when braking.  Even behind my old S10, you could easily forget that it was there.

I apologize for the less than ideal picture quality.  They are retakes from old pre-digital photos.  The two close-ups show the Surge brake system.  The bypass valve is a surplus jet engine fuel valve with a rating of 1500 psi.  It is a 24 volt valve but, since the valve is never energized under load, it functions well at 12 volts.  It is tied into the vehicle backup lights so the hydraulic system is disabled whenever backing the trailer.

The boat and trailer are in dry dock now, awaiting a transom rebuild (replacing the old rotted wood core with a new fiberglassed laminate and raising the transom from 15" to 25" to accommodate a new four stroke engine and anticipated waves on the Great Lakes.




View attachment 98442


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## Firestopper

Thanks for the comments. RJsakowski, nice boat trailer. I really liked your surge brake set up.
Mike, this is the first larger project I have built in my new shop. The space I have gained is incredable from a production standpoint. 
I have not given a tour of the shop and machines. Not really sure where it goes. My old shop (six car attached garage) 25'x50' with 9' ceiling. 
The new shop is 40'x80'x14'eves. (Mueller steel building). Every thing in new shop with the exception go the Lagun CNC mill and Bendpak two post lift use to live in the old shop, a very crowded situation. Fist picture is of old shop, second is new facility a few months back. The old shop will be cleaned and re painted to house the vehicles as this garage has two 18' garage doors (drive though) providing access to the N/E  two post lift bay of the new shop.


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## Firestopper

So now that the trailer is gone, I can get back to working on the shop. I still have all the steel (inventory) on horses in the old shop as the metal rack sits in the new shop awaiting modification. With the new ceiling hight, I'm compelled to add an overhead plate rack that would be attached to the metal rack.
I keep various gauges of 4'x8' sheets for CNC plasma table work. The thickest being 1/4" and most 10 gauge. No more than ten sheets total. Keeping floor space open is paramount as I worked in a cramped shop for way too long. The fork lift is key to pulling this plate storage off. Two upright columns of 1/8" x 3"x 3" nine feet long where laid out and resting feet added using 1/4" x 3" x 8" flat strap and a gusset added. The "backbone" was added using a 2"x 3"x2.5" and trussed with 1/4" x 2" flat strap. This truss should give the columns 3 x the strength to resist flex. The metal rack sits on six HD swivel casters allowing the rack to be moved in to place as well pulling away from the wall to sweep/mop. The columns where shimmed 1/4" off the floor to facilitate rolling. The horizontal arms that will hold the sheets are 1/8" x 2" x 3" x 40 long. The same material was used for gussets. A few more pieces to be added and its ready for paint.
I encourage any input, so lets hear it.


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## Firestopper

The steel/plate rack is painted and located. Stocked with 20' sections of various solid stock, round, square tubing etc.
I had to come up with a second rack system to store the remnants to include the solid stock used for machining.
I call this the rib cage vertical storage rack.


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