Opps

Welded one tongue bracket in wrong hole.

Have to cut off, reposition and reweld.

REAR SPRING MOUNTS

Notched for axle flip

Removing folding/caster mount

for weight  reduction

Clamping springs prior to unbolting not necessary.

They don't unload and go boing.

Removed locating pin. Taking out small spring.

Clean rust and scuff entire spring prior to an extra coat of paint.

Flip locating pin over. reassemble with double nut/lock washer

and Locktite.

Found this 3" x 1/4" Hard Rubber washer

in my junk drawer. Watch.

Well greased and installed should remove

slack and spring play rattle.

One leaf removed.

Locate pin reversed.

Extra paint.

Will both and weld to frame.

Not changing wheelbase. With this light weight

it shouldn't be necessary.

FLIPPING THE AXLE

Smooth weld beads so spring hanger angle iron

sets flush on frame. Thick grind wheel.

Picture here upside down:

Axle will be repositioned above spring lowering

trailer approximately 3 inches.

Mild steel cuts EZ with thin cut wheel. I 

wear googoo glasses and hearing protectors.

METAL PREP

5 STEPS METAL PREP

smooth welds

wire brush loose paint and rust

clean with lac thinner

rust sealant spray

auto primer

I've scuff sanded all parts, only have to 

prime bare metal.

Final coat will be bedliner, probably thinned

10%-15% and applied with short knap mini roller

FIRST TRIP TO WELDER

We're off to see the welder

The wonderful welder of Oz

Oh what a wiz of a welder he is

If ever a welder there was

If ever a whiz of a welder there is

The wizard of weld is one because

because....because...because

because of the wonderful welds he does

My buddy Jil helping me set up. Used the other HF

trailer as a portable jig table.

REINFORCE AXLE

Think I got some good extra strength for very weight and

effort. Got idea from Franco at tnttt.com forums.

Use die grinder with cutoff blade to remove axle pin locating

boss. Grin smooth. Found some 1/4" wall aluminum pipe

with as perfect inside diameter.. It came from an ab event setup 

company and it's the large pipe they use for those event

tents and canopies they rent. Was bent on end...got it

cheap.

Drilled and tapped three holes to take

up any future slack.

Welder will weld locating boss back on.

Takes out about 2 #s per beam.

7 beams.

clean all burrs well. Bottom one is an old

brake cylinder honing tool and 40 grit.

 Cut slow, very slow. Keep wet and cool. No smoke.

My mix: 1/3 cutting oil / 1/3 trans fluid / 1/3 20 weight

motor oil. Windex to cool the blade. If it's not

messy, you're doing it wrong.

A great carbide tipped hole saw. Sharpenable. Kwik change arbor.

NO WELD JOINT

Portable MIG welding is very expensive out

in the country. I'm limiting it's use to the

outer, structural parts of wall frames and 

the interlacing member (Non-stress) will

be this method I've devised. Took some time to set up but goes very fast in production.

Drill and counter sink holes in mainbeam. The pink

hole strattle jig made for tooling used here to center.

Countersink below surface. Note I'm using Torx

screws that are 1" longer than tubing.

Using 1/8th cutoff wheel, cut notches on opposite

side of upright. Notice stop plate to make depth from end uniform.

Clean burrs, square end and camber

bevel all four edges.

Clamp to jigging square (tooling)(I use 2" Kwik clamps), make a bunch of 

1" x 1" x 1/8th squares to act as cinch nut.

Align and tighten.

Clean joint surfaces well with lac thinner.

Heat joint with propane (cheaper). Braze
with MAPP gas (hotter) (Home depot)

Aluminum melts at 1100 degrees, braze rod

(Home Depot)at 600. Do a side and allow to cool.

 Working around all all 4 sides continuously allows

residual heat to melt aluminum. I made the insert

nut plate larger here to illustrate it coming thru.

The rest are flush fit. After cooled, remove screw, coat

threads with locktite and reinstall....tight!!

Harbor Freight 6" metal Chop Saw. 1/16 abrasive cutoff blade for cutting. 1/8th for

notching. I'm told a carbide tipped metal cutting blade in my regular 10" chop saw would cut faster and better. I'll try it. Want very square cuts.

First rough layout. Upside down. Many lightening mods to follow: replacing heavy cross members with aluminum, removing unused mount tabs, hole saw drilling, welding all joints/seams. Just the bag of bolts is over 5 #'s. I think I can remove 30-40 pounds.

The parts to a big boys do-it-yourself erector set. 279 pounds. Hope to reduce it by about 40-50#. Built to 1720# specs, I need only 600#. The can is a gallon of roll on bedliner material.

Needed to build some of my own tooling. a 1" x 1" right

angle for perpendicular clamping square and the pink thingy is

a strattle die for drilling perfect centerline holes. You'll see them later.

Need a layup-jig table. 5' x 9' OSB scraps. Not perfect level but with jigging it'll work. Painted white....can draw on it.

April 3rd. Starting the Teardrop build today. It's going to look something like this: 4' x 8' x 5' tall, aluminum and structural foam on a Harbor Freight frame kit. Goal: 500#/550# loaded. Doing it all myself. Minimal welding involved. This will be my build journal.