Project1 from Sportbike Category:Custom welded Shop tools and improvements (sort of)

[sportbike]

After looking around for a cabinet for my motorcycle trailer, I decided to make my own out of aluminum.
The cabinet is ~ 6' long, 18" tall, and 14" deep.
Materials are 6000 series aluminum for the structure (channel and angle) and 3000 / 5000 series sheet for the doors and the outer sheetmetal covering.
Hinges are aluminum, but rather than welding, I fastened them with screws to make alignment easier.
Latches are simple cam type rotary latches.

Filler is 5356 for the most part, welded with 2% lan, 3/32 tungsten and a gas lens. Nothing really special about the welding setup or process, just standard welding.

I started out by cutting all materials on my chopsaw (regular wood / trim chopsaw with a high tooth count carbide blade). Sheet metal (other than the doors) was cut with my table saw, again, with a carbide blade).
I initially planned to just layout everything on my concrete driveway.

But soon realized I had a Nomad welding table that had 90 degree corner alignment edges and used that instead.

First the top and bottom, made from channel (1.5 X .75 X .125) was welded. The corners are mitered and a bevel put on them with a flap disc on a 4" grinder.

Next the Corner angles (2 X 2 X .125)were put in. Welding was a little tough to reach in some of the corners.

The floor (.090 sheet) was placed inside the angle and tacked It is two pieces of sheet. This is an area where a mig would have been much faster to weld (actually the whole thing woudl be suitable for mig). It was a bit tough to get the floor in and keep it somewhat flat. I tried to weld from the center out to allow it to move around, but did still get a bit of "oil canning". It is not really an issue as I popped it to the downward side and it stays due to gravity pulling the items down in the cabinet.

The top (.063 sheet) was put on next. Since this is intended to go into my trailer, a top really wasn't 100% necessary, but I wanted to put one in in to prevent anything from being poked through the roof of the trailer. the roof of the trailer is only .040" aluminum sheet.

I mounted the cabinet into the trailer and them out the end caps on. It would have been much easier to put the endcaps on before mounting but I was by myself and it was a bit difficult to find access to drill and screw the cabinet to the wall frame of the trailer with the ends in.

I took the door materials to work and used a kick sear ane pan and box brake to make them.Then drilled for the hinges and added in the locks.

Presto, trailer cabinet.

[sportbike]

Hopefully the pictures are still on my cell phone because I thought I downloaded them and the folder is empty on my computer.

[donor76]

interesting project, we are waiting for pictures

[sportbike]

I was able to get the pictures back off of my phone. I think it may be time to get a new phone...



Some of the finished welds on the corner miter joints.



Gas Lens, 3/32" 2% Lan tungsten with teh standard 26 torch for the 200DX


Decided to use the Nomad instead. It actually worked well for this. Probably would have been better if I had two of them since the pieces were pretty long.


Strong Hand corner clamp.






Material cut and started to layout on the driveway.

[sportbike]

Only lets 10 pictures per post.



This is the trailer before the cabinet.


Cabinet installed




Installing the mid-section verticals, also shows the sheetmetal (apparently I deleted a few of the pictures somewhere along the line)


Basic Frame welded




Had to get creative on some of the welds to avoid welding while standing on my head. I intentionally switched hands adn feet ont eh pedal, etc on this to get some practice in different positions and different and holds, etc. (Don't mind the garage, it looks pretty messed up in a few of these pics)

[Trip59]

Looks great so far, and your garage is pristine compared to my work area LOL. One thought, the outside bottom corner looks like it'd be taking chunks out of my head or shoulder if it were my trailer, did you consider knocking the very corner off, maybe cutting a 45 on all three sides and welding a flat? might prevent some pain later but at the least, would make for an interesting conversation piece...

[sportbike]

I did think about that, but when the bikes are loaded in, there is no real way to hit the corner without trying.

For me it isn't really an issue anyway unless I bend down as my shoulders are higher than the corners.

[Trip59]

Have you met Murphy?

I spent the weekend working with him and becoming reacquainted with his law. My wife used to think I just liked making more work for myself when the reality is, my house and shop have more 45* angles than straight lines because there seems to be a convergence between Murphy, Newton, and several others that means I will find any corner in existence and injure myself on them at the seemingly most inopportune times.