kato said...

evets said...

Picked up my sheet and rivets today, just need a nibbler and I am on my way!

Don,t use a nibbler, use straight snips (Gilbows) not the serrated type.
Glue the sheets on with stickaflex or buthal mastic and then use ally rivets. Make sure that you use lots of good paint and that you have a way of re treating the inside of your steel work. Any folds that you get done get a safety fold done on the edge. Good luck

Evets, It is going to be heaps easier to paint after a few hot dayson the trot. Painting cold steel can be a pain. Also I used sign writing panels 0.75 mm.

Mark,... Some pics of your trailer please. I've seen Kato's trailer and can say with all respect that he has useful knowledge in the field. Pics Pics Pics?

moondo said...

kato said...

evets said...

Picked up my sheet and rivets today, just need a nibbler and I am on my way!

Don,t use a nibbler, use straight snips (Gilbows) not the serrated type.
Glue the sheets on with stickaflex or buthal mastic and then use ally rivets. Make sure that you use lots of good paint and that you have a way of re treating the inside of your steel work. Any folds that you get done get a safety fold done on the edge. Good luck

Evets, It is going to be heaps easier to paint after a few hot dayson the trot. Painting cold steel can be a pain. Also I used sign writing panels 0.75 mm.

Mark,... Some pics of your trailer please. I've seen Kato's trailer and can say with all respect that he has useful knowledge in the field. Pics Pics Pics?

I have posted pics of it in the last couple of trailer threads so can't be bothered. It will be in my profile pics if you are that motivated to see it. It is not pretty anyway because it was made with all free materials so sure you won't be impressed
No insult to Kato, yes he knows what he's doing, but for people who have not done sheet metal work snips can be really difficult if you are trying to cut up the middle of a 2400x1200 sheet and they will be be disappointed with the result thus I recommended a thin blade in the angle grinder

A few more pics. All the gear in after a huge 4 day weekend.

While we would happily build you guys a trailer only limited by your imagination and wallet.
below are some small details for your information.




Use Sikaflex 252. also when using Polyurethane adhesives on painted surfaces and especially powdercoated (which is Colorbond) you need primer so that in six months time or less you don't turn up at the beach with a naked trailer.
Use Sika primer 210T.
Take to the plastic nozzle of the glue tube and shape it so you apply it with a 4-5mm high peak, this ensures you get a full seal when pressing on the panels.
hold panels in place with duct tape till cured. One of the main reasons for using PU is for a reduction in Bi metal corrosion which in a salt water environment is worse. using rivets or screws defeats the advantage of the glue in this respect.

forget nibblers, too rough an edge and hard to use. Snips are fine just never cut to very tip of snip blades.

Good luck. get the wife to help, and god help you. It'll take all three to do it properly.

Nice work DrJ. Simple but effective.

If you're building a trailer from scratch, in NSW anyway, build it to box trailer or platform stage first then register it. My home built box trailer at 6.5' x 4' weighed in 3kg over the lowest rego weight fee (it has car leaf springs so is heavy for its size), the nice RTA man said to remove the tailgate and have it weighed again ($25 back then). It did the trick. Otherwise you will pay approx $150 per year compared to $53. That's a saving of nearly 3 cartons of beer!

Once registered go crazy and build a great monolithic enclosed box on top of it with heavy duty internal racks as it then won't affect rego. I have 3-4 family cars, 1000cc road motorcycle and box trailer to register annually, it adds up so any savings is good.

BTW I use a Falcon Nibbler attached to a drill to cut sheet metal, I'm no tradie so it gets used infrequently and is handy to have, does a good job as sheet edges are flat and the edges aren't sharp so handling is much safer. Noisy bugger though, wear ear plugs!

I was just looking at this the other day:

www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/registration/index.html

Trailers (including caravans)
- up to 254kg $56
- 255kg to 764kg $153
- 765kg to 975kg $232

Its a big jump between a 240 kg box trailer and a 300 kg enclosed motorbike style trailer.

Cheers
James