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In our last episode, I was failing at welding and making things even. In this episode, we’ll try something new. This time, things turned out pretty well!

I did some reading and found that the wire that came with the cheap Harbor Freight welder was pure garbage. I’d have much better luck with Lincoln Electric flux-core instead of the HF stuff. I picked up a one pound spool for about $10. I also picked up 40 feet of 1/2 inch square steel tube. It’s a 1/16inch side wall.

Add to that a 4inch angle grinder and a 6inch cut-off saw and we’re in business. I’d be cutting and grinding metal like a pro pretty soon. Sure as hell beats a vice, a hack saw, and a couple of hand files.

So I got to work. The cargo box dimensions would be 36x22x12. Cut up some metal. Mitred the ends, and did a bit of welding. Before I knew it, I’d have the top and bottom rectangles done. My welds weren’t gorgeous, but they were certainly better than my last attempt:

A little grinding to smooth out the welds produced this:

The top and bottom rectangles came together in about an hour.

Next day, I moved on to getting all of my metal cut. It didn’t take me long. The worst part was having to get out an allen wrench to reset the stop on the cut-off saw a few times. 45, no 90, no 45, no 90… ARGH! Got all of the metal cut, burrs removed, and ready for welding:

Spent a couple of hours this weekend making the wheels’ drop-outs, welding, and then grinding everything down. As it sits, the trailer is ready to have the mount made and attached (not sure about the design, yet). And I still need to find a bottom and sides for the thing. Here is how she sits, now: