- Hey everyone, my name is
Matt, welcome to my backyard,
and welcome back to the series
on building my new log trailer.
So, if it's your first time here,
I'll leave you a link to
a playlist that contains
all of the videos that
go along with this build
so you can easily
navigate between them all.
Now last time, we talked about
all of the introduction stuff,
talked about the design a little bit,
talked about the current
trailer, what I do like about it,
and I'll be carrying
forward to the new one,
and the things that I don't like,
which I'll be improving
on the new version.
Now, this time we're gonna get
started on the actual build.
We're gonna start building
the trailer frame itself.
And as we're getting
started, I just wanna say
a big thank you to Dollar Shave Club
for sponsoring this
video, I'll tell you more
about Dollar Shave Club
later on in this video.
So, I'm gonna start
uploading all the steel,
this is all the steel for
the trailer bed as well as
the arch, the tongue, and
I also have the plate steel
which'll become the deck
of the trailer as well.
So pretty much, everything I'm gonna need
is right here, right now, or
at least the bigger stuff is.
The outside of the frame is
gonna be made from 2x6 tube,
with a 1/4 inch wall thickness.
This is exactly the same
stuff that I used to build
the bed of my sawmill.
And it's been about three
years since I built that,
so I'm about to have a rude awakening,
and remember just how
heavy these things are.
(metal clangs)
(chuckles)
Now the nice thing about
this, is I don't have to drill
and pack a bunch of holes in them first,
I can just get them all prepped,
get them kind of
assembled and ready to go,
and kinda go from there.
Now, one thing that I didn't
have back when I built
my band sawmill, which I do have now,
is a nice, big, flat welding
table area (chuckles).
So, luckily now I have the sawmill bed,
which I can use as basically,
a big welding table.
I can rig up all of these
things on that platform,
I have a nice, flat space to work,
and I'll make sure my trailer's frame
also is as flat as well,
because I can reference
my entire trailer off of
the bed of my sawmill,
which is super nice.
One other commonality you may have noticed
between this build and my sawmill build,
is that I have all of my steel
parts already precut for me.
So, for this bigger stuff 'cause
it's so heavy and awkward,
I find it's just way more
convenient to have my steel dealer
do all of my cuts for me,
especially on this big stuff.
That way, I can just
unload, assemble everything,
and get to welding, instead
of spending a bunch of time
trying to figure out how
to cut a miter on the end
of a 20-foot-long piece of
steel which weighs 400 pounds.
Doesn't seem like a
really fun thing to do,
the steel dealer has all of
the big saws, the big equipment
and everything to make
all of these cuts for me,
and make them all accurately,
so it's one less thing
I have to worry about, and
it just makes the process
of getting started a lot faster
and of course, a lot easier.
(metal clanking)
So, the trailer frame is all laid out,
and it's looking pretty darn good,
I'm pretty happy with the
way things are progressing.
This setup with using the sawmill bed
is quite nice (chuckles).
So, the one part I don't
have in here right now,
is the back of the trailer,
which is this piece here,
that's gonna be angled,
I guess in this direction
'cause we're upside down right now,
so I will put that in later on.
I'll have to kinda rig that
up in a interesting way,
but at this point, it's
time to get this assembly
at least welded a little bit.
So, I'll be going through and
doing some decent sized welds
with the MIG welder,
and then I'll come back
and do the full-on welds with the stick.
There's not a reason why you
couldn't weld this whole thing
with MIG, but I am way more confident
in my stick welding ability
than in my MIG welding ability,
so there's that.
The other thing is, I don't
get to weld super often,
and I found that I don't
really enjoy MIG welding
nearly as much as I enjoy stick welding.
With MIG welding you're
just kinda sitting there
pulling a trigger, you're
not really doing a whole lot.
With stick welding, there's a
little more of a dance to it,
with the motion of the electrode
and what's going on there,
so because I don't get
to weld super often,
I'm gonna weld whichever
way is most enjoyable to me,
and it has a side benefit of me
being a little more confident
in my ability (chuckles).
(electrode zapping)
While I'm getting this
frame all tacked together,
and all those flat seams welded up,
let me tell you a little bit
about the sponsor of this
video, Dollar Shave Club.
So, it's been several years
since I've been clean-shaven,
and normally what I'd do,
I'd just hack at the beard,
and leave some stubble,
and move on with my life,
but there's not a whole lot of
elegance in that (chuckles).
Now, Dollar Shave Club has you covered
for all of your grooming
needs, be that shower, oral,
deodorant, and yes, even shaving.
So, let's get ready for an
incredible, smooth shave
with their Shave Starter set.
The starter set comes with
their Executive handle,
which is quite weighty and nice,
and a pair of their six-blade blades.
It also comes with a three ounce tube
of Dr. Carver's Shave
Butter, which is transparent
for a more precise shave, it
helps prevent ingrown hairs,
and it fights razor bumps.
For a limited time, new members
get their first month
of the Executive razors,
with a tube of Dr. Carver's Shave Butter,
for only $5.00.
After that, the restock box
ships regular sized products
at the regular price.
Go to dollarshaveclub.com/cremona
to get your first starter
set for just $5.00.
And don't worry, if you
are missing my beard,
it will be back in the next scene
due to some classic continuity errors.
So, thank you again Dollar Shave Club,
for sponsoring this video,
let's get back to the build.
(electrode zaps)
(glove scuffing)
So, that takes care of
the initial welding,
all of the pieces to the C channel
have a solid weld on the top here,
as well as the inside bottom there.
So, I'm gonna get some of
this stuff cleared out,
get these clamps off of here,
and take care of the last cross member
that goes in the front
there that was inaccessible
due to the corner clamps earlier.
So, I'm gonna try and scoot
this frame around a little bit,
get it more on top of the sawmill bed,
drop in that piece of C channel,
and get it welded just
like all of the other ones.
(electrode zaps)
And then from there, you
start putting in the back,
which should be kinda interesting
because we're upside down,
and I have to make sure I put
it in at the correct angle,
so it's not upside down (chuckles).
(metal clanking)
(electrode zapping)
(metal scraping)
Okay, that takes care of that for now,
let's grab the parts for the tongue
and get those kinda laid out a little bit.
(metal clanking)
So, next we're gonna get
the tongue installed,
but before we get going on this,
let's talk a little bit about tongues,
and this whole setup right here.
So the first little thing to
keep in mind with the tongue,
is the overall length.
So, that's gonna be the
distance from the trailer frame
to the center of the coupler.
On my current trailer, that is 52 inches,
and the general guidance for that is that
the overall length over the tongue
needs to be at least half of
the width of your tow vehicle,
so you can use that to
kind of get an idea for it.
So, technically, a 48
inch tongue would be fine
for my truck, but a
little bit longer length
gives you a little bit more
maneuverability back here,
and it'll buy me a little
bit more space up here
in the tongue area, so I'm
gonna go with exactly the same
tongue length that I have on
my current trailer, 52 inches.
So, to figure out how far
these things have to stick out,
I need to know how much
my coupler and the channel
is going to add to that
length, so this is eight inches
from the center of the coupler
to the back of this channel,
so I can take that off of my 52 inches,
which leaves me with 46
inches that these guys
need to protrude passed
the front of the trailer.
Now, what would be really nice to know,
and make this a lot
easier, would be to know
what is the exact distance these things
need to be apart from each other,
right as they enter the trailer.
And lucky for us, we have math.
More specifically, we have
trigonometry (chuckles).
So, I'm gonna use this as
an excuse to warm up a bit
in the shop here, and let's
talk a little bit about
how to figure out how
much distance we need.
It's actually pretty darn simple.
So, on the front side of the trailer,
we have the two tongue pieces,
and then we have the front
frame of the trailer.
Now, a standard tongue angle
is going to be 50 degrees,
so this would be 50
degrees, and then we know
we want this distance here to be 46.
So, I wanna make myself a guide
which hooks on to the
inside of this front piece,
so I want to know the distance
this thing needs to be apart,
actually back in here, so
two inches longer than 46,
so I want it to be at 48.
If you look at this, we
have, oh, it's a triangle.
So, if we bring this triangle over here,
we have this kinda setup right here.
So, we have half of this,
'cause you bisected that,
so this is gonna be 25 degrees,
this leg is now 48, that's
gonna take us to the inside
of the front of the frame,
and what we really wanna know
is this dimension right here.
So, when I was in high school,
I was taught this funny phrase to remember
which of the trigonometric functions
go with what parts of the triangle.
So, that says, SOH CAH TOA (chuckles).
So, sine goes with the
opposite in a hypotenuse,
cosine is the adjacent of a hypotenuse,
and tangent is the opposite and adjacent.
So, here is our angle.
We have the adjacent, and
we wanna know the opposite,
so we're gonna use tan, or tangent.
So, tan 25 degrees, would equal
the opposite over adjacent,
so where, or our question mark, over 48,
so this is actually pretty easy
just to drop into our calculators.
And what's funny about this is,
I gotta turn my phone this way (chuckles).
So, with my calculator in degree mode,
25 tan times 48,
gives us 22.38 for each half of this.
Multiple that by two, that
gives us the total length,
from here to here, it's gonna be 44.76.
So, a big thank you to my
10th grade geometry teacher,
thank you Miss Simon for
teaching me SOH CAH TOA,
which is kinda funny about
this is, I'm pretty sure
this is the first time in my
adult life that I've used this.
But it's just cool to finally
see the things that I learned
you know, I don't know
how long ago that was,
15, 16, 17 years ago, kinda coming around
to being useful in life.
So, I'm gonna go ahead
and make a quick guide
to make this super easy.
I have a piece of MDF that I
can cut at the right angle,
and then I can put a
little fence on the back
so this thing will hook onto the inside
of that trailer frame, and
I'll be able to position
those tongue rails exactly
where they need to be.
(power drill buzzing)
(saw buzzing)
(tape measure rattling)
(metal clanking)
So, I have a center line
here on the trailer frame,
and then this kerf that I cut in here
is exactly in the center of this thing.
So, I should be able to just
clamp this thing in place
on top of that center
line, and this'll give me
an alignment aid so I can
butt up those tongue pieces
directly to it.
First I'll use my famous
butt clamp, very good one.
Not a whole lotta clamping
strength, but does
work in a pinch for some
awkward positions (chuckles).
(metal clanking)
Nice.
Okay.
(metal scraping)
So, now in theory, when I bring
over these tongue members,
as I slide them forward and they touch,
they should stop at 46 inches
from the front of the trailer frame.
(metal scraping)
Yeah, that, let's see.
Less than 1/16th off, so there's
still a little gap there,
so these things would
probably slide forward
a little further, but that is pretty much
right where I want them to be.
I like when math works.
So, now I need to know
where on the tongue pieces
I need to make the cuts so these will bend
back over on themselves,
so that's pretty easy to do
with everything laid out here.
All I have to do is just
transfer the face of this
onto here, where they intersect,
so I can deal with a square
that's butted up against the tongue piece,
and that'll be the exact
point where I can start
to have the intersection of
these cut to allow this thing
to fall over onto itself.
(metal clanking)
(saw buzzing)
(metal clanking)
(saw buzzing)
(metal clanking)
(saw buzzing)
So at this point, the
tongue is all prepped
and ready to go on, it should
be lined up really well
with this alignment jig,
but there is the possibility
that this thing is off
center a little bit,
or it's kinda angled to
one side or the other,
so I can verify that pretty
easily with a simple string here
which is here at the
center, which should be
the center line of the trailer.
The center line of the tongue
should match the center line
of this front piece
here where this kerf is,
and it should hit the center line
at the back of the trailer as well.
So as I pull this string
taunt as it comes over
the center line of the
back of the trailer,
it should pass directly
over that kerf up there,
and it looks like it is pretty darn good.
So, I'm happy with that, so
that means that it is tack time.
Tack, tack, tack (chuckles).
(electrode zapping)
Tacking with MIG is almost
cheating (chuckles).
Okay, let's see about bending this thing.
(clamp cranking)
(metal clanking)
(clamp cranking)
Well, Daylight Saving has ended here
in Minneapolis this
year, it's five o'clock
and it's pretty darn dark so,
I'm gonna leave it like this,
and pick up with it in the morning.
Alright, so next day, let's
get this thing finished up.
(electrode zapping)
It's already afternoon
and I think every day I've
been out here this week,
it's been getting colder and colder.
It's currently 30 degrees out today.
I think it's as hot as it's gonna get.
Let's get some welds going so
I can stay warm (chuckles).
(clamp cranking)
(electrode zapping)
So, when I cut these, I
made the kerf out here
a little wide, and I kinda
biased a little bit bigger
so I had an opening here
as they came together.
I didn't want these things to close up
before this piece came all the way over,
and the opening here allows
me to get my electrode in here
and actually weld the
seam on the bottom here,
which will connect both
of these back together,
as well as connect them
down to the trailer frame.
I figure this connect down here
is probably pretty important
since it's right there
up against the trailer,
and then the rest of this,
it can patch pretty easily.
(electrode zapping)
So, I'll go ahead and weld
the bottom seam back together,
I'll patch the top, and
then the long seam we can do
when this thing is up on its side.
(electrode zapping)
(saw buzzing)
(brush scratching)
(electrode zapping)
(metal scraping)
(electrode zapping)
(saw buzzing)
(metal clanging)
So, I think that's gonna
do it for this one,
lot of great progress this time,
it's kinda fun how quickly this stuff
kinda comes together and
becomes something pretty big.
It's one of the things I like
about this type of stuff.
So, next time we'll keep going, we'll get
the tongue finished up by
adding the coupler mount,
we'll add the blocking down
the center of the frame,
we'll also get the axle
mounts on there as well,
or the hanger is I guess,
the more technical term.
So, that's where this thing is going,
I am pretty darn exciting.
So, thank you as always for watching,
I greatly appreciate it.
If you have any questions or
comments on the trailer build,
the sawmill, anything back in the shop,
please feel free to leave me a comment.
I was gonna be cool and
whip my glasses off,
but didn't work (chuckles).
I'll be happy to answer any
questions you might have,
and until next time,
(chuckles) happy working.
