^^^^
Too hard. Snips are a pain unless the waste side is really narrow and you can roll it up as you go - else the edge on the side you are keeping gets warped.
Alternative - cut it with a thin blade in the angle grinder
after sticking on with Sikaflex then the water won't get to the cut edge (I guess that is what Evets meant by sealing the edges after cutting?)
but if really worried about it buy 1/2 inch aluminium angle and glue that on all round the corners
DON,T CUT Sheet metal with an angle grinder !!!!!! It will heat up the zinc coating under the paint and start rusting. The best way to stuff a sheet. A slow speed jig saw with a metal blade if you need to use power
Hi
I think i'm up to 7 trailers, eventually found it easier to buy a beach and have the gear permanently rigged up!
Rgds
Warren
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.
Its not that fancy , but it does the job. and it was cheap!.
Standard box trailer, bit of paint, $100 worth of steel, and some marine vinyl and a few stickers.
the best thing for cutting sheet metal is a metal cold saw blade, bunnings sell them around $100 put in your circular saw and stop thin sheets from flexing as this chips the teeth and the blade will last a really long time and give you a perfectly clean cut free from burrs that has not burnt the paint . Certainly lasts longer than 10 grinder blades at $10 ea so it is economical its also good for cuting all the other steel for the trailer or aluminium just wax the blade .
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
