Stitch Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Hey Das, Put a H.F. 100 watt solar panel set up on the top of the trailer. My son did that to his and kept a deep cycle battery charged up to run a bunch of LED lights, a 12v tire air compressor, cell phone chargers and some 12v doo-dads in his trailer. It worked fantastic in his cross country move. Just suggesting...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Not sure how anybody else feels about it, but I have seen fires in a tight area from forging/forge welding.. I have contemplated the solar and battery storage in the trailer but decided against it because of having the batteries inside the trailer and the hydrogen vapors as well as a rogue hot ember/metal getting away without noticing.. I suppose if I wanted to buy a couple of those dry matt batteries which are vent less and can be turned any direction is wouldn't be much of a problem hydrogen vapor problem.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Inverter battery can be placed anywhere, including on the trailer tongue (hitch) or under the trailer. A battery hooked up to the trailer is a great idea when it comes to 12V lighting. Strip the sockets, bulbs, and wires from any junk vehicle. Flip the switch and you can use brake light bulbs, indicator bulbs, or any other 12V bulb for light. Even a little light in the dark is better than no light in the dark. A small 12V fan is a welcome relief to stir the air on a hot day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustAnotherViking Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 If you're worried about storing the battery inside, it's not much effort to make a small tray that bolts to the underside of the trailer and just feed the wires through the floor. Plenty of custom bike have the battery exposed like that, so it's not a huge issue. Lot of heat and flamible liquid within a foot or two Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Finished off an extra big mantis today. I must be addicted to making mantises. The thing is, I found an old sliding door hanger in the scrap and it just had to be a mantis head. Found a gearbox mainshaft for the body, some angle iron wing covers and a heap of aircraft engine thru-bolts for legs and another swivel tie-rod end so that his head has a range of movements. The front legs have a straightened out motorcycle sprocket for the grabbers. For smaller ones I usually select light rebar for the legs and bend them to shape. This one has welded joints. I am no welder ... the 5" angle grinder rescued a messy welding job. (Too many dials and switches on the MIG and I can never sort them out.) Anyway, here's the finished mantis (dog is there for size comparison) and now I'm moving on to other stuff. A crocodile maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stitch Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 I just love your Mantis's or Manti' Aus! I better not show the wife or I'll be trying to make one! 1 hour ago, jlpservicesinc said: Not sure how anybody else feels about it, but I have seen fires in a tight area from forging/forge welding.. I have contemplated the solar and battery storage in the trailer but decided against it because of having the batteries inside the trailer and the hydrogen vapors as well as a rogue hot ember/metal getting away without noticing.. I suppose if I wanted to buy a couple of those dry matt batteries which are vent less and can be turned any direction is wouldn't be much of a problem hydrogen vapor problem.. We used a boat battery box mounted to the trailer tongue. No problems that way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustAnotherViking Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 That looks amazing ausfire!!! Nothing exciting from myself, was just practicing 90 degree bends in some square bar and decided to make it into a shelf bracket. Not happy with the aesthetics, but It'll serve its purpose. Need to get some new stock... I have square, square and a bit more square. Could do with matching width square an flat for things like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerMonkey Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Very cool mantis Aus, I like the split bolt mandibles (mouth bits). But I really must say that the dog is extremely lifelike! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 4 hours ago, Glenn said: Strip the sockets, bulbs, and wires from any junk vehicle. Flip the switch and you can use brake light bulbs, indicator bulbs, or any other 12V bulb for light. There are many LED lights to be had now too. Most tail lamps have the red LEDs but now they are making a lot of front lamps in white LEDs. If you were to scrounge the junkyard. Pre-setup LED lights are getting cheap enough to not need to scrounge as much. I still do it for the fun of it since I work around busted up cars and we throw the things out so I like to play once in a while. 3 hours ago, ausfire said: Finished off an extra big mantis today Nice big mantis! That door slide worked great for the head. Love that you split the bolt for the mandibles. The pup approves! Just takes a practice piece in the size you are welding to get those knobs dialed in before welding on the pain piece. There are probably some helpful videos to help you understand your welder better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Richter Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Put the bronze ladies on a marble plate to hang on a wall, and made a handle for one of the heel axes. Made the handle from a knot branch of dry cherry wood found on the fire place wood pile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Nice Venus of Willendorf though a bit "modern" to make it in Bronze. The palstave looks great too. Keep your eye open for a piece of crabapple to make another for heavy use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Richter Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Thanks Thomas, maybe they found here in another 23000 years, thinking how crazy and stayed back the people this days are. The Google translate didn’t found a decent translation to ‘crabapple’ please explain to an uneducated Dutch/German/Belgium individual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 "Crabapple" is the same as "apple", usually referring to a variety with smaller, more tart fruit. It's the same genus and species (malus pumila) as orchard varieties, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Richter Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Thanks JHCC, we have apple trees enouth here in this area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Let's approach it another way: crabapple was the wood of choice for swingles used for threshing wheat by hand noted for it's flexibility and wearing properties. (see the folk song John Barleycorn---"They've hired men with the crab-tree sticks To cut him skin from bone".) So whatever wood was used for the same purpose in your location might also have the same useful properties. Crabapple seems to be "stringier" than apply in my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Oops... Not a lot of room under a horse trailer, lol. Toung box is about the only answer. AGM batteries with a charge controller work much better. Automotive batteries do not like more than a 1 volt drop and even deal cycles don’t fair much better. AGM batteries will drop from 13.5 to 10.5 and live. But they don’t like strait charges they have to switch to a trickle at about 90%. Thus the charge controller LED’s last longer and use less electricity than incandesents. The daytime running light strips from Walmart make good undertask lights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 the trailer rides pretty decent.. I could cut a hole in the floor and install them there by the back gate.. If you were to do it.. Would you make a box and put the batteries in the box? Or just a conventional kind of setup like in a car with nothing around it? Hydrogen gas being light rising and a few welding sparks is all it would take.. I've set fires in the shop on more than one occasion with a rogue paper towel.. I can't add any more weight to the tongue.. It would have to be behind the rear axle for weight balance.. Is there an AGM battery one would recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Personally I would go with a toung mount in a box, a pair of golf cart batteries from exid would take the abuse better than anything else I can think of and the skin of the trailer isolates things from fire and sparks. With the big batteries the brake away battery is redundant. Another option (as you are a dang good fabricator is a box with access and venting to the outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 A vented box is your best bet I'd think. Heck they have batteries mounted under the back seats and in trunks of cars that are not enclosed but do have a vent tube running to the outside usually. Granted people don't weld or have many sparks in cars. I'll be mounting the battery on the tongue of my little trailer. There is already a small tray for the trailer brakes battery but I'll need something more substantial for running an inverter. I do like the solar panel on the roof idea and will do that when I get the money. I just blew my funds buying the thing and transfer and plate. Back to poor man mentality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Far less nowadays; but smoking used to be quite common in cars and I remember a 12 volt MG that had 2 6 volt batteries in series under the back seat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc1 Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 There is zero risk of explosion from sparks igniting H2 from a battery that is in the open. Unless the gases can accumulate in a very small and sealed area, they will find it's way up and away. The amount of hydrogen coming from a lead acid battery is minimal and occurs when using high current for charging above 80% capacity. A deep cycle battery like AGM emits even less. Hydrogen is very light and will find it's way from under the trailer and up into the atmosphere. Hydrogen is explosive at concentration above 4% so unless you have a bank of batteries being charged by a 100A charger inside your enclosed and sealed trailer, you have nothing to fear. An open shelf under the trailer like trucks use attached to their chassis is the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Eh used to put them under the seat as well. Biggest thing is access to maintain the electro light levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 I do not think one could ever consider an early 60's MG as an "enclosed space".... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 8 hours ago, Daswulf said: Nice big mantis! That door slide worked great for the head. Love that you split the bolt for the mandibles. The pup approves! Just takes a practice piece in the size you are welding to get those knobs dialed in before welding on the pain piece. There are probably some helpful videos to help you understand your welder better. Yes, I have looks at several You-tube videos about MIG welding. It's a lot more complicated than the stick welder which has only one control. The MIG has timers for wire feed and spot welding and some mysterious 2T and 4T settings. Getting the right combination of all of them is a challenge. As a welder, I make a good woodpecker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Generally you will work with Volts and wire speed.In a minimalist half behinded nutshell, The thicker the metal the Higher the volts, then I match the wire speed (usually a minimal selection for what I do) to match the voltage until is sounds like frying bacon and I get the penetration with the best amount of filler. too much build up of weld try reducing the wire speed a little, burning through or getting puddling that wants to drip down, reduce the voltage. Scrap welding is challenging because it's never all the same size material and other factors like bad contact(rust) and other things.. I'm certainly no instructor lol. Welding on cars is Much different then welding up scrap metal. Unfortunately I'd be more help in person then through explaining it. Hey, as long as the weld holds, it's good for scrap art, as long as it isn't a safety structural thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.