So, this is something I started 7 months ago. As few months before i bought TIG welder, and didnt really use it much, few spots here and there. And as my friend bought a truck, I decided to buy one too and make few trailers for us to play with.
Idea was to make it from steel, to get a real scale look with I beams, scale suspension... I used a real trailers for reference. First I scaled thicknes of the metals used, and came up with 1mm to be a good average. I modeled it all in 3D, but as I wanted to send this out to be cut on laser, I had to make it "laser frendly" and think of a way to be able to assemble it and weld it.
First it it started just as a frame for flatbed or container trailer, but when I finished it, as I am sending it out for laser cut, I tought why dont I model a half pipe, so they use more sheet metal. So I did. Looked at some google photos for half pipes, and made something similar. First it was too long, as I used my flatbed frame. Then I cut it 2 times, and said its enough. I guess it still is too long compared with the ones I see on Europe roads. But maybe its just a right fit for American trucks
Enough talking, here are few model photos:
It maybe looks to simple, and yes I didnt go in to the details as I was in a hurry to cut it all and start welding. Decided I can cut and make all the details later anyway.
This simple design has more than 200 tiny parts that I had to weld
And I didnt have any experience with welding before, so could wait for the fun to begin
First I tried to work on suspension parts.
Then the frame
Testing the parameters for the TIG all the time
You can say this was a really nice testing project ,to learn what works, what doesnt, how much heat sheet metal can take, and what to change in the design to eliminate warp.