Horse trailer repair?

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I have a neighbor lady who is a horse fanatic, ex-barrel racer, very involved in a big club.  She says she can get me all the work I want (I'm 70) repairing horse trailers. Sounds like an idea for some part-time income.  Who among you does this?  (on the odd chance that you are in the Maple Valley, WA area, I'll understand if you don't want to tell me a thing, though frankly I probably wouldn't do enough to be much competition for you, and anyway this area has LOTS of horse trailers!!).  The neighbor gal has no idea of what percentage of horse trailers are likely to have aluminum boxes   .  .  .  well??For those who get this work, what do you typically see?  I have a Ranger 9 (AC/DC, CC/CV) on my step-van, an MM175, a spool gun.  I'm watching for an old high-frequency accessory box to do dumb old sine-wave TIG with the Ranger 9, but could get something spiffier (Sychrowave 210) depending on how much thin aluminum you think I'm likely to do with this gig.This is a separate and secondary question:  On another site I said that this same neighbor wants me to weld up horseshoes into artsy-fartsy bric-a-brac, and she will supply the designs and the horseshoes.  So I asked what horseshoes are made of (cast iron? cast steel? carbon or alloy content?).  I got one answer, but I don't know if I trust it. This guy said horseshoes are either mild steel or aluminum. I asked WHICH aluminum, and he answered, oh it's just "ordinary aluminum."  With an answer like that, I have to wonder about how much the guy really knows.  Granted, for wall-art I'm probably over-thinking this, but when it's just as easy to do something right .  .  .  so has anyone got a more precise answer on the metals used for horseshoes?
Reply:Most horse shoes are steel and easily welded. I haven't seen any aluminum ones but I'm not really a horse guy. I want my horses to have handlebars and BRAKES!Lincolin Power Wave 450, Lincoln Powermig 255, Lincoln Pro Mig 140, Lincoln Squarewave Tig 275, Miller Big 40 G(with Hobart Hefty suitcase), Thermal Arc 95S and Esab PCM875 in an already full machine shop.
Reply:Friend, I first wish to tell you that I really have to admire you for having the "umph", both mental and physical, to start repairing horse trailers at 70 years of age. Now, I will make the assumption that you already know how to weld aluminum using either the tig or spoolgun processes, and just wish to know whether the equipment listed is up to the challenge. I would suggest you  make some practice welds with what you have at your disposal. Look at some typical joint configurations on an aluminum trailer and practice with those, using the same types of material. When you think you have it mastered, take your sample and compare it with what you see on a horse trailer. I have repaired(here in the third world part of the U.S.) a number of aluminum trailers. I use a 350 syncrowave with a water-cooled torch and a miller 30a spoolgun. One small rule of thumb I use is to try to use tig where the factory used  tig, and wire where the factory used wire. Not a hard-and-fast rule, mind you, but a guide. Sometimes the tig won't reach, so I use the spoolgun. I am fairly good with it. Remember though, I am not a super-scientist, I am just the villageblacksmith!! Good luck!!
Reply:Now, lest I be chastened for running the spoolgun off of the 350 syncro, I do not. My first post does read that way. A comment on horseshoes. Treat them like mild steel unless the horseshoe tells you otherwise. By the time one reaches 70, you realize the world is a large place, filled with many things. There may be aluminum horseshoes, but they would be far outnumbered by the steel ones. Hope this helps!
Reply:Not sure what kind of aluminum is used for horseshoes but they are mainly used for race horses.  A sure enough Farrier told me however that a lot of folks are going to a carbon fiber material for shoes.
Reply:Steel horse trailers get VERY rusty from the acid in the pee.Two pieces of equipment that will be absolutely necessary that you did not mention are a pressure washer and a cutting torch!!I have no experience with aluminum horse trailers because when I was a kid only millionaires could afford them!!Aluminum horseshoes are used almost exclusively on race horses!Very expensive new and almost impossible to find used.The only thing crazier than a horse is the person that owns one!
Reply:Originally Posted by rexcormackAluminum horseshoes are used almost exclusively on race horses!Very expensive new and almost impossible to find used.
Reply:I've fixed a few steel horse trailers, usually they are very rotten. So what you see go at least a foot farther to find something solid!Horseshoes are mild steel, welded lots of artsy stuff for a Farrier to sell to his customers.He carried very few Aluminum shoes, can't say I ever welded on them.Definitely agree on the pressure washer!
Reply:Thanks all, for the interest.  As to the rusty floors, I'm going to suggest to the neighbor that her club, which has it's own piece of property for holding events, buy a pressure washer. It's something the members could surely use in any case (as preventive maintenance, for starters), and I would REQUIRE anyone wanting their trailer welded to have it cleaned up for me in advance. This seems like an obvious courtesy to my mind, but I have spent enough time in auto machine shops to know that some customers think nothing of bringing in greasy, grimy parts. Also regarding those rusted floors, I did say I had an O/A outfit on the truck, so I can flame-cut, and I do have various saws, but forgot to ask you if a plasma cutter would save enough time to pay its keep (BTW, is there any/much stainless in these trailers?). A Hypertherm 45 looks like about two-grand by the time you get some of the tooling."village blacksmith," don't admire my old-age "oomph" too much;  if I hadn't been the village idiot (a major and ill-advised investment went south in the bank crash), I wouldn't be asking about this. Yeah, I do a little TIG and spoolgun work, though not enough to maintain the good hand-eye. Mostly I stick weld, sometimes dual-shield, repairs on heavy equipment for a few small operators. I can't so far find any used add-on TIG hi-freek modules for sale, for the Ranger 9.  I have my big heavy semi-ancient TIG machine in the shop, but need TIG on the truck. New Lincoln TIG modules for the Ranger seem to be around $1500 or so. Forget that, I'd get a new inverter Synchrowave 210 instead, which looks like a pretty cool unit by my standards, and less than half as much as a Dynasty DX.What am I forgetting to ask, oh, when we're talking about aluminum horse trailers, am I right to assume that all the aluminum is thin sheet for the body, plus fairly light aluminum square tube framing for the sheetmetal? In other words, any work on the aluminum parts would be pretty much all TIG and not much spoolgun work, right? Surely the chassis is all steel  .  .  .(EDIT)  I'm still not clear as to what, roughly, the percentage is of horse trailers that have aluminum boxes.  If there are not many, I could just turn down those few jobs and not bother with TIG (unless maybe I replace my MM175, which I never have liked very much, with a Multimatic 200 that has the lift-start DC TIG  .  .  .  .Last edited by old jupiter; 03-30-2016 at 03:05 PM.
Reply:Take a close look at the power requirements of the PM 45 and remember you also need to power the air compressor usually at the same time, though you can get cylinders of breathing air to use and be portable. My PM 1000 maxes out the aux power on most welder/gensets in the 8K range and really wants at least a 10K genset if not bigger. If doing portable work, you may need to compromise between max thickness the plasma will cut with what you can power with the aux power you have available. You may not need the max thickness of a PM 45 with horse trailer work, especially with a torch to handle thick stuff. You may find something smaller like a PM30 a better fit, especially if you have to power an electric compressor off the genny as well. That's the one "downside" of my PM1000. When I bought it originally it was to be dedicated to a CNC plasma table. Now I'd probably get more use out of it for portable work if I had a smaller machine that is easier to power. Typically I cut mostly sheet metal with mine and cut the heavy stuff with OA anyways.I doubt you'll see a lot of stainless in horse trailers, at least based on those I typically see. Most are steel and a few are alum. A good metal cutting circular saw will cut sheet metal and alum sheet cleanly and neatly, even if they are a bit messy.One thing I would suggest. If you do a lot of horse stuff, invest in one of those rolling magnets. Horse people get really picky about their horses feet. I've worked at a horse barn where they did roofing work, where they laid out tarps to catch the old roof debris, then went over the whole area with one of those rolling magnets 3 times, then on their hands and knees side by side twice to pick up stray nails.  Big trash is easy to spot and pickup, but small bits are a lot harder. If you have to work in grass, have it cut as short as possible in the work area so it's easier to pick up small bits of steel..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:A sad but true fact, if you value your retirement savings, be sure to get liability insurance...  If they have an accident and anything on the trailer was found to be at fault, you will end up as a defendant in subsequent lawsuits even if it had nothing to do with your work.  If their precious pony got hurt or killed in the trailer they will be out for blood.  You will be the one who ends up bleeding.... Your retirement.   Many on this forum are capable of doing these kind of repairs yet turn them down regularly because it's not worth the risk...  but if you are a gambler, go for it... It probably won't even be your customer suing you. It willl be the insurance companies of the various parties involved.   So even if the client signs a waiver,  the insurance company can usually get around that.    Could cost 10s of thousands just to defend yourself even if innocent.     Sent from mobile.  Not responsible for TyposLast edited by soutthpaw; 03-30-2016 at 03:27 PM.Tiger Sales:  AHP Distributor    www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P,  Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma.  For Sale:  Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun.  Lincoln Wirematic 250
Reply:Hopefully horse folks are a better breed in your area than mine. Around here horse folks are cash only, in advance, whether doing repairs, building fences or selling feed. Horse people frequently have larger ideas than bank accounts. After that, in my experience horse and cattle trailers are very hard to fix and rarely cost effective. Lots of folks asked to get their trailers fixed, very few came back after they got the estimate. Aluminum trailers are better than steel to work on tho and more likely to be cost effective.Yeah, I know, but it'll be ok!Lincoln Square wave 255Miller Vintage mig30a spoolgunThermal Dynamics Pacmaster 100xl plasmaSmith mc torchEllis 1600 band saw
Reply:I am almost to 70 a couple of years.  I would avoid the trailer deal, I have repaired several both steel and aluminum.  To me it is a filthy stinking job even if it is cleaned.  But if you do ensure the floor is strong enough to hold the load, you don't want to drag the legs off a pony.  Good luck, my two bits. John
Reply:One thing I have noticed about horse people is they love to spend money they don't have.  Ask for money up front and don't give equipment back with out full payment.  Most will want just a patch across the bottom to keep the animals feet from getting under the walls and dividers.  Show Cattle people are almost as bad.  Around here they wait until the trailer is un safe to use then want it patched up well enough to use again.  The above is expirence in my area.  Other areas may be different.Dan D.Dan D.Manipulator Of Metal
Reply:A comment on aluminum horseshoes.  Our local farrier has walls upon walls full of custom Alumnium horseshoe in every conceivable geometry/pattern.  Open, closed, heel, non-heal, teardrop, etc.Aluminum shoes are commonly used for therapeutic (recovery) reasons, in addition to race flats.  Like steel, sold in pairs for ~ 2-3x the cost of the mild steel variants."Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Reply:Most "horse people" are absolutely nuts. Everyone else has described it well, bigger ideas than wallets, etc. Personally, I would avoid the trailer deals. If you do it, get your own pressure washer in addition to whatever they buy. You will have a vastly different idea of "clean enough to work on" than they will.
Reply:Don't ALL horse trailers have wooden floors so the pee goes down on the iron and the horse don't slip?All the ones I worked on were like that and yes the ramp and the divider are what usually rusts away and needs repairing along with the paper thin angle iron that holds the wooden floor up.
Reply:Originally Posted by drujininDon't ALL horse trailers have wooden floors so the pee goes down on the iron and the horse don't slip?All the ones I worked on were like that and yes the ramp and the divider are what usually rusts away and needs repairing along with the paper thin angle iron that holds the wooden floor up.
Reply:I love horses...No, I hate horses.Wait, I love other people's horses....I don't want to own another woman with horses or another horse.My last wife(who knew nothing about horses) jumped up and bought one without telling me..AND an old steel 2 horse trailer with rotten wood floor and totally rusted out frame.I yanked the floor out and took a look at the frame and hauled it to a friend that needed work badly...Paid him to fix it...No way was I going to fool with that filthy rusty old crap.When she drug home the third horse and yet another dog, I divorced her and tore down the horse fencing and the new barn....IT IS A FACT that horse owners are not normal people....I place them in same trash bucket as goofy women that can't have enuff friggin cats.At 70 years of age, horse shoe art is an excellent choice of part time work. With a rolling rig, you can also perform lots of other stuff beside filthy rusty stinking rotted out horse trailers....The reason she tells you there are MANY to repair is because the horse owners refuse to properly wash the trailer after each use and wait until it is a total loss then search for some hungry fool to do it cheap...super cheap.The quickest way to turn a large fortune into a small fortune is to buy a horse.
Reply:Originally Posted by propanehotrodMost horse shoes are steel and easily welded. I haven't seen any aluminum ones but I'm not really a horse guy. I want my horses to have handlebars and BRAKES!
Reply:Originally Posted by old jupiterShe says she can get me all the work I want repairing horse trailers.
Reply:I used to do a lot of work for horse people. Stalls, stocks, breeding dummies, as well as lots of horse trailer repair. How much have I done in the last 8 years or so? None. I have had to absolutely refuse to work for horse people. Every hot check I have received in the last 40 years have come form horse people. They are literally too stupid to balance a check book. Women own 98% of all the horses in America today so that is who you are dealing with all the time. If you ain't a cowboy then you ain't got a reason to own one.
Reply:Originally Posted by BobI used to do a lot of work for horse people. Stalls, stocks, breeding dummies, as well as lots of horse trailer repair. How much have I done in the last 8 years or so? None. I have had to absolutely refuse to work for horse people. Every hot check I have received in the last 40 years have come form horse people. They are literally too stupid to balance a check book. Women own 98% of all the horses in America today so that is who you are dealing with all the time. If you ain't a cowboy then you ain't got a reason to own one.
Reply:Didn't know that about Aluminum trailers! I only looked at one briefly that a guy bought for his Draft Horses. You are probably right, maybe he had a Rubber Mat?
Reply:Boys, you have really come through for me here, not only answering my questions but telling me about a lot of other things that I didn't think to ask.  I hope each of you feels good about having saved a dumb old man from learning yet another lesson the hard way.  It's evident that I'd better stay with what I know, fixing busted excavators and skid-steers, and fabricating specialty buckets and attachments for same.  I thought horse trailers might be a change of pace and maybe open some new doors (the horsey folk around here SEEM to have money, based on the newness of their trucks and trailers, but I'm aware that some upper-middle-class neighborhoods house a lot of people who owe as much money as they make. Without being specific, I also know of certain categories of people, cutting across all the economic classes, who are notoriously slow-payers and/or cheapskates and/or a general pain in the butt. From what you tell me, it appears that I should add horse-owners to this list of customers to avoid.I guess i'll do a few horseshoe-art projects, at least for the neighbor lady, a great gal. If I were to make this stuff for her friends, I would require them to give me a hand-drawn sketch, not a photo. I glanced at "horseshoe art" on Google Images, and I wouldn't want to do a copy of what some other welder had dreamed up; you might get sued, and it's just wrong anyway.Thank you, thank you !!!Oh, "DSW", thanks for the specifics on running a PA machine off my engine-welder.  I have been tempted to buy a good portable PA unit for a long time, nothing to do with horse trailers, but have never pulled the trigger on it. I had supposed, without ever asking anyone, that my rebuilt Ranger 9 would handle a mid-sized portable PA without distress.  So you've given me food for thought.Last edited by old jupiter; 03-31-2016 at 01:05 PM.Plenty of horse shoe projects shown here in the sticky. No one here would have any issues if you copied what they made. Chances are even if you come up with an "original" project, someone's probably done something similar at some point some where.Yeah it's worth just checking out what they need for power 1st. If nothing else, send Jim Colt here a PM and he can tell you what the minimum power a PM 45 or PM 30 needs to run and what you can expect to cut at that power level. He can also confirm compressor size for the machines if need be. I used to run my Pm1000 off cylinders of high pressure air since I had easy access to a dive compressor and had cylinders on hand to fill dive tanks. My electric compressor is really too small to run my machine except for very short periods before the pressure drops below what the plasma can use and it shuts off..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by BobI used to do a lot of work for horse people. Stalls, stocks, breeding dummies, as well as lots of horse trailer repair. How much have I done in the last 8 years or so? None. I have had to absolutely refuse to work for horse people. Every hot check I have received in the last 40 years have come form horse people. They are literally too stupid to balance a check book. Women own 98% of all the horses in America today so that is who you are dealing with all the time. If you ain't a cowboy then you ain't got a reason to own one.
Reply:I ain't sayin NOT to perform repairs to horse trailers....To just not expect to make it central to your expected business plan....Just look over every job carefully and also the trailer owner, then get money for materials up front.
Reply:Originally Posted by CanoecruiserYou mean, like...blow-up doll for HORSES?!?!?  Ewww!!  Who cleans up after that night of bliss?YUCK!!
Reply:Originally Posted by CanoecruiserYou mean, like...blow-up doll for HORSES?!?!?  Ewww!!  Who cleans up after that night of bliss?YUCK!!
Reply:If you want an education look up how Bull Semen is collected.  It will "SHOCK" you.Boy, this thread turned.Dan D.Manipulator Of Metal
Reply:Originally Posted by bent30+ years ago SWMBO was looking for a house and some rural acreage.  She quickly learned if the real estate description said anything about horses the people house would be a run down POS not fit for the dog to live in.
Reply:Never figured my thread would have such a high amusement quotient, LOL!!  Since it's my thread, and I enjoy threads that wander off-topic, here's an irrelevant question.  "Worn-out," I would bet you went to see the movie, oh maybe 15 years ago, a dramatization of the Kursk disaster (for the rest of you, a  Russian sub that sank, big scandal there). I have no doubt at all that those poor guys showed the full measure of guts as the situation got worse and worse, but there was one thing in the movie version that I wondered about. As I recall it, a section of pipe or tubing or a fitting had split, and was blasting out very high pressure steam, highly radioactive steam. A volunteer, knowing it would be his death sentence even if he succeeded, was sent in to try to weld up the leak.  Of course, any American welder who happened to watch this movie would have marveled at the Russians' use of hand-held welding masks instead of helmets (which is definitely NOT to say the Russians don't know how to weld!!). But the part that got me was the actual weld attempt. The leak, as portrayed, and it seemed believable to me, was blasting steam out .  .  . while the poor welder was trying to lay a bead over the crack!  This just seems impossible to me.  First, is how does the puddle have any chance to solidify?  Second, since there was no chance of prepping the crack for a proper repair and you're trying to temporarily save the situation by laying new metal over a crack, and since welding would introduce a HAZ in the area, and since the material is probably not mild steel but something exotic and tricky-to-weld under the best circumstances, even if the welder did somehow seal the crack (he did, in the movie) the pipe is still under high pressure and likely to immediately rupture again.My guess, "Worn out," is that you guys (and the Russians) would have a supply of wrap-around cuffs of some material that can be held with band-clamps for emergency quick-fixes while you're trying to get everything shut-down and cooled-down.  Whatever, I'd like to hear your thoughts on that scene in the movie, because I've always been skeptical.Last edited by old jupiter; 04-01-2016 at 02:57 PM.
Reply:As to horses, and women, I have never taken title to either.  I gradually learned, a long time ago, that any relationship with a woman is a high-maintenance operation.  And I am just too self-centered, or maybe too lazy, to make a permanent deal out of what frankly is the only thing I need from a woman:  a quick, passionate affair lasting only a few months, weeks, or days, which ends the first or second time we argue, with me agreeing that it's all my fault, goodbye.  One of these, typical, occurred the second time the gal came to my house. I had the entire full basement for my lathe, mill, welders, rollover stands, woodshop, et al, and was renting out the three surplus bedrooms upstairs to other bachelors (foreign college students).  The living room, as you might expect, had bachelor-grade furniture:  recliner chairs and a couch picked up for free, ancient and threadbare, albeit clean (I insisted on that, and the students complied readily). I was racing outboards at the time, and had a couple of hydros leaned up against the walls of the living room, plus a racemotor on a stand, and just outside the wrap-around picture windows, on a covered outside deck you could see a couple more hydros and my Yamaha RD400.  So the gal walks into this bachelor living room, having walked through it once before with a faint air of dismay and disapproval on her face, and said, "Why do you need all these boats and toys?  If you sell some of them and make some space, we could go look for some good furniture, paint the place, get some decent curtains, .  .  .  ."  I'm looking at her thinking, "You do not get me AT ALL!!!"  Never called her again.  And though the years and decades, various wives of my acquaintances have asked me, "Why did you never find a nice girl and raise a family?"  My answer varies depending on whether I care about offending her or not, but basically it has to do with knowing I'd probably never have the money to support a mother, and put kids through college, AND repeat AND have all the toys and tools and freedom I want, .  .  .  so given that I had to choose between these .  .  .  well, the choice seemed so obvious to me as to hardly be worth a second thought.So while I am awfully fond of that gal next door, uh, no, N . . O .  . NO, I sure as blazes would never get close to a woman with horses!! The very idea, oh hah hah!!  But thanks for the warning!Last edited by old jupiter; 04-01-2016 at 03:48 PM.
Reply:Originally Posted by old jupiterNever figured my thread would have such a high amusement quotient, LOL!!  Since it's my thread, and I enjoy threads that wander off-topic, here's an irrelevant question.  "Worn-out," I would bet you went to see the movie, oh maybe 15 years ago, a dramatization of the Kursk disaster (for the rest of you, a  Russian sub that sank, big scandal there). I have no doubt at all that those poor guys showed the full measure of guts as the situation got worse and worse, but there was one thing in the movie version that I wondered about. As I recall it, a section of pipe or tubing or a fitting had split, and was blasting out very high pressure steam, highly radioactive steam. A volunteer, knowing it would be his death sentence even if he succeeded, was sent in to try to weld up the leak.  Of course, any American welder who happened to watch this movie would have marveled at the Russians' use of hand-held welding masks instead of helmets (which is definitely NOT to say the Russians don't know how to weld!!). But the part that got me was the actual weld attempt. The leak, as portrayed, and it seemed believable to me, was blasting steam out .  .  . while the poor welder was trying to lay a bead over the crack!  This just seems impossible to me.  First, is how does the puddle have any chance to solidify?  Second, since there was no chance of prepping the crack for a proper repair and you're trying to temporarily save the situation by laying new metal over a crack, and since welding would introduce a HAZ in the area, and since the material is probably not mild steel but something exotic and tricky-to-weld under the best circumstances, even if the welder did somehow seal the crack (he did, in the movie) the pipe is still under high pressure and likely to immediately rupture again.My guess, "Worn out," is that you guys (and the Russians) would have a supply of wrap-around cuffs of some material that can be held with band-clamps for emergency quick-fixes while you're trying to get everything shut-down and cooled-down.  Whatever, I'd like to hear your thoughts on that scene in the movie, because I've always been skeptical.
Reply:The boats I rode 23 years ago had freeze seal units and very well trained welders "Just in Case", but never would they enter the reactor compartment to attempt to weld a pressurized anything....When hot, the compartment is sealed tite and designed to contain a random leak that I have never heard of occurring.At the time, the US Navy owned and operated far more reactors than most of the world combined, and yes we experienced a few leaks, one of which was worse than 3 mile Island at the time....One was simply due to an improper valve line up and caused unrestricted release of primary at the pressurizer from overheating...It was in a US territorial country port, and you can believe we still go there to monitor and study the scene. And once I saw them dump lots of very contaminated resin in the floating drydock basin and into Ches bay..I am certain there are several more stories like those...And no, no one will ever be told.Yeah, I watched the movie, and yeah I grant holywierd license to make their movies sensational. One submarine move I have to state that was word for word totally factual, and submarine interior totally factual, was Hunt for red october as far as all that we saw and heard inside the US boat....I really enjoyed that movie.
Reply:Reminds me of when my wife says, "why don't you sell your 'fun' car -- you hardly ever drive it.  We could buy XYZ.".  Well, for starters, it's mine.  I bought it before we were married, and I'm going to keep it as long as I enjoy it.  It costs me less than $500 a year to keep it (including insurance), so it's not as though it is a money pit.  It's irrelevant how much I drive it; it's mine to use how I please.  Or she complains about my "toys" (i.e., tools).  All of my tools, without a single exception, have paid for themselves.  I should mention that I'm about the most frugal person you'd ever meet, so it's not as though I spend much (if I buy $100 worth of tools in a month, it's a big purchase for me).   Originally Posted by old jupiterSo the gal walks into this bachelor living room, having walked through it once before with a faint air of dismay and disapproval on her face, and said, "Why do you need all these boats and toys?  If you sell some of them and make some space, we could go look for some good furniture, paint the place, get some decent curtains, .  .  .  ."  I'm looking at her thinking, "You do not get me AT ALL!!!"  Never called her again.  And though the years and decades, various wives of my acquaintances have asked me, "Why did you never find a nice girl and raise a family?"  My answer varies depending on whether I care about offending her or not, but basically it has to do with knowing I'd probably never have the money to support a mother, and put kids through college, AND repeat AND have all the toys and tools and freedom I want, .  .  .  so given that I had to choose between these .  .  .  well, the choice seemed so obvious to me as to hardly be worth a second thought.So while I am awfully fond of that gal next door, uh, no, N . . O .  . NO, I sure as blazes would never get close to a woman with horses!! The very idea, oh hah hah!!  But thanks for the warning!
Reply:@ HT4956 - you are correct.  Kursk had an HTP fuel failure IIRC.  The joint Smit-Mammoet salvage operation entailing contracted divers, subsea suction pile installations,  diamond cutting saws to shear the hull, and the strand-jack system for lift/recovery was most impressive."Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Reply:For last 10 years I've kept my Harleys in the gameroom....Had many a woman pass thru that room...And several that stopped and said, "You have a motorcyle in your house?...They were never invited back...But the ones that jumped on it and demanded I take their pic were always funLOL and then there was the dance pole Last edited by wornoutoldwelder; 04-01-2016 at 04:18 PM.
Reply:Life in da MANCAVE
Reply:Originally Posted by wornoutoldwelderThe boats I rode 23 years ago had freeze seal units and very well trained welders "Just in Case", but never would they enter the reactor compartment to attempt to weld a pressurized anything....When hot, the compartment is sealed tite and designed to contain a random leak that I have never heard of occurring.At the time, the US Navy owned and operated far more reactors than most of the world combined, and yes we experienced a few leaks, one of which was worse than 3 mile Island at the time....One was simply due to an improper valve line up and caused unrestricted release of primary at the pressurizer from overheating...It was in a US territorial country port, and you can believe we still go there to monitor and study the scene. And once I saw them dump lots of very contaminated resin in the floating drydock basin and into Ches bay..I am certain there are several more stories like those...And no, no one will ever be told.Yeah, I watched the movie, and yeah I grant holywierd license to make their movies sensational. One submarine move I have to state that was word for word totally factual, and submarine interior totally factual, was Hunt for red october as far as all that we saw and heard inside the US boat....I really enjoyed that movie.
Reply:The shop I work at builds custom trailers and we repair trailers.  Lots of horse trailers. As noted above many of these are dragged around until broken.  Both  of us are 74, I'm in better shape than my boss.  We take a " no prisoners" approach to fixing these wrecks. My boss is not afraid to charge plenty especially if the trailers are not cleaned.  As a rule most of the repairable trailers are aluminum these days.  The steel ones are disappearing quickly.  They rust so bad that there is not much left of them.  It's often much more expensive to repair them than to go buy a used trailer and just scrap the wreck. So we simply explain the facts.We see a lot of aluminum trailers.  Most of the goose neck one have steel GN assemblies. These are usually installed with " Huck bolts" these are a very heavy duty thing much like a pop rivet.  You see them in semi trailer construction.  As a rule there is little repar on this part, maybe some modification but that's it.  The aluminum gets corroded badly around the floor and under the trailer.  We have cut frame sections out and replaced them as well as fixed floors and cross members.  Some still have wood floors but most that we see have aluminum floor with heavy rubber mat.  Lots of broken stall dividers and damaged loading doors and ramps.We also do updating, tack rooms, AC, hay racks etc.Brakes and axels take a beating both from rough roads and just sitting in manure piles.  I've taken brake drums off that had everything removable from the backing plate in them.  The brakes are making noise is the comment.  The prices of parts is such that we usually put loaded backing plates and new drums on instead of repairing.  Torsion axels are the norm now so we seldom see leaf springs any more.  The blg problem is that some mfg just bolt the axel to the frame with no electrical insulation between them.  This results in galvanic coorosion at the intersection.  As for welding almost all aluminum welding is done with spool gun. I very seldom TIG weld except where it was originally TIG welded. In any case clean is the word.We do use plasma cutter for both steel and aluminum.  I use a lot of cut off discs both for aluminum and steel.I guess that's the short of itLast edited by bentwings; 04-02-2016 at 07:48 PM.
Reply:Thanks for the good description of what you do, Bentwings, and always happy to hear from another old codger. Maybe we should start a thread asking who is the oldest feller stilling doing any welding for money; we might be surprised, I knew a guy who did fairly heavy-duty mobile welding into his late seventies! Anyway, I'm still a bit unclear (and the local owners don't know enuf to tell me) as to whether any or much of the seriously-structural stuff (the chassis) under the bodywork is also aluminum. As to the body, is that 5000 series?  Of course, the natural assumption with questions like this is that you can always call the manufacturer for info  .  .  .  I bet some of you are already laughing!!  More than once I have done this (most recently with a maker of aluminum dumptruck beds) and got someone who claimed to know, but got a slightly vague, hesitant answer that didn't sound right, leaving me where I was before the phone call. It sure can be hard to get to someone who KNOWS, and the poor switchboard lady has little idea of who it might be.Any blue-collar man learns early in life that there are not a lot of people who really know the answers, and very few who are willing to say, "I don't know," but a large number who will offer their opinion or best-guess, often with great certitude!!Bentwings, from thinking about your answer and the others above, this appears to be a sufficiently specialized line of work as to not make sense for somebody my age to start accumulating experience and expertise. I might let the gal next door talk me into working on her two trailers, but it doesn't look like anything to pursue beyond that, at this point in life.Last edited by old jupiter; 04-03-2016 at 12:21 PM.
Reply:As to the digression on Russian sub disasters and welding, thanks to our resident "bubbleheads" for setting me straight (so much for relying on my Altzheimered memory).  BTW, as to that term, my understanding has long been that while it was originally intended as a slight put-down, the submariners delightedly adopted it for themselves. Apologies if I'm wrong about this.The reputation for U.S. Navy submariners for having the world's best skills in reactor operation is well-known. As I understand it, we were lucky that at the start the nuclear navy was under the supervision of a humorless hard-core perfectionist, Adm. Hyman Rickover. The result has been that any civilian nuke plant operator always considers itself fortunate to hire all the ex-Navy nuke specialists it can get.  And that some of the headline power plant disasters here and overseas would not have happened had veteran American submariners been in charge of operations.Hat's off to ya.
Reply:And as to "man-caves," I'd say they only are a necessity to married men, a hideaway. With blue-collar bachelors like me, everything we have is "man-cave"!!
Reply:Originally Posted by old jupiterAs to the digression on Russian sub disasters and welding, thanks to our resident "bubbleheads" for setting me straight (so much for relying on my Altzheimered memory).  BTW, as to that term, my understanding has long been that while it was originally intended as a slight put-down, the submariners delightedly adopted it for themselves. Apologies if I'm wrong about this.The reputation for U.S. Navy submariners for having the world's best skills in reactor operation is well-known. As I understand it, we were lucky that at the start the nuclear navy was under the supervision of a humorless hard-core perfectionist, Adm. Hyman Rickover. The result has been that any civilian nuke plant operator always considers itself fortunate to hire all the ex-Navy nuke specialists it can get.  And that some of the headline power plant disasters here and overseas would not have happened had veteran American submariners been in charge of operations.Hat's off to ya.
Reply:Originally Posted by HT2-4956Just to be clear, I'm not a "bubblehead" and have never been out to sea on a nuclear submarine.   I did however spend 4 of my 6 year enlistment assigned to a nuclear sub tender working on them.   As to the term "bubblehead" it's my understanding that it started out as a derogatory term for members of the Shore Patrol (the Navy version of MPs) because of the white painted, round steel helmets they wore.  Not really sure how it morphed over to being slang for submariners.   Maybe "worn out" can enlighten us about that.
Reply:Originally Posted by wornoutoldwelder"The Bubble" is an inclinometerm and the term used on a boot sailor is, "Boy, you better get yerazz on bubble and keep it there!". At watch turnover for the Diving Officer, the term is, "Air in the banks, sh!t in the tanks, headed that way and on bubble. I stand relieved. Officer of The Deck, Cob has the Dive."
Reply:That is just one of seceral on ships control panel. There are several placed around control room. I've experienced 51 degree rolls at 400 ft-everyone strapped in or to something...Them thangs are round as a cigar and intended to be deep.  At very slow speeds, you use the whole boat as a depth control plane surface where you pump water forward/aft. At periscope depth at very slow speeds and Skipped wanted just 6" scope out of water, I'd pump a 1.5 up bubble on and never usually have to change my deep 5 knot trim...A few quick scope peeks to copy the sat and /or verify firing solution and back down....
Reply:As for material the aluminum trailers are made from....6063 is pretty common for structural parts. Tread plate is usually 3003 but sometimes you see 6061. It's much more expensive however. Sheets can be 3003, 6063, 6061 plus pre painted.  It's hard to tell as mfg. will optimize cost and fabrication.  Many have custom extrusions so they can be about anything.  Most clean material welds ok.  You can get a little feel for it by looking at the original welds.  Some companies really do a nice job on the welds they use....lots of cross members are welded only on one side and only vertical.  We see lots of this broken at the weld or just outside of it.  It makes for difficult cleaning.  We see lots of brake problems and wiring.  Most mfg do a good job of protecting wiring, it the repairs that someone has done that mess things up.We do a lot of side sheet repair too. It's tough to as they are glued and taped on.  A damaged rear sheet almost guarantees replacing the whole side. Yeah you might get away with a patch but it will look like crap due to color fade.  It depends on what the customer wants....we tell it like it is and explain what has to be done.It's fun building a big all aluminum car trailer or cargo trailer as welding is pretty easy and we design around making it  easy to build.  They aren't cheap but they hold up better here in the winter.Horse trailers rank right at the top of most difficult to work on followed by snowmobile trailers.