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Measurements

Trailer Suspension Mounting – Misdirection !!

May 28, 2022May 14, 2022 by Mechanic
Suspension Mounting Too Close

Shopping online is both a boon and a bust.  It’s great access to a wide variety of components, but it’s a bummer when misleading info causes extra work and frustration.  That brings us to this Customer Story of misguided

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Categories Customer Stories, News Tags Customer Story, Customize, Measurements, Steel, Strength, Trailer, Welding Leave a comment

Engineering: Calculate Beam Loading (Intro)

March 4, 2022May 27, 2021 by Mechanic

As a simplistic introduction to beam loading, this article discusses the complications in calculating stresses and deflection.  While it’s pretty easy to calculate beam loading for simple theoretical cases, very few beams

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Categories Adventures Tags Analysis, Calculation, Force, Measurements, Press, Safety Leave a comment

How To Measure A Bolt Pattern

August 23, 2021January 18, 2021 by Mechanic
Various Wheel Bolt Patterns

What is the bolt pattern on your trailer wheels?  For the most part it doesn’t matter because you’re not changing wheels that often, yet when it does matter, it really matters.  Here is some good info to measure and calculate

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Bolts, Calculation, Measurements, Tire Leave a comment

Get Thread Tapping Straight

February 7, 2022August 26, 2020 by Mechanic
Thread Tapping Straight

A Tap and Die set is a near must for a DIY fab shop.  While the thread creating functions are pretty easy to visualize, sometimes getting the tread to start straight and run true is a different matter.

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Bolts, DIY, Drilling, Measurements, Tips, Tools 1 Comment

Reasonably Accurate Way To Bend Metal

June 15, 2021August 18, 2020 by Mechanic
Bend A Metal Bracket

There are a bunch of ways to bend metal for a bracket.  Do a search on YouTube and you’ll likely find several techniques.  Well, we don’t want to dis any of those because

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Categories Mechanics Tips, Solutions! Tags Fabrication, Measurements, Press, Steel, Video Leave a comment

Drill Matching Bolt Holes

February 9, 2022August 3, 2020 by Mechanic
Drill Matching Bolt Holes

So many times we need to make matching holes to bolt something on.  You purchased something to mount on your trailer or your workbench or some other project, but now you need the exact

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Bolts, Calculation, Drilling, Measurements, Video Leave a comment

Threaded Rod For Custom Bolts

June 16, 2021July 9, 2020 by Mechanic
All Thread or Threaded Rod

You can use threaded rod (often called All-Thread) for a million things.  Make a long bolt, or just the right size fastener.  It’s also good for special brackets if you weld to it.  And, if you’re not careful, you can make it fail in a million ways too.

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Categories Mechanics Tips, Solutions! Tags Best Practices, Bolts, DIY, Measurements, Solutions! Leave a comment

Tricks To Weigh Heavy Things

July 19, 2021June 18, 2020 by Mechanic
How To Weigh A Trailer

Do you need to weigh something really heavy but don’t have access to an industrial scale?  How can I weigh heavy things — like a trailer frame — without a special super heavy duty scale?

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Calculation, DIY, Force, Measurements, Trailer, Video Leave a comment

Do You Have Plans In Metric?

October 13, 2021February 11, 2020 by Mechanic
Plans In Metric

Virtually everything on the internet is by definition “World Wide”.   Even though Mechanical Elements (Synthesis Engineering Services) is physically located in the USA, we have a world audience, so it’s a fair question

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Categories Plans Info Tags Calculation, Measurements, Plans, Testing Leave a comment
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