Things my father taught me

My father, Fred Reber, was a mechanic. When I was an infant, he worked in a government motor pool by day and officiated dirt track sprint car races on the weekend. Our family's first dining room furnishings were purchased with race track earnings.

(A finished wheel bracket)

By the time I was in school, my father had switched careers to become a lobbyist in state legislatures. He retained all of his tools and kept an exceedingly neat and organized workshop garage. He never really worked on cars after that, but I learned to use my hands and tools to repair things by watching and working alongside him. Lawn mowers, barbecue grills and my bicycles came under his care.

Gauging the steel

Today's lesson involves plate or sheet metal, thicknesses and getting something you can use that does not require special tools or machinery.


I went to The Steel Yard this morning knowing that they sold plate metal, which I'm told is what I'm looking for, in scraps as well as full sheets. A phone call last week was answered by a helpful sales person who told me that 1/8" thickness steel plate, which is what is specified in the plans, would be 10 gauge and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to bend and shape with only a vice and a hammer. He said 11 gauge would probably work and was not that much thinner.

First steps, material sources

Given the instructions and even the name of the trailer, Bamboo, I thought my first task was to find bamboo. I had a source, Bamboo Craftsman Company just a short ride from the house. I called, but they were not open. Next, I looked at the metal fabrication diagrams. These cover the towing brackets and wheel brackets. I figured the metal I could find at a local hardware store. Not so. There really wasn't anything significant left other than wheels, which I knew I would have to purchase at a local shop.