Thanks all!
Wow, so many questions. I'll try to get to them here. If I skip something let me know...
Mike: CPES? Does that stand for penetrating epoxy sealer or something like that? I used straight ("neat") System Three epoxy. The epoxy sealer stuff has solvents added to it, which explain the toxic fumes. The solvents reduce the viscosity and let the epoxy penetrate into the wood further. You could add 10% solvent to neat epoxy yourself for the same effect. I wanted to go solvent free though. The birch plywood soaks the stuff up pretty well on the first coat anyway. And then the next coats provide a nice surface.
No photos of the galley for now. I'll post those as soon as I actually have something to show. It's basically the countertop right now. I'm looking into getting stainless steel fabricated for it. But the first quote I got was outrageous, so we'll see.
I did just take some photos of the main cabin interior though (ignore the severe barrel distortion from the wide angle attachment on the video camera):
This one shows the front inside storage area. The cushions are 5" thick each, so when stacked on top of each other are exactly the 10" height of the bottom of the storage area. I can also configure the cushions so that one becomes a back rest and covers up the access to the storage.
As you can see here, I routed some grooves at just over 1/4" to allow two 1/4" plywood sliding doors to cover the storage area. I haven't made the doors yet.
This photo shows the storage space at the foot of the bed, along with the fold-out child's bed platform. The storage area will have sliding doors just like the front storage. Neither frame nor doors are constructed yet though. The child' bed is 13.5" deep when folded and 27" when unfolded, as you can see in the following photo...
As far as the wood exterior, thanks for the advice both ways, but it's probably going to be covered. The wood may look nice in the photos, but you can't really see all of the filled screw holes, filled routed grooves to run wiring, etc. It wouldn't look so great in real life and I would have had to have built it differently from the get-go. The plywood is all Finland Birch. It's the whole interior too, so at least
I get to look at it! Very pretty stuff. Though you might notice the grain runs the opposite direction of most 4x8 plywood. It runs in the 4' direction, so I have vertical grain on my side walls.
Anyway, I want a low-maintenance, durable exterior and don't want to have to refinish exterior wood every so often. As far as painting the wood, I guess I should look into that. Though skinning in aluminum would seem to offer more protection from dings and scrapes. If anyone can convince me otherwise, I'm open to suggestions...
As far as the weight goes, as configured in the latest photos, and not counting the mattress, cooler, water, etc., the dry weight is around 850 lbs. Galley cabinets, fenders, and aluminum will bring that up 975-1,000 lbs.
And finally, Grant: when I finish this thing and the time comes to thank the multitudes of people without whom I would not have been able to do this project, your name will be at the top of the list (and I won't forget about you either, Mike!). We won't be able to make the Clearlake event this year unfortunately. Might get up to Redding later this summer though.
If I can't find .032 or .040 anodized aluminum at 5' wide for the sides (actually I just need 52" wide) , I'm thinking of running a horizontal seam halfway up (or down) the side. Or maybe getting the aluminum powdercoated to match the frame and fenders.
To everyone else: if you can manage to get ahold of Grant on the phone or e-mail; he's got incredible experience, knowledge, and advice. Take copious notes. And search the archives on Teardrop Times for his posts. Invaluable stuff.
Rik
