Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Been looking at Pics and checking post but I can come up with nothing. What are most people useing for edge trim that will bend a curve? It will be painted wood so the trim can be made out of just about anything. I'm easy. ( or at least that's what my my tells me )
Thanks for any help Scott

Scott, you can use any of the edge trims offered by the TD supply places which are dead soft and ready to bend or you can buy AL angle from the hardware or box stores and anneal it yourself to make it bendable...enter anneal or annealing in the search engine and get lottsa info....
madjack

Thanks just what I needed. You were right there was lots of good info. Never tried something like that before but I'm up to learning anything new.
Any use anything ather than AL ? like to look at all options
Thanks Scott

Scott, I had never done annealing before but got a piece of trim from the hardware store and played around with it...once you doit once or twice, it becomes real simple...you could do a wood and epoxy edge or afiberglass tape and epoxy edge or TrimLok sells a plastic edging called LipGuard (narrow and wide version)...I belive it can be bought by the foot from AustinHardware.......
madjack

This is what I used. I got it where I got my Filon. They use it on RVs. It takes a vinyl insert that covers the screws.

Gerdo wrote:This is what I used. I got it where I got my Filon. They use it on RVs. It takes a vinyl insert that covers the screws.

I noticed that the hurricane hinge I just received has a channel like that. Where do you get the filler strip? Anything available to match the AL? I am skinning in AL.

I used the the same strip on my hinge. ( It will shrink some over time) You can get the strip from Camping World. I got mine where I bought the molding. I got black but I thunk it only comes in black or white, but I may be wrong.

Scott...I've been working on my edge trim the last few days. I'm shooting for a 1.5" radius rounded solid ash edge, so it may be a lot more than you want. Looking at the curves on your profile, you can easily trim that out with wood should you just want to rip some strips and glue them on....here's what I'm doing...

First off...to round over such a thick piece, I first had to lay out where I wanted it to go on my profile...and give myself something to clamp to.



I planed to steam bend 5 strips of wood and glue them together. There are lots of ways to bend wood and set up a clamping form. I used a big dowel that I cut into pieces and knocked off one edge with a chisel to give something for my clamps to rest on.



I steam bent the wood on a teapot setting on a Coleman stove. I use a reclaimed piece of discarded gutter for the pipe stuffed with a rag in the end. About 15 minutes per 1/4 inch of wood thickness...



Clamp it up, let if dry for a day or two, then glue and reclamp. Your in business for a solid edge.



This is overkill for most. Depending on the type of wood you want to use, you can probably bend a 1/4 inch strip of wood around your radius without any steam bending...Hope that makes sense...

Thanks All

MadJack question on Fiberglass tape and Epoxy how smooth can it be sanded down. I'm very interested in Fiberglass for a future build. I think I might try that as a learning aid.

Juneaudave are you bending a 90 deg angle or just a flat solid piece

Gerdo Were did you get it and was it easy to bend a curve with?

I love this forum every one is so helpful

I'm building up a solid section...I'm cheap...by the time I cut out solid sections for the curves, I would waste a ton of boards. I'm in no hurry and this is just an economical way for me to go. While this is a solid section, I will rabbit in the edge that meets the template and roundover the top...effectively making a "angled" piece.

I think I can answer the fiberglass tape question too. When you lay down fiberglass you put on sevaral layers of epoxy. The first one or two applications of epoxy fill the weave of the glass; the remaining coats build up "sandable" layers. For a clear coat (where you see the wood), you want enough epoxy over the glass so that when you are sanding you don't hit the glass. If you hit the glass, you can't hide it on a clear coat. It's still structurally sound. If you are going to paint, don't worry. Anyway, you can produce an extremely smooth joint with glass and epoxy. I generally sand to 120 grit on raw epoxy before a finish.

BTW...even bias ply cloth is very hard to get right over a sharp corner. It may not lie flat and will want to pucker up. It's best to try a test strip to see your results.

Scott, we used the insert molding on our build...there are some pics on page 4 of my personal album and more under the WWW button...most RV places carry it but usually only inna white painted version...we got ours from The Metal Shop in Denver(???) inna mill finish...shipping cost a couple of times what the product cost...the insert can be found in black or white fairly easily from the same sources...oh yeah...it was dead soft and bent easily on both a 2' radius and a 1' radius...the 1'radius had to be given a little hammer persuasion.....
madjack

Thank You MJ and Juneaudave I have a couple of very good ways to go. I'm going to play with both ideas on scrap wood and then make a final choice.