Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am getting ready to do my doors and am thinking about T-molding.
I am working on making Wood T-molding.
I tried to make a small one to see if I could do it on a table saw. Found that a little dangerous, had parts fly back and hit me but they were small not one long piece. I have a wood worker down the street who might have some ideas.

I would then sand the top more rounded. My door ways are square.
I am thinking a router on a router table might be more the thing.

These are done in soft pine the real one would be hardwood maybe Popular. They will be about 3 feet long one each side of the doors and one ton top of each side door.

They idea is not to make it too thin or crack and not to thick or it would not work.

I found one member who did it years ago. noseoil memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=21042 impressive build but I did not find where he used them, maybe a former build.

Have any of you tried this or got any ideas.

Ron

Poplar would be easily machinable, but not very long lasting outside. I would consider white oak or walnut. Both are quite weather resistant and strong enough to resist breaking while you're attaching them. If the wood is straight grained you should be able to make some nice pieces. Red oak, which is much more common, is too porous.

Ron,

You can use the San Luis Obispo Makerspace's wood shop up to 15 hours a week FOR FREE with a local library card to make the parts for your teardrop. They have a good assortment of tools, like a big table saw, chop saw, router table, wood planer, sanders and workbenches you can use. If you're a paid SLO Makerspace member and have training you can use their 4' x 8' CNC router table. The Makerspace is filled with tools and specialized work spaces that can help you build your teardrop more easily. It would be a good place to make your doors and the trim pieces.

Welcome SLO Library Patrons!
SLO MakerSpace and the San Luis Obispo County Library have started a collaboration to open up the Central Coast’s only MakerSpace for limited hours to all SLO Library card holders!
Open Library Hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 4pm-7pm
Saturday: 10am-1pm
All Library card holders must take our free Basic Safety Course prior to using the MakerSpace. Some machines, such as the Laser cutter, CNC router, 3D printers, wire-feed welder, and CNC mini-mill, require certification classes, which are $25-$50 each and the responsibility of the member or library card holder to pay for. See our calendar for class times.

I'm going to use their wood shop to make it easier to build my teardrop.

+1 on the wood choices. White oak should be a lot cheaper and harder wood.

But I'm trying understand why you want a T-molding in the first place. Is this overlapping something or is the T just to insert into a dado in the door? If so, it's not really necessary for strength. A good glue joint is stronger than the surrounding wood and if you make as shown, there will be both less glue surface and make a weaker spot for the wood to split the base of the T off. But as an alternative, you could just use a router or table saw to make a slot, then insert a (cross-grain) spline. Or I could be completely misunderstanding your intent.

woodywrkng wrote:Poplar would be easily machinable, but not very long lasting outside. I would consider white oak or walnut. Both are quite weather resistant and strong enough to resist breaking while you're attaching them. If the wood is straight grained you should be able to make some nice pieces. Red oak, which is much more common, is too porous.

VijayGupta wrote:+1 on the wood choices. White oak should be a lot cheaper and harder wood.

But I'm trying understand why you want a T-molding in the first place. Is this overlapping something or is the T just to insert into a dado in the door? If so, it's not really necessary for strength. A good glue joint is stronger than the surrounding wood and if you make as shown, there will be both less glue surface and make a weaker spot for the wood to split the base of the T off. But as an alternative, you could just use a router or table saw to make a slot, then insert a (cross-grain) spline. Or I could be completely misunderstanding your intent.

woodywrkng wrote:Poplar would be easily machinable, but not very long lasting outside. I would consider white oak or walnut. Both are quite weather resistant and strong enough to resist breaking while you're attaching them. If the wood is straight grained you should be able to make some nice pieces. Red oak, which is much more common, is too porous.

T molding used mostly around doors keep the weather out and hide opening around door.
https://www.socalteardrops.com/parts.php?cid=2&pid=24
as an example but I want to try wood. I have not curves in the door.