A Little Tearapy

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A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:48 am

Some backstory...

A little over a year ago we were dealt an unexpected life change, followed shortly thereafter by some scary health challenges. Since then it has been a slow process of adjustment and adaptation. In that process we looked at our lives and how we could simplify. What things could we purge from the stress of living to focus on what was really important? One of those stressful things for me anyway, was our camper. Our family had nearly outgrown it's usefulness. We hardly ever used it. It required too much of my attention to maintain. It was large enough to make me anxious whenever we pulled it somewhere. And it still required some time to set up and tear down when we did camp. I felt that the longer this literal weight sat around, it's value and my psyche would depreciate. So we came up with a price and we listed it for sale.

At the same time we still wanted to be able to camp comfortably, sleep off the ground, cook outside and have very little setup which included easy, lightweight towing. It was then I discovered the idea of a teardrop camper. Mind you, as small as they are, they are not cheap! Let's rethink this. A little more digging and I found a forum of (you) people that build their own teardrops. What!? People DIY these?! Now my excitement was growing. I'm not one to turn down a building project where I get to plan, design AND build something. Now we're onto something. During this time we were still adjusting to new routines in our life and trying to get "back to normal." What could be better therapy than working on a build project together and enjoying it together when it's done? And so "A Little Tearapy" was named. It became our therapy to work on something together where we can make decisions, communicate, collaborate, work and simply take our minds off other life stressors, all with a common goal. And when it's done, it will continue to provide us therapy in the outdoors, where we love to go together and spend our time with nature.

Now on to the build!...

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Last edited by erfnie on Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:07 pm

The planning and design stages
Most of the design has been drawn up in SketchUp. Love that program, BTW. These were initial drawings and some design elements have changed along the way since we have started building. It's been a lot of back and forth from the computer to the garage for measurements/ideas before applying each step to the actual build.
The basic plan... It will be a 6-wide by as tall as possible while still fitting through the garage door with a rooftop tent box on top. (That's what the box is on top in the scale model photo). There will be a pass thru window to the galley. The inside will consist of seat boxes for storage and air space/insulation for the mattress from the floor. There will be cushions on top of the boxes. Both the cushions and the seat tops can be rearranged to allow for more comfortable seating. There will also be a table top that can be set up to go with the variable seating arrangement. The outside is going to be PMF with a painted design on it. All built on a 6x10 aluminum trailer with some extra space at the front for a trailer box and possible extra cargo carrying space.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:14 pm

Ok, I'm adding chunks at a time and hope I'm going about this the right way as I'm new to this posting stuff... :NC

The Template-Part 1


First order of business is to make a full-size template. We scored some free lumber from our local building supply. They put out free scraps occasionally. We even got some hollow core doors that make for a perfect work table. Anyway, the plywood scraps weren't quite big enough so we pieced them together like so...
First a strip of fiberglass drywall tape. Then titbond glue to fill it in. A piece of plastic on the table helps to keep it from sticking to the work surface.
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Spread it all out to get in the grooves of the tape using one of my favorite tools - an old gift card.
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Now we let it dry and flip it over to do the same on the other side.
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And this is what we have when it's all done.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby OP827 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:59 pm

Welcome to the forum! Your Sketchup model is looking great. All the best with the build, subscribed.

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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby Pmullen503 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 9:34 pm

You might want to build mock ups of those seating boxes and try them out. Now's the time to see if that will be comfortable. Most TDs don't have seating like that.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Mon Mar 09, 2020 8:26 am

The Template Part 2
Using a direct printout from the SketchUp plan, we proceeded to transfer all the measurements and lines to the big piece of template with as much accuracy as possible. This template will be used to cut our skeleton sidewalls. It will also help us know where the solid sections are for later when the walls are eventually sandwiched and hidden.
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Here are the tools we used, including a homemade crude, but effective, compass that has a screw on one end and a pencil on the other to make the curved parts.
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The outer profile shape cut out.
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After the outer profile shape was cut, we penciled in voids in strategic spots to cut out to lighten the weight and later add insulation into.
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The final profile template.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Tue Mar 10, 2020 8:47 am

Stretching Plywood for Floor and Walls
The floor pieces
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We planned to use the spice and spline method. First we cut a groove along the edges of the plywood using the router, then cut and sanded some splines to snugly fit in those grooves.
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Then we put it all together with glue, hammer (and a block of wood so as not to damage the edges while hammering)
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Here it is all together and drying. It helped to put a piece of plastic underneath so we didn't accidentally glue the floor to the work surface! :o
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We'll trim off the excess later after it's dry. This same method was used to stretch the sidewall pieces.
Last edited by erfnie on Tue Mar 10, 2020 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby tony.latham » Tue Mar 10, 2020 9:08 am

It almost looks as if you've done this before.

The almost in my hypothesis is that your glue bottle isn't big enough... :?

I went through 1-1/2 gallons of Tightbond II on this last build. My wife bought one of these FastCap dispensers two Christmas's ago for my stocking. A great $8 addition to the shop.

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Keep the photos coming. :applause: It looks like a great teardrop in-the-making. :thumbsup:

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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Tue Mar 10, 2020 1:00 pm

tony.latham wrote:It almost looks as if you've done this before.

The almost in my hypothesis is that your glue bottle isn't big enough... :?

I went through 1-1/2 gallons of Tightbond II on this last build. My wife bought one of these FastCap dispensers two Christmas's ago for my stocking. A great $8 addition to the shop.


Keep the photos coming. :applause: It looks like a great teardrop in-the-making. :thumbsup:

Tony


:lol: I've built many things before, just not a teardrop camper. That Gorilla Glue bottle you see, we just keep refilling with Titebond, but I think the dispenser is a better idea. It probably holds a lot more than the GG bottle we're using! Plus, we won't have to pry off the hardened glue on the cap every time we go to use it :fb
No worries on our glue stock, we have about 2-3 gallons for backup. Figured we'd stock up when the sale was going on :thumbsup: Also figured we'd go thru a lot when it comes time to glue on the canvas skin later.

And thanks! Lots more photos to come...
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Wed Mar 11, 2020 8:11 am

The Floor
Once the whole floor piece was spliced together we proceeded to finish the bottom before we attached it to the trailer frame. We decided against an insulated floor because there will be an airspace between the mattress and floor on the inside that will also be used for storage. Thought that would suffice. The floor is 5/8".
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Knowing the end finish would be PMF, we first glued canvas strips to the edges to allow for some overlap/underlap on the sides later and also because we wouldn't be able to wrap this around the bottom once the floor is attached to the frame. It was a good trial run to see how this PMF things would work, too. :thinking:
Then we slopped on some mix, primer and a couple coats of exterior paint. By the way, I didn't like the "Green Envy" used in the mix. It didn't mix very well and will be using paint thinner from here on out. But because we had it at the time we used it - about 5 coats worth.
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It was finally time to attach the floor! We used some heavy duty adhesive to hold and seal the floor to the frame. The human steam roller technique worked as well as it could to press the floor down tight. :lol: Then we finished the securing with some elevator? bolts that the trailer place gave us to use in the aluminum frame.
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby tony.latham » Wed Mar 11, 2020 9:17 am

I've built many things before..


That's apparent. Your floor--with a pad--looks nap-able. :applause:

T
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby breb » Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:12 am

Nice start on your project. I too planned a seat in my build. I created a drop box in floor and utilized the floor lid as the seat (still need to have three piece cushion\mattress made) and second cushion for back rest. Your moving right along. Do you have a time frame in mind for your build?
I like your spline method for joining . I used scarf joints on template and walls . Walls are 1/2" exterior ply, 3/4" poplar core and 1/4" interior ply. Splines in the 1/4" and 1/2" thick ply would be a challenge . So was scarfing my joints. Any wave in that ply and you have irregularities in thickness and seams. My build was 5x10 and a Little higher since I was joining 5x5 sheet stock. You'll be camping in no time . Good luck

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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:20 pm

breb wrote:Do you have a time frame in mind for your build?


Well, we're taking our time on this and hoping by Labor Day Weekend at the very latest, we can use it.

Walls are 1/2" exterior ply, 3/4" poplar core and 1/4" interior ply.


Wow, that sounds pretty thick. It will be solid for sure. I keep reminding myself to not overbuild and "keep it simple, stupid". I have a tendency to overdue things. :oops: We're also trying to keep the weight down.

I used scarf joints on template and walls .

I looked at different joint methods too, but the splines seemed to be the easiest way to go since I hadn't used the router much before this. I can't figure out why I waited so long to get one. I love that tool! :D
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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby DaddyJeep » Wed Mar 11, 2020 3:07 pm

Shop time certainly is good therapy. It requires you to focus on the task at hand and not all that other stuff life throws at you... at least for a few hours at a time. I love your design and it is coming together nicely so far.
My big hybrid toy hauler with lots of curves build viewtopic.php?f=50&t=69618

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Re: A Little Tearapy

Postby erfnie » Thu Mar 12, 2020 12:08 pm

Cutting Out the Sidewalls

The sidewalls were first pieced together just like the floor with splines and grooves.
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Then we laid the template on top and traced all the holes and edges. We only veered from the template once,
on one "hole" toward the bottom, just to leave a little more strength and stability.
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We screwed both wall pieces together in the areas of the holes (which would be cut out anyway),
and cut both pieces at one time with a jigsaw.
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A close up of the edge showing the spliced joint.
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Then I got my new favorite tool - the router - and carved out a 1-1/2 x 1/4 inch ledge from the start of the hatch,
all the way around to the front bottom. The roof structure edges will sit on this lip.
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Talk about making sawdust fly, what a mess it is! 161308 :laughter: 8)
Lastly, we routed a groove for the wire that would go to the switch for the porch light to be sandwiched in the wall later.
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I think we're ready to build some 3-dimensions soon!
Erfnie (and Azua ;) )
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