Joe's Teardrop Build

[JoeGrz]

Looks good so far Joe!

Sure is nice to have the author of that certain book available to answer a few questions, eh?

It certainly is nice to have him looking over my shoulder keeping me in line and giving me encouragement. The book has everything in it. I have not had many questions at all. The hard part is remembering what I read when I start doing. Thanks Tony

This week we completed the walls. Nothing left to do with them but fill some holes and rough spots inside and out, trim some areas where the router paths did not cross (see area up by where the spar goes and at the end of the bottom where the lip and floor come together), and varnish the interior. Hopefully, the sanding will complete this week so I can place the first layer of varnish on the walls and floor before the weekend. Here is what the two sides look like

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20200823_185017 Right Small.jpg (34.73 KiB) Viewed 2147 times

Well, I thought I was finished. Thinking about it, I still need to mark the Hatch pivot point. I should have marked it from the template before I put the shelve supports on. Oh, well. If that's the extent of my problems, I'm not doing that bad.

[tony.latham]

The book has everything in it.

Thanks, Joe.

That thing was a lotta damn work. But it's worth it when I read stuff like this.

Tony

[JoeGrz]

Finishing the sides and floor this weekend. Yesterday I coated the bottom side of the floor with epoxy and let that sit in the garage for the afternoon before putting everything away for the night. Today I was hoping for the first two coats of varnish on the interior surfaces. Got up, had my coffee and looked out the window and it was raining. That was not in the plan for the morning especially since it had not rained in a few weeks. Well, we ran some errands and the sky cleared about noon. Backed the car out of the garage, pulled the sides off the top of the stack, and then flipped the floor over on to the first set of saw horses. That is a heavy piece. It is best to get help with that. Put the second set of horses out in the driveway and moved the two sides to them. I gave each side a final sanding then masked the edges so that the glue surfaces would stay clean. Give yourself plenty of time for the masking. It took much longer than I thought it would to do it right. Placed the first coat of varnish on the two side walls then the floor.

Here is the floor after the epoxy

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There is only a single coat of epoxy on the floor. Do I need to go back and put another coat on to gain some thickness or should one coat be sufficient?

Here is one of the walls after the varnish today

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And finally, the floor and the other wall

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I had never applied varnish. One thing I noticed is that I needed to be better about getting it evenly applied. I have dark stripes on the sides. Hopefully those will even out with the next coats. These have all been sanded tonight so that I can move them out tomorrow morning and varnish them first thing. Hopefully, I will get the last two coats on tomorrow. After that, I will build the framing to assemble on. I will have casters so that it can roll in and out of the garage to be worked on. If all goes well, next weekend will be the bulkheads and shelves. One thing I noticed is that I did not leave an area masked to glue the counter and the shelves. I will have to use screws alone to secure those

[tony.latham]

Looking fine and dandy.

Tony

[JoeGrz]

Progress moves on. Saturday I built the build stand. Sunday and Monday, I cut out the bulkheads, shelf/galley counter and headboard rails. the final task for the day was clean up the glue and varnish that ran down the dados, square them up and dry fit the pieces. I decided to square up the headboard dados instead of round over the edges of the rails. I figured in the end, I would get confused and try to fit the miss matched ends together. At the end of the day, there is something that resembles a teardrop in the garage.

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The bulkheads and counter are Home Depot Birch. Just that much more convenient to get then the Baltic Birch which is a good half hour away and not open nights and weekends. Unfortunately, the sheet ran out before I could get the lower headboard rail so I used a BC sheet piece that is similar to the center core of the walls. If all goes well, I won't see it much after I put the mattress in. That piece is a little long and will need to be trimmed by about a 1/16 or 1/8. It was just slightly overhanging the edge. The counter, on the other hand, came out a little narrow and there is a spot where the guide I was using led me astray, even after checking my measurements. Those little things will be covered by a piece of quarter round or cove it I can find one small enough.

Next up, disassemble it, trim the one piece, cut some dados in the lower bulkhead, varnish and reassemble.

[tony.latham]

Joe:

It’s great watching this come together.

Typing this I’m the dark. No power in the middle of Idaho.

Tony


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[JoeGrz]

The project crossed a milestone this weekend. The pieces of the teardrop will never be laid flat again. Two weeks ago, I dry fitted the parts. This weekend, I glued and screwed it all together
For whatever reason, not much got done last weekend. I put varnish on the various parts and that's about it. I have no idea where the rest of the weekend went. This weekend I put a final coat of varnish on all the parts, assembled all but the upper bulkhead, cut the hatch spar to size and fit it in place, and assembled the ceiling. The glue of which is now on its 24 hour cure. I didn't bother with a picture since it looks a lot the last picture.

This week I will be replacing the Kreg screws with flat head wood screws, securing the countertop, hopefully get all the parts for the headboard and shelf complete, and, if there's time, varnish the hatch spar and ceiling.

[tony.latham]

The project crossed a milestone this weekend.

Tony

[JoeGrz]

There are more little trim pieces to the build than I thought. That turned out to be this weekend's task. I was hoping to get all these pieces cut and ready to go so they could be finished. Of course it doesn't help that Saturday just kind of evaporated before I could get anything started. The other two days were busy though. I cut the top shelf, installed the angle for the galley counter support and attached the galley counter, cut the face for the lip/finished edges of the shelves, cut the rails for the headboard doors and the headboard shelf. I have also placed the front ledge to support the headboard shelf but didn't get it secured before the day ran out. I still need to cut out the galley supports which leads me to some of the challenges that I have.

First is the countertop. It is sized to fit a Camp Chef Everest stove plus a little more for the propane bottle. I looked ahead today to see how the hatch was going to fit together and noticed that there is not enough space for the gusset on the hatch. Three options are to trim down the counter, notch the gusset or notch the counter. I can unbolt the counter from the angle and trim about an inch or so from the end. I am not sure that will be enough though. I think I may still be notching one or the other.

The other issue is the upper bulkhead was very tight when I put it in to trim and angle it. It also appeared to push the side out. I trimmed it down a touch to where it is not as tight a fit but it still appears to push the side out a little bit. The dado looks clean so the only thing that I can think of to check is to see if it is square. Things to work out this week

Here is the galley end. You can see how close to the edge of the teardrop the counter comes. I hate to cut it back but I think it will be a problem later on.

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Here is looking at the front of the cabin. You can see the two shelves with the fronts clamped on. You can also see where I will place the ledge to support the headboard shelf. I have a little piece that will go over the top of the upper support to finish that edge. I am considering placing the door rails on top and bottom of the headboard rails to finish those edges. I will try to find some way to clamp them in place to see if it leaves enough room to get things in and out.

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And finally here is a picture with the ceiling assembly set on the cabin walls to get it out of the way. It is upside down but that makes it easier to get it on the benches with the good side up. It is a little long. I originally trimmed the wrong side of the sheet and it would not bend. I added some additional to the little stub piece on the end and it appears to be more than I needed. I will wait until the final fit up before I trim it. This is also the first time that I could get a feel for what the inside would be like

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Well that's it for this week. Slow progress, but progress still. Hopefully all these pieces will be finished and at least some of them installed on the teardrop at the end of next weekend

[JoeGrz]

Slow progress continues. Last week I watched paint dry. Well. Spar Urethane. No real progress, nothing assembled and nothing to show. This week saw the edge applied to the shelf, the head board shelf and door tracks installed and the ceiling. I also learned that square isn't really square. I had a terrible time getting the ceiling to where it looked like it sat in square. When I finally got it to sit against the upper bulkhead square, I pulled it off, put the glue down and never got is back to where it sat square against the wall. In fact, I didn't get it against the wall. I'm not sure why I couldn't get it in the right place but since the glue was down, I decided to start securing before the glue secured it for me.

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And the front and back of the interior.

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I was really hoping to get the cabinet doors in but I ran out of time. I bought some 1/4"/5mm underlayment for the doors but may have to get some home depot birch for the doors since underlayment is warping standing against the wall. I will cut one or two out and see how they do. Looking at the back, you can see the light passing through where the ceiling and the bulkhead come together. After I get the supports in, I will look at it again. If necessary, I will add a trim piece to hide the gap. I should get the galley counter supports and the top interior shelf completed but they need to be finished. I would rather spend my time cutting and building so I will probably put the roof supports in. Once the cutting is finished and the dust has settled, then I will return to finishing. This project is taking considerably more time than I thought so now I am trying to get to where I can put exterior finish on and come back to some of the interior finish out.

[tony.latham]

Last week I watched paint dry...

It's amazing how much time is consumed with varnishing. I find it a bit fatiguing.

Tony

[JoeGrz]

It's amazing how much time is consumed with varnishing. I find it a bit fatiguing.

It's not so much the varnishing but the fact that I can't do anything else with it because of the dust. I still have a couple pieces that need the finish that will be varnished while I am wiring the trailer. I will be actually able to do something productive while the varnish dries.

This weekend I put on the roof framing. I cut the 1x3" nominal poplar down to 2 inches wide and then added the notches for the wiring. Here's what I had to show after the first day

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The second day I spaced out the supports and put them on. I looked at the pictures in the book for the installation and I think the roof sat all the way across the walls as opposed to inside the walls as the ceiling did. That meant that some of my supports had to be raised up. I don't know if I miss cut the walls or if something else went wrong. I had to push the ceiling up to the spar, then staple. That worked well for most of the attachments. There were some that I saw light through when I drove the staple. Thinking that I didn't put in a staple, (my cheap HF stapler is prone to misfires) I hit it again, then again. When you see light, it actually means you missed. I did it on one side of the roof spar. Then on the next time, I did it on the opposite side of the spar. The moral of this story is to look at each side to verify that it was a misfire and that not a miss. Otherwise it went well. A little bit of wood filler should make the ceiling look almost as good as new. And if not, well there is always primer and paint. No one will know any different.

Anyhow, as they say, no pictures, it didn't happen. Here are the pictures

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Looking at the front, the two close ones are where I placed the spar to support the diamond plate. You can also see on the left (the fuzzy side since it gets dark so early) where I cut the side to short. I will put the blocking in and then fill with epoxy.
Next weekend we will put the sides of the fan opening in and the blocking. If things go really well, I may start the wiring. Wiring is the one place where I have a question for you Tony. How does the battery and tail light wire enter the trailer cabin? Looking at pictures, it appears to come up through the bottom next to the battery. What I can't figure out and didn't see where you explained is how to seal the opening. I know they make cable glands for larger wire but I think the floor thickness might make them unusable. This is especially important because I want to have my primary charge from the tow vehicle and then solar as the secondary. I am thinking I want a roof rack that will make roof mounted solar ineffective. I have to drive a minimum of 6 hours to anywhere but the canyon, so why not charge from the vehicle. When I get to my destination, I will deploy the solar panel to keep the battery topped off.

[tony.latham]

How does the battery and tail light wire enter the trailer cabin? Looking at pictures, it appears to come up through the bottom next to the battery.

I took mine up through the floor and sealed the hole with PL3 adhesive.

When you see light, it actually means you missed.

I put a trouble light next to the spar I'm aiming for so you can see it from down below.

You can kinda see it here:





Tony

[JoeGrz]

Thanks Tony. The adhesive will give me a good seal and I shouldn’t have to pull the wires out after they are installed. I did use the light and hit most of the roof spars. There were a couple instances that the edge was a little fuzzy due to a sag in the ceiling. I usually got it right but missed a couple.

This week’s progress wasn’t much. I placed the blocking between the roof spars as well as the longitudinal supports for the fan. Cutting them out took longer than anticipated so that’s all that got done this weekend when mixed with the other things that needed taking care of. I was hoping to run wires this week but the cold front came through and the garage is too cold to work. I may have to focus some time this week to finding a safe means of heating the garage.

[tony.latham]

but the cold front came through

How cold is it?

Tony