Joe's Teardrop Build

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Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:50 pm

Hello All
My son planted the seed for a teardrop last fall after a camping trip we had taken. The idea grew from nice idea to I need one. After looking at many of the many of the designs out there, I started to design one for my wife and myself. The only problem is that I noticed Paralysis by Analysis. Yes, I was playing with ideas but having never been in one and having no idea as to what is a good idea or a bad idea it was going nowhere. To get moving forward, I found a couple designs and picked one of those. Some of you may be familiar with a book titled "Building a Teardrop Trailer, Plans and Methods for Crafting an Heirloom Trailer." That is the one I selected after weighing my options. I have bought doors rather than build them and I am making some other minor changes to accommodate some things that I think I want but that is basically the plan.

I have been at this about a month although my progress has not been as rapid as I would have liked. Teardrop Build Tip One - make sure your yard sprinkler is in good working order. 30 year old systems take time to repair, especially when the pipes are brittle and the and the isolation valves leak.

I put my template together and traced the profile and cut it out. As you will notice, when you don't have much space, any flat surface becomes storage

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Here I am tracing the profile. When you don't have much space, any flat surface becomes a bench
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In my spare time, I put the skeleton boards about 3/4 inch plywood. I say that because, for what ever reason, sheet wood does not come in even dimensions. Because of this, I was unable to make the spline attachment in the book. I would have loved to cut a 1/4" slot and place stacked 1/8" baltic birch in the slot but my 1/8 baltic birch is 3mm and my 1/4 inch piece of board that I bought for the batten is 5 mm. After pondering the question of where now, the skeleton boards are put together using 8 Biscuits each. Sorry, no pictures of that. A 10 foot piece of plywood is just not that interesting.

After a little time passed I marked the critical things on to the template. A dimensional bust I found was in the location of the front storage area (Headboard Dados). To fit an 80 inch queen mattress, locate the inside/cabin edge of the rail at 11 inches as shown on page 20 and not 10 inches from the ceiling as shown on page 64. I am pointing this out for the next guy that tries this. I work in the construction industry and have seen it happen many times, including designs I have created so i was no big deal to me. Anyhow, onward. Apparently there is a limit to pictures so I will continue on a second post.
JoeGrz
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:07 pm

Continuing
As I said earlier, I purchased doors to save time and hope they would fit better than what I would build. To make the cut out, I placed the door on the template and traced the flange that passes through the wall.

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Guess what? The door didn't fit. After some fiddling, I found that there are pieces attached to the flange, looks like plates and fasteners and such. So after expanding the opening, the door fit

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All's good so far and I though I would have a picture of the skeleton for you but disaster struck next. Tip number 2. Check the collar that holds the bearing on the trim router bit in place and make sure it is tight.

I stacked my two boards for the skeleton, lined them up just right, screwed the template and the boards together, cut the excess off with the jig saw (talk about a slow process) and proceeded to trim the skeletons to size with the router. That is when disaster struck. Somewhere along the way the collar came loose. The bearing moved up the shaft and the template started riding against the shaft instead of the bearing. If this had happened near the beginning, no problem, it would have been cut out and discarded. No this happened at the rear about 6 inches from the end. This portion gets cut out but saved for the side of the hatch. I am working on ideas on how to fix it but also fear I may have to rebuild the skeleton plywood. My next post will have the answer whatever that is because I don't know what it is at this time. Also, I will make the pictures smaller so, hopefully, they are easier to view
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby tony.latham » Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:34 pm

Somewhere along the way the collar came loose.


I've got one branded Vermont American or something along that line that showed up without a set screw.

Got any photos of your damaged dilemma?

:thinking:

Tony
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:08 pm

Mine was a Bosch. Anyhow, the damage is right at the very end
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It was very windy so I had the garage door down to keep the dust from going everywhere. It looks like the router leaned over a slight bit when I got to the end and maybe had to reach to get around the curve. Also, the bit is 1 inch long so it got both boards

The solution that I am considering is cutting the end back a foot to 18 inches and attaching a new piece on the back like was done on the front. Restack them and try again. My only concern is the side having that joint in it. Lets hope I can get it glued well enough that the glue joint is stronger than the wood
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby tony.latham » Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:47 pm

Lets hope I can get it glued well enough that the glue joint is stronger than the wood...


Here's how I stretch my skeletons.

Image

Once the skins are on both sides, it's strong.

:thinking:

Tony
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Fri Jun 12, 2020 10:44 am

Tony - The spline as you have shown here, and in the book, is the way I wanted to originally stretch my plywood. When I was putting the front of the skeleton together, I did not have my interior skin yet. I had a 1/4 inch piece, which is actually 5 mm, and the 3/8 that I used for the template. The 3/8 is not a very good board. None of those worked with my slot cutters. So that is why I went with the biscuit method of joining. I still have not been able to find a decent 1/4" board other than a cabinet grade hardwood. Everything else is 5 mm. I did find that I have a tongue and groove set that is adjustable from a project 10 years or so back. It is adjustable from 7/32 to 3/8. Since my 1/8 Baltic birch is actually 3 mm, I was looking at how to set that slot cutter to 6 mm to place the stacked 3 mm in the slot as you have done. Somewhere in working out the details, it occurred to me that maybe the tongue and groove joint would be what I want to do. The only drawback to that it is, from my memory, a real pain to set up. I will play with it today and see what I can come up with. The spline as you suggest is what I would like to do. Alignment is much easier. The difficulty is cutting 4 of those narrow splines to the right size. It is a long, narrow cut for both my circular saw and table top table saw.
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:16 pm

So I played with the tongue and groove bits this afternoon and got everything lined up after an hour or so of fiddling. This evening I went on and cut the back end off the skeletons. I cut about 13 inches off the back end
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After cutting off the second one, I cut the first tongue
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This is what it looks like with the new piece on.
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One of these pieces must have a slight bend in it. There was a lot of banging to get it together. This is a dry fit. Tomorrow I will actually glue it up. The problem with an overstuffed garage that you share with a car. You have to put your toys away every night to bring the car back in. When I get to the floor, I don't know what I am gonna do. I guess move some bicycles and other things to the shed :thinking:

Tony, thanks for sending me back down this path. I think it will work much better than the biscuits :beer:
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby tony.latham » Sat Jun 13, 2020 8:40 pm

Tony, thanks for sending me back down this path. I think it will work much better than the biscuits :beer:


It's a joint I'd be happy with.

Keep the picks coming,

T
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:29 pm

Today I trimmed the newly attached back end
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And cut the doors out
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I look forward to getting more cut out of the skeleton since plywood has gotten awfully heavy in the many years since I have done any serious woodworking. Unfortunately, another 3/8 inch will be added back. In the end, these walls are heavy. I should have built this before my son moved out
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:21 pm

This weekend did not go as planned. I had hoped to get the skeleton cut out completely but didn't quite get there. Hopefully, sometime this week, I'll get the roof support space, floor space, and dados cut out so I will be able to glue my interior sides this weekend
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I have allowed extra blocking on the top. I think that I want to add a roof rack at some point for an awning and possibly carry a canoe that we have had in the back for 20 years hoping to find some water to put it in when work slows down. The other thing I am adding is a set of reading lights over the headboard. I am thinking that I will have to cut some shallow dados to act as conduit for the wiring for the lights
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby tony.latham » Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:45 am

This weekend did not go as planned.


Do they really ever go that way?

Your build is looking vaguely familiar. :thinking:

Tony
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:12 pm

tony.latham wrote:Your build is looking vaguely familiar.

Tony - It should appear very familiar to you as I am following the plans in the book that bears your name. As I said in the beginning, not knowing anything about teardrop trailers, I had several ideas on what I might want and spent a bunch of time playing with them. I decided I wasn't going anywhere fast with my design and I didn't really know what are good ideas or bad ideas. I decided I would look for something that I could just build. After looking at a few designs, I settled on the one you presented in the book. It appeared straight forward, had a couple features that looked like good ideas, looked about the size I wanted, and you guide me through process. In building this, I am playing with toys that I haven't played with in 10 to 20 years as well as doing things that are completely new to me so the guidance is really helpful. There are a few changes that I have in mind but, in the grand scheme of things, they are pretty minor such as the reading lights and the possibility of a roof rack.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us on the forums and with the book. I hope you enjoy watching this go together.
Joe
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby tony.latham » Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:14 pm

I hope you enjoy watching this go together.


I am!

Here's a video I did last week on my galley. It kinda explains the why a bit.



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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby JoeGrz » Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:27 pm

First Off. Thank you for sharing the video Tony. I watched it several times looking at the whys and trying to figure out how to utilize what I have already and what I need to look into. I also tracked it back to your other youtube videos and looked at some of the tasks I have ahead of me :thumbsup:

This weekend I hit a small milestone. The skeletons are complete and ready for covering
I started by building the dado jig. I looked around at what I could find and came up with the adjustable one using parts that I had around the garage from a previous project. Here is the jig after the dados were cut. It took a couple more passes without the jig to completely cut through the stack
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The board in the middle is the stop for the top of the shelf so I didn't mistakenly cut through and make a continuous dado.

After the dado was cut, I cut out the template for the hatch spar. When I put it on the skeleton stack, I found another mistake when the line I drew on the skeletons was in the middle of the area to be cut out with the template. It leads me to another tip for future builders. Mark both sides of a feature that you want to transfer from your template. I only marked on side figuring I would measure the second side and mark it. Well, I put the second line on the wrong side so I will need a shorter queen mattress when I outfit the trailer. I still think it is in tolerance but I may have to trim the edge. Any how, here's how that looked
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Here is the end product. I went on and flipped the one side to make it easier for me to remember the inner skin goes on different sides of the skeleton
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Tomorrow should see the first sheet of the inner skin go on to the first skeleton.
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Re: Joe's Teardrop Build

Postby tony.latham » Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:30 pm

Tomorrow should see the first sheet of the inner skin go on to the first skeleton.


:thumbsup:

T
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