The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

...ask your questions in the appropriate forums BUT document your build here...preferably in a single thread...dates for updates, are appreciated....

Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby Zomby Woof » Thu May 24, 2018 7:16 am

It's still progress!

This is why I'm watching all these builds before I attempt my own. I'm no woodworker so I need to learn from others experiences.
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Thu May 24, 2018 10:44 am

Moreframing.jpg
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Now, if you look not too closely you can definitely see some.. not straight. I ran out of PL so I had to stop here.. and the hardware store in Barry's Bay was closed on Victoria Day (even though their website said they were open!!!). I have until June 1st To think about how i'm going to fix that. The wood split when I drove the screw into the base beam, so glue is holding that there. I'm probably going to have to carefully remove the screws and saw it out and place a new beam on either side of the crack which I will screw and glue horizontally and maybe file the heads off to keep it relatively level with the rest of the frame. I decided to fully embrace the wedge, once I saw in person how easy it'd be to just cut the ends of the top beam at an angle and not have to worry about fancy joinery. The plywood will still require something.. probably using some flexible tape and rubber roof if I can find a good product. Finding these things for reasonable prices has been somewhat difficult. In the end I may just end up using epoxy and fiberglass or PMF on the whole thing.

The window went in surprisingly well, with just a little bit of trimming. it was one of my major worries besides the door, so at least one thing is going to plan. I intend to see if I can get some vinyl dye once I get to the painting stage and give it a good coating of black along with my other various white plastic bits that will be installed.

*note Im' just using my cell to get these photos. I get glue all over everything, so my pro camera is staying safely packed away!
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Fri May 25, 2018 7:08 am

Just ordered a 120mm computer fan and a reversible speed controller for it. That will be serving as my main ventilation mounted in front of my roof vent attached to my DC power grid. I chose one large fan instead of two small ones for quietness and possibly less power draw.

I'm actually really more excited about doing the electrical than anything else. I guess that is my IT tech side showing through. best be careful because I might just finish that part and get stuck in there marveling at the electricity all day instead of finishing buttoning up the trailer. But I've got a ways to go before I can start doing wiring.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Thu May 31, 2018 7:50 am

Well, looking at the weather for today and tomorrow.. thunder storms, rain, heavy at times. I was hoping to start building again on Friday, leaving the city after work tonight. But I've decided to drive in the morning to the build site. Probably won't be able to work on it on Friday either, so might as well have a nice rainy drive on that day. Saturday doesn't look much nicer so far. Since the driveway is dirt, I don't like working on stuff when it is wet because the mud gets all over everything.

I've got the remainder of my electrical components, and even splurged a bit and got a battery disconnect for the car, and a bumper mounted 7 blade set. My intention is to run charging current through from the alternator of my TV so I have driving while charging capability, and also the ability to use the engine to provide power in a pinch, as an alternative to using the portable generator. I have some 10 gauge wire that I stole from a server rack we were throwing out at work, so that will do for getting the power to the back of the car without setting everything on fire. Just have to split the casing and peel out the cables I need. There are 3, helpfully coloured red, black and green. That might be my rainy day project, actually. since I can do the prep.

I have my PWM controller for the vent van waiting at the mail depot so i'll grab that on the way home. On my flooded battery, I need to top it up a bit. so some distilled water and a small funnel on the 'to buy' list for this afternoon.. hoping I can grab it at lunch while I pick up my usual deli sandwich from the grocery store.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:43 am

trailerdoorfrm1.jpg
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Well first off, saying getting an internet connection up here is like trying to gather water with an onion bag. But I've got one today, so to make the best of it here's an update.

I put in roughly 16 hours of work on the trailer over the last two days, but unfortunately as I was working yesterday we had a storm come through earlier than expected so I had to rush to get everything under cover, so I only have progress from the first day's work. so this picture (which hopefully uploads!) is with the door frame set up and unfortunately during storage the walls got a little bit warpy, so I've stuck some more reinforcements in and clamped and glued the sides in order to rectify that. once again, I fully regret not just doing plywood sandwich. I'm either not skilled enough to do frame build, or made some pretty generous mistakes in the first stages. As it is, I am working around them, but yesterday I was putting the inner walls on and found myself constantly having to adjust to the mistakes I made earlier. Furthermore, I now have the problem of putting the inner ceiling in which means I need to leave out some of the cross braces in order to physically get it into the inside as one piece. This means I can't do any wiring or drilling for wiring yet, since I'd not be able to put the braces in. Since the trailer is so wide, it is going to be a pretty major pain in the backside to get the cross braces in after the fact. it is going to be rainy for today and tomorrow, and I need to run into town to get some paint and a few other supplies so I guess I'll have to think on a strategy in the mean time. It might mean cutting up the ceiling pieces more than I'd liked.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:48 pm

Well, last week I spent 8-10 hours a day minus a couple days when it rained and now I have a 'mostly' finished trailer. I've got lots of timelapse to edit and i'll probably get that done this weekend. Photos will be coming in the next days once I organize everything.

I regret going with recessed lighting. I didn't fully understand the issues, and if there are problems I'm going to have a major mess on my hands fixing/replacing them. I also made the mistake of trimming the harness a bit too judiciously and the license plate lights I got had basically fine wiring (seriously, i accidentally pulled too hard and broke some of it with just my fingers) So the end result is my arms covered with glue and lights that just barely fit. I also spray foamed the wiring channels, which means any slack I DID have was completely inaccessible. I see ripping and tearing in my future. I hope to get 5 years out of it.. before any major issues, but time will tell.

I also under estimated how much space I would need for my wiring and may have to make some modifications to my electrical rack.. but that isn't too bad. I forgot to actually build the battery box, so I'll just be building a frame for my existing battery to keep it solid and safe, and then making sure to open my windows when charging, at least until I can get an alternative AGM based battery.

lots of little measurement errors means I need to install some trim around the outside to help with sealing and hiding my mistakes! I figgure I can cut up some of my left over 2X3s for that purpose and seal with some sikaflex or similar.

The window I built turned out pretty good.. I have yet to run a leak test on it though, it is at a slight angle but it does indeed look like It will allow water to pool anyhow especially when it is hot. I built in some expansion room for it, and sealed it well with flexible silicone. Worst case scenario is installing a small tarp over it if it starts to look like rain at night. Travel shouldn't be an issue as the wind pressure should keep any amounts of water from pooling. (but physics has proven to be my enemy recently.. so once again, time will tell.)

AC power is working, I have 2 15 amp plugs, and tested them with power tools.
DC isn't ready yet.. I need to create more mounting space for the charge controllers, switch panels, and whatnot. I also intend to create some simple shelves to put my laptop and phone on while i'm inhabiting the thing.

I have learned volumes, and expect that should I ever travel this road again I'll be reviewing this log religiously during the planning.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:38 am

Here's a picture near the time I was starting to put most of the side sheeting on. All wiring in place, and internal lights were also installed. where all the wires are hanging is basically my 'command centre' where I'll be tying in all AC/DC controls and modules.

By the way, that durofoam stuff - it is cheap, but messy to cut if you don't have a very long, sharp knife - or better yet a hot wire. all I had was a utility knife so I made a huge mess. I don't really think it was designed to be cut at all, but it has a shiny side to help reflect heat inside. Next time I'd probably pay extra for the SM - because I ended up paying at least what I saved on spray foam to fix my 'mistakes'

insulatingsm.jpg
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"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Fri Jun 15, 2018 6:59 am

insidesm2.jpg
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Here's a couple inside pictures, before I installed the window and vent. Quite a mess.. going to hit it with some sanding in places. There's also an issue with the wheel wells not being completely sealed.. but they are completely removable if I need to go that far to fix the issue - nothing is attached to them. I think i'm going to either find myself a good gap filler product, or extend them towards the wall (they will be supporting my 'bed/seat' when i build it anyhow - then get underneath with some spray foam and seal it with rubberized undercoating. have to be careful though, as it will melt foam if you don't spray from a good distance.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Tue Jun 19, 2018 6:05 am

Ok, well - here's the video. Production quality isn't all there, just did mostly timelapse. And I did refer to it as a 'sort of teardrop' but it obviously isn't - not sure what I was thinking.

Anyhow.. I guess it is around teardrop size..



I randomly threw together some music from a bunch of loops without much thought but I guess it turned out ok. Hopefully I'll be working on it again on July 1st, and since most of that work will be on the DC power system and maybe even the bed area I might even be able to spend some extra time improving my video quality.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby Sidekick » Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:30 am

Lots of room in your project. Interested to see how you use it.
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:47 am

Sidekick wrote:Lots of room in your project. Interested to see how you use it.

Yeah, the big downer is the wells on the inside - they're kind of in the way. On a bright note, it is a lot lighter than I thought it would be.. I can still pull it around with human power fairly easily.

Initially I was going to go with a 'slide out' bed similar to this one: http://www.doityourselfrv.com/diy-rv-so ... madmumsie/

one side on each side of the wells.. but there actually might be enough room for my bed to lie lengthwise along the trailer axle.

It would leave enough space for me to put in my folding table, which could slide under the bed when not in use, along with my DIY portable solar panel setup. Its just a cosco brand table, but the nice thing about it is the legs can be extended 2 feet or 4 feet. so you could use it sitting on the edge of the bed, and with my small butane stove I could even CAREFULLY cook on it. Not a big fan of exposing my bed to cooking odours though. Since I do not have a galley.. the initial plan was just to set up a tarp over a picnic table outside, or even a small bug tent.

I don't have pictures, but I built the center column of the power center, and it is 10" wide and 10" away from the front wall. I need to widen it out a bit though since I underestimated the room needed for the various panels i'm installing. I think i'll be putting some wings on either side and putting shelves on top of those. once I get the bed situated and get an idea how my tongue weight is doing I'll either put more shelves in the front or the back. It'll be pretty ugly.. I'm used to working in environments with naked server racks everywhere and the ability to get at the wires easily really outweighs my need for having it look exceptionally pretty.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:42 am

So the long weekend is coming up. Canada Day weekend, but I won't be lighting off any fireworks. I'll be back at it, wiring up the DC and expanding the storage, and hopefully figuring out my battery box. I also got some butl tape to do the remaining cracks and seams that water might penetrate, depending on the time I have after I get the DC done. For trim, I'm probably just going to cut up my remaining 2X3s and coat them well with paint, and tack them on with brads over the tape. The brads will probably rust though, so i'll need to touch them up with something, maybe some more paint.. the alkali paint seems to have coated the screws on the outside of my trailer quite well.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Wed Jun 27, 2018 8:06 am

Hmm.. maybe won't be working on her this weekend after all.. 35C in the shade supposedly. We'll see.. might be spending my days finding the largest hunk of granite to staple myself to in order to remain at a reasonable temperature. NO AC up there. On the other hand, I can surely find out if my fan setup is going to be adequate.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby Carl01234 » Wed Jun 27, 2018 11:57 am

35 degrees is an average summer day here. Do Canadiens melt?
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Re: The Wedge (Name Subject to change!)

Postby NorthEGPhoto » Wed Jun 27, 2018 12:43 pm

Carl01234 wrote:35 degrees is an average summer day here. Do Canadiens melt?


Well, the 'feels like' is around 45c. so probably 70-80% humidity.. so sweating will not help. But yes, generally, I can't handle the heat - If given the choice between 45C and -45C i'd take -45c.

I took a trip to the badlands once.. it was 30c there, and it was the most awesome summer day i'd ever had, because there was no humidity.
"In the morning, the light is golden, in the midday 'tis time to nap, and in the evening the light returns. Into the night the stars shine brightly, now if only the moon would stay out of sight." - Some photographer
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