Building The Atma Travelear Teardrop

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Your attention to detail is great! The interior with curved drawer faces is awesome!

[Rudyjr]

Dave, The cabinets and everything else look awesome. Keep up the good work. Jim

[DMcCam]

Thank you again Tom, I'm planning on clear coating the whole shebang with conversion varnish (that's what my brother called it, I have no idea what it is). The aluminum graphic details on the inner cabinets will be sprayed on as well. I want the interior to be as bright as possible.

You and me both Grant sir!

Thank you both Zach and Jim! I'm going to try to have more done this week, we'll see.

Cheers,

Dave

[Bob Patterson]

You know how I feel about your build since I am borrowing heavily from it. Just magnificant.

Dave, your cabinetry is awsome as is everything else.
I have been using CorelDraw since 3.0. I used to help my brother-in-law typeset ads for a magazine he owns, but that has been a lot of years ago. I'm up to CorelDraw X5 now and love it. I still use it for work projects, but nothing too complicated.

I can't wait to see what you have in store for us (me) next.

[S. Heisley]

Your teardrop is looking wonderful! You have so many cabinets and space that it is a marvel. Beautiful cabinetry!

[doug hodder]

Very very nice Dave....matching the grain on the cabin head area really looks great...it's the little details like that, that makes the build. Keep up the good work....get rid of the tent....it's enabling you to not finish your tear! Doug

[nevadatear]

Nice drop down shoe cabinets. I wonder where every you got such an idea? Looking FABULOUS Dave!

[DMcCam]

Thank you sir Bob, I'm looking forward to following your build too. It's looking great.

Hi Sharon, the 10' length sure gives you a good bit of space to fit cabinets for sure. Thank you so much.

Wow Doug, coming from a craftsman such as yourself, that's very humbling, thank you. By the way, the tent camping gear is in the donation bin!

Hey Debbie, you bet I put good use to you and Randy's fine idea there! When I saw them on Monstero I thought, 'hey, that's perfect!' Heck, the AT is a tribute to your most amazing designs! Let's see, the water drawer, the paper towel placement, the basic cabinet layout, the nice big doors... Those lower cabinets are so big that we are going to use just the middle one for shoes, I have no idea yet what the other two will be filled with. Thank you both again.

All the Best,

Dave

[nevadatear]

Don't worry, you will fill them up! We use ours for dirty clothes. Remember, I made metal rings that hold a canvas dirty clothes bag. I love them. Keeps the stinky clothes out of the cabin, and away from the clean ones!
. Yours are huge, with the flush faces rather than the cutouts like ours. However, you do lose alot of space with the curve of the front, so the size is a bit misleading.

[rcarlson]

Dave,

Your build is awe inspiring and one of the reasons my son and I are going to start our own build. Thank you for sharing so many pictures and design information with all of us here on this forum.

Robert & Timmy

[DMcCam]

Hey Debbie, I forgot about those dirty clothes bags, that would fit the bill! My pictures are a bit misleading, there's not much depth for sure. But it still might work.

Thank you Robert and you are more than welcome! Have fun and please post pictures.

Cheers,

Dave

[DMcCam]

Not much to report for the last few weeks on the build. We did get the first layer of insulation in the roof. This weekend we fitted the hatch but I have a few questions about clearance.


This close-up shows a 1/4" plywood spacer for Grant's hurricane hinge at the top and 1/8" inch plywood spacers for the doubled ribs on each side. Is 1/8" enough clearance between the outer ribs and the inner galley walls?


Here's a picture of the frame held together with clamps for fit. We decided to mortise the top and dado the bottom.


This is how the test fit looks with the ribs. Again, things are just clamped at this point. We'll add blocking between each rib on the top to double it and a full spar on the bottom.




Just a couple of extra views of the foundational fit.


In this side angle you can see the 3/8" space above the galley walls for the hatch seal to come.

Thanks again for checking in on the progress gentlepeople.

Dave

[Woodstramp]

Dave,

Noticed the leveler jacks on your rig. I have some that are an antique set that where salvaged from an old camper. Problem is, they looked great after bead blast/repairs/paint but the springs are in rough shape. One that retains the foot rung section is broken and it will be major pain to replace (if I can even find a new spring) Yours look a lot like mine. Are they new? If so, where did you buy them? Thanks.

ps. Your camper is going to be a jewel. You got a planned finish date, or just going along as you feel like working on it?

[DMcCam]

Hey Woodstramp, Our jacks are new Atwood stabilizer jacks you can get at most RV or trailer parts stores for about $20 each. We bolted them on just in case we need to replace them in the future.

Funny you should ask about the finish date. It seems that you either have the time and no money or you have the money and no time!
Now my estimation is to have her completed and ready for next spring.

Cheers,

Dave

[WhitneyK]

Dave,

Lookin' good!!!

Do you perform all of your sawing / cutting / sanding / drilling down the road from your house? Man, your shop is so clean and neat looking you couldn't possibly be doing "the dirty work" in there.

Keep up the good work, you're making a good example of how to build a tear, it's going to turn out to be a very fine build.