Whitney's Weakender - Hatch / Galley Lid Redesign - Pg 11

[Ratkity]

Beautiful job and I love the 20# of kitteh. I have my own cow kitteh, but he's not to 20 pounds yet (hopefully, I can hide the snacks that he's sneaking).

Hugs,
Ratkity

[WhitneyK]

I like it. It turned out real good!

Mike...

Mike, Thanks, it's coming along. I hoped you would like it. It is one of your designs, not sure if it's quite what you had in mind, but still your's none-the-less. Just want to give credit where credit is due.

I was wondering, how far does your locking rod expand? I bought one awhile back at a local camper supply store but I changed my mind about using it. It only expanded out maybe an inch and I didn't think that was enough.

Larry, my hatch latch is similar to the one you have in your picture. I got this one from Vintek and it's spring loaded so it "snaps" both directions & has a little bigger foot print, around 2" x 6" or so. Rod travel is 1" also. Can't really tell it in the picture, but it goes through the 3/8" strut (attached to the hatch lid & reinforced by aluminum angle), through the 3/8" trim piece in the gasket area that's attached to the wall framing, and into a pocket of the 3/4" outside frame of the hatch. It "spans the gap" in the picture below. Might get energetic and insert a piece of aluminum in the trim piece, take it back far enough to get into some meat of the frame with some hefty screws. Function will still be the same, just a little "beefier" / more secure? I'm guessin' it will keep the door down & the honest people out.


Thanks everybody for the nice compliments

[Verna]

Whitney:

You're doing a great job, and your wife is doing a marvelous job on her interior decorating!!

By the way, you're just down the road from my favorite sawmill: Tiny Timbers. I love that place!!! I always spend far too much money when I come down there.

Verna

[Kharn]

Whitney,
Thanks! That cleared up a lot of my questions.
What kind of saw(s) did you use to cut the hatch free from the wall? A circular saw and then finish with a jig saw?

[WhitneyK]

Whitney:

You're doing a great job, and your wife is doing a marvelous job on her interior decorating!!
By the way, you're just down the road from my favorite sawmill: Tiny Timbers. I love that place!!! I always spend far too much money when I come down there.

Verna

Thanks Verna, and yes, I am familiar with Tiny Timbers, only about 15-20 miles away.

Whitney,

What kind of saw(s) did you use to cut the hatch free from the wall? A circular saw and then finish with a jig saw?

Yes, yes, and uh, yes. Did the main straight lines with a circular saw, trimmed up the corners with the sabre saw, until ..... I started getting into the screws, then it was the reciporcating saw, a cut off wheel in the air grinder, and a little gnawin' & chompin'.

I took a day off of work so I could go down and get the aluminum (precious metals) for the skin. Him-hawed back & forth and finally just went for all aluminum. (wife thought I should add that goofy emoticon)

Got it rolled out in the yard so I could start the cutting process.
(never mind the junk piled around the tree, I haven't gone to my PRA meeting in a while. You know, that's where you sit around in a group and they make you stand up and say, "Hi, my name is Whitney, I'm a Pack Rat". Hadn't seen Bob Henry there in a while, so I figured I'd quit too.



Thought the angle of this pic turned out pretty neat



I got the my main pieces cut down to managable? size. That's the sides rolled up on the right of the pic



My back was this morning, but now it's I guess I angered it a bit, well, matter of fact, I do believe I pretty well ticked it off. Had a 4 day weekend planned, first the back again, then I got called into work or Sat. (so a co-worker could take off and go to an arca race with his free tickets he won today), guess I'll hobble around and be a warm body for them. So much for my "extended" weekend (more like extinguished!)

Hey Mike!!! My wife want's to know why you choose to call this a "weekender", I've been on it since February!!! She's still waiting for ME to get it done so SHE can go camping on HER vacation. (she's not even employed) She asked me if I had the plans turned over backwards?

I gotta hurry up and get this thing done before she goes out and buys anything else for the inside. Now she tryin' to come up with stuff for the outside.

[LDK]

Hey Whitney

Sorry to hear about your back. Nothing worse than pain putting a hamper on the things you want to do. At least you have your aluminum skin now.

[LDK]

Hey Whitney

Anything new? Just checking in with ya.

[parnold]

Hey Whitney

Anything new? Just checking in with ya.

Agreed.. we need updates!

[WhitneyK]

Didn't mean to leave ya'll hangin', I've got some pics, just was waiting to download them until I had the whole "skinnin'" thing done. I've got the side covered in al. One drawback to doing the weekender (more squared off) design is, the .042 aluminum has to be "broke" over the agles of the roof. Lucky? for me, my neighbor / friend has a metal brake at his dad's place. He stopped to borrow my 16' step ladder a couple of weeks ago and asked "I've got an air shear, nibbler, and flanging tool if you'd like to borrow them",..... well DUH!!! He also had "shrinkers & expanders" for curving metal, like what you'd use to repair a fender well when doing body work on a vehicle.

I'll be braking the metal tonight and try to get some pics added.

Since my backs doing better I had to go back to work at my part time job after being off 2 weeks, so now that's eating into my spare time, but can really use the money. Next few Saturday mornings are going to be taken up by festival inspections, so, I'll just have to get at it when I can.

Larry & Paul, Thanks for posting and keeping the thread alive (it's sometimes hard to find near the bottom)

[bobhenry]

whitney quote

" I gotta hurry up and get this thing done before she goes out and buys anything else for the inside. Now she tryin' to come up with stuff for the outside"


I have a couple ideas for her...........

Some of these pretty pink chickens behind a little plastic fence.....




Guarded by a few of these little farmer guys......

[WhitneyK]

To the administrators of this website:

Would you please delete the above posting by Bob Henry as I find it offensive and explicitly suggestive in nature due to the fact that it gives my wife ideas that I feel are just wrong! right attcha Bob

[bobhenry]

You might run this past the BOSS and see if she might
like this one for the Shivaree

[bobhenry]

Speaking of WRONG


Here is my favorite red neck site ornament

[WhitneyK]

We've been having some "discussions" about what kind of graphics / word phrases will be used on the exterior of our lit'l camper

Speaking of WRONG


Here is my favorite red neck site ornament

... and what, my good man, pray tell are you implying by that comment???

[bobhenry]

Careful the folks are gonna start thinking we are serious !


And to think I almost stopped by a few weeks ago to impart my hundreds and hundreds of hours of building expertise in an attempt to help ya.

You better start using more emoticons so the others know we are not serious

As to words and phrases how about

" If you don't like my little home away from home ,
you can just kiss my gnome"