Wyoming Woody Teardrop Build (Completed: 6/22/2013)

[Junkboy999]

Hey Ryan

Things looks like they are coming along just fine. I see you have done stuff like this before.
I also see you have a nice Incra Router table fence on a homemade table. That is the 72” Incra rails and table
saw system on your Ridgid contractors saw? That is a sweet system. Not to brag, but I love mine as well.
Mine is on a Delta Contractor saw and in a rolling table.


Keep up the good work. keep us posted.

[RandyG]

Great job so far! What year is your vette and do you plan to use that for towing? If not, would still make for a cool pic. A tear behind a vette...

[_Ryan_]

Great job so far! What year is your vette and do you plan to use that for towing? If not, would still make for a cool pic. A tear behind a vette...

Thanks! It's a 93 but I don't think I will be towing with it, although it would be quite a sight!

Hey Ryan

Things looks like they are coming along just fine. I see you have done stuff like this before.
I also see you have a nice Incra Router table fence on a homemade table. That is the 72” Incra rails and table
saw system on your Ridgid contractors saw? That is a sweet system. Not to brag, but I love mine as well.
Mine is on a Delta Contractor saw and in a rolling table.


Keep up the good work. keep us posted.

It makes me happy to read your comment because in reality I have never tackled anything close to the scale of this project before. I'm glad it looks like I know what I'm doing, I must be doing a few things right! The process has involved 6 months of research, a couple months of design, a lot of learning and patience, but on top of it all a lot of FUN!

You have a sharp eye, but the workshop you see belongs to my buddy who builds cabinets. He has been assisting me and letting me use his shop throughout the build. There is some nice equipment in there for sure, I would love to have a workshop like his someday!

Thanks for your comments!

[_Ryan_]

It's been a bit since my last update but work has been progressing, unfortunately there hasn't been any work exciting enough to take pictures of until we got the the cabinets last week.

After the walls, I had to figure out where all the interior and exterior lights were to be installed. After positioning them I outlined them all and drilled holes through the sidewall sections for the wiring before I put on the interior wall skin. This is for the porch light.


We started by cutting out the pieces for the front cabinets! They are mostly 1/2" birch ply with one section of 3/4" birch for the head board section.


We decided on tongue and groove which I must say is very cool and adds much stability. This also adds a bit of work to get the height settings of the tongue and groove bits correct so the pieces match up correctly. It also took some extra time to cut the groves in the middle of a few pieces with a straight edge and a 1/4" straight bit. Chip out was a problem as well but we managed to fix that by taking a shallower cut first, and reducing the speed of the router on the groove cuts. I am learning a lot!


And here we have finished cabinets! I love the way they just snap together, it makes dry fitting that much easier!



Using the template for the inside section of the wall I was able to trim the cabinets to fit the profile nicely.



Next weekend work on the back set of cabinets begins! Now that all the experimenting is done these should hopefully go much quicker!

[Jacquie]

Even though you have a long way to go. It looks like it will be beautiful when done. The woody teardrops are so lovely! Great job!

[_Ryan_]

Even though you have a long way to go. It looks like it will be beautiful when done. The woody teardrops are so lovely! Great job!

Thanks Jaquie! I can't wait to finish it but I am probably having just as much fun building it as I will using it! Hopefully it will look like I have imagined!

[_Ryan_]

Another update from the last couple weekends, the galley cabinets are now finished for the most part. All cabinet panels and pieces are cut and matched to the profile of the inside wall, tongue and grooves are cut, and the edges are bevelled to match the curve of the profile. Whew that was fun, and it went a lot faster than the front cabinets now that I had a better idea of what I was doing.



In all that I managed to make a couple mistakes. Actually the only big one wasn't all my fault, when cutting a groove the router bit slipped out of its collet and went through the other side...


The good news is that it will only show on the inside of a cabinet so we went ahead and made a plug to hide the mistake.


The finished front cabinets.



As you can see the back of the cabinets match the curve of the profile. If everything goes well I should be able to drape the headliner panel over this curve and make my life easier down the road.


Since this is all dryfit at the moment the back/galley cabinets don't support themselves with just the tongue and groves. Here is a picture of part of the back cabinets laying on the floor.


The next step is sanding all the pieces and making sure every joint fits flush before gluing it all together. Soon enough it should look like a teardrop and not just a bunch of parts in a garage!

[WhitneyK]

Man you all do good work!!!

[_Ryan_]

I was so fired up completing the cabinets I decided to take some time this afternoon to get them set up on the trailer. I couldn't stand to wait until this weekend before I could get back to building.

Getting the galley cabinets up was a bit of a pain, as they are held together by tongue and groove and a few braces and clamps. One good thing about getting them completely assembled was that it allowed me to spot a couple places where I will need to spend some time getting everything flush. Besides a couple small issues I couldn't be happier!

[GuyllFyre]

It's like a Visible Man (or Woman) model!
You can see the insides from the outside.

Haven't seen someone build innards before outer skin first but I guess there's a first for everything.

[Junkboy999]

Ryan

Learn all you can from your mentor while you can. There is nothing more satisfying than standing back
and admiring all you hard work come together.


Are you guys planning on finishing the cabinets before gluing them together? It would sure make it easier.

[_Ryan_]

It's like a Visible Man (or Woman) model!
You can see the insides from the outside.

Haven't seen someone build innards before outer skin first but I guess there's a first for everything.

Ha, yes looks rather different but cool. Doing it this way lets build, assemble, and square everything beforehand, then when I put it in the trailer as long as it is square and to the proper width, it should (theoretically) fit very snugly.

Learn all you can from your mentor while you can. There is nothing more satisfying than standing back
and admiring all you hard work come together.

Oh yeah!

Are you guys planning on finishing the cabinets before gluing them together? It would sure make it easier.

All the sanding will be done before assembly, but only a couple places like the back of the front cabinets that are hard to reach will be finished completely. The walls, floor, and head liner are all birch so I was going to do it all at once after assembly.

[aggie79]

Fantastic build! And very good technique too.

I now can see that building the cabinets first is a much easier process than fitting them later after the walls are up. I wished I had seen your build before I started mine.

Keep up the good work!

[_Ryan_]

Fantastic build! And very good technique too.

I now can see that building the cabinets first is a much easier process than fitting them later after the walls are up. I wished I had seen your build before I started mine.

Keep up the good work!

Hi Tom, thanks for the kudos it means a lot!

It's funny you found something to take something away from my build, as I have taken much from yours! I guess that's why this forum is so great.

Ryan

[clintstuckless]

Beautiful job so far on the unit.

Just a few questions for you. When you "skeletonized" the side walls how did you get the pattern or know how muc to take out without taking too much.

Also would you be willing to share or post your sketchup files?

I want to build one over the next few months and after looking at LOTS of designs I REALLY love your design.

Thanks, from a canadian fan