NE Wisconsin Generic Benroy 5x8... my first!

[azgreg]

Nice job Tim. Looks great.

[TimC]

Template on door area


Partial cut. I don't know why the straight hinge side doesn't look straight. It is.


All cut out
[imghttp://www.tnttt.com/gallery/image.php?album_id=3986&image_id=134192][/img]





Seeking advice on how to smooth the rough cut on the door @ viewtopic.php?f=21&t=63822

[daveesl77]

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!! We Need Woodies!

Mine is a slightly similar build. While I did not weigh my walls, here are the dimensions

long curve-curve = 120"
height from bottom of panel to top of curve = 60"

Wall composition is 1/4" ply inside. Framing I made from cut down 1x3 pine and half lapped all crossing members. Filled with 1" XPS foam board. Outer skin is 1/8" luan then covered with 3/16" resawn cedar strips. Door sections were laminated using solid plywood. Gluing method was TB2 on everything, including internals. I did not epoxy the outer ply (under the cedar), as it was coated first with 3 coats of progressively thicker TB2 between the ply and cedar and then the cedar strips have 7 coats of spar poly, starting from a 25:75 mineral spirits/poly to 50:50 to 75:25 and then 4 coats of full strength.

As to the weight, mine walls might weigh 100 lbs, but I doubt it as I had no real problem lifting them up onto their holding stations for mounting, so I would guess more like 60-75# each.

My total trailer weight, fully loaded and weighed the day before we began our 2,800 mile trip was 1,340 lbs. that included everything.
By the way, as others have said, expect to get a lot of waving, picture taking, pointing, smiles and gas station discussions while driving.

dave

[Ron Dickey]

whow your just trucking along.

I lived in Milwaukee for 13 years loved the green and the trees. I remember it rained a lot too. what you going to cover the body with to keep it dry. Just remember do not make it air tight or you may not wake up.
In the winter you could put ski's on it. looks like you have it well insulated.

Looks like you are running smooth.

[TimC]

Making slow progress. My wife had knee replacement two+ weeks ago and I am her primary care giver at the moment. She's recovering well and I get TD time increasing a little bit each day.

I will post more photos in a few days. The door, door windows and base coats of spar varnish exterior and paint interior walls are just about done. Doors gave me fits trying to frame in the jambs for the weatherstrip. I attempted to create templates to route smooth, fair curves on the door and frame, but, I ran out of material and patience to build the templates. Doors came out OK, but, I feel I will need to hide the wavy cut I made with some aluminum t-molding. Found some on-line for about $16 shipped for two 8' pieces of trim. Took a chance as ordering the deadsoft type with shipping was going to come to five times that cost. Hopefully this stuff will bend easily around a 18" radius. I've never annealed before. I don't know if I have the heat required to do that.

Once I get the walls attached I will probably have a million questions about skinning and weatherproofing with my PMF roof and woody wall transition. I'd like to find a PMF method to seal this joint as my budget is really busted. $30 a stick just to ship aluminum edging will make my head explode! Yeah, I live in the middle of nowhere as far as the TD world is concerned.

[TimC]

First try at sizing up walls. Some adjustments to make due to changes in mounting position. Trim front and back of floor to match walls. Thinking of gluing with a DAP product I have on hand. It is DAP 3.0 Advanced Blacktop and Roof Sealant. It's from my last roofing job for sealing roof edges, flashing, etc.

Deadman in place




Wall fit test




Side view - I'm liking the Woody look a lot!


Next tasks...
Glue/screw walls to floor/trailer
Cut and seam and seal interior roof skin
Install interior skin and rafters. I think I will go with Kreg screws and Polyurethane glue for the rafters as they will experience alot of vibration on the road and I think Poly glue will absorb the road vibrations better than TBII. OR, maybe I'll go with PL300 as it stays flexible? E gads, this is like building a house... a bazillion decisions!

[KCStudly]

Looks great.

PL300 seems more like a window caulk to me, not so much a construction adhesive. I would stick to the PL Premium for your spars.

[TimC]

Looks great.

PL300 seems more like a window caulk to me, not so much a construction adhesive. I would stick to the PL Premium for your spars.

KC, I'm not familiar with the PL Premium. It's polyurethane, but, is it similar to Gorilla Glue? I have some experience with gorilla glue. I like how it expands to fill the void, but, after my garage door episode a few weeks ago (see a previous post) I am not impressed with its strength.

HD here has both PL Premium for a little over four bucks and PL Premium Advanced which is about seven. Is there any reason I should go "Advanced"? Polyurethanes usually react with moisture. Do I wet the mating parts with PL Prem? I understand some reviews say it can be a mess to work with. I usually have no problems with any types of glues or epoxys if I am prepared with gloves, drop cloths, solvent, etc. before starting.

The PL 300 Foamboard adhesive I used to glue the blue board foam to my skin in my walls. It worked well for that as the 1/8" lauan allowed the lamination to breath and set up. I think I will stay away from it for the wall/floor joint and rafter installation. I don't think its combined strength and flexibility is what I am looking for.

[KCStudly]

They are similar because they are both polyurethane and moisture cured, but I think the PLP must have a thickening agent in it; it goes on like a loose peanut butter and in my experience does not expand much if at all. The instructions say to mist the bead if one of the surfaces is porous, using foam as one example, but is not needed for wood to wood joints. When cured it is still a little flexible, but is more hard, like tuff leather, and not very foam like at all.

My experience with the PL3 suggests that it is much more pliable when cured and it peels or scrapes off of wood much more readily than PLP.

I can't speak to the PL Advanced that you mentioned because I haven't seen or tried it, but I would also not bother with the added expense since the others work well at there intended tasks.

It did seem to take a goodly amount of PL3 to laminate my roof foam; at least a case of the stuff , but by stuffing the open nozzle with a big 3 inch deck screw and wrapping over it with a folded piece of blue painters tape, I never had any issues with the stuff kicking off in the tube, so the yield was virtually 100/ct. Works for the PLP, too.

[sincere01]

I'm not sure that the swim noodles are doing much.

Hahahahah, just getting caught up on this build. This gave me quite a chuckle.

[sincere01]

Decided to go with the cedar planks. 5/16" cedar T&G. I see most people putting on 1" (3/4") cedar T&G. Walls already weigh almost more than I care to lift by myself. Wondering what the average TD walls weight with all the different build techniques. Maybe I'll weigh them and post the final weight if anybody is interested.

I'd be very curious to know the weight of those walls if you can weigh them. I really love the look of that cedar and considering it for my build but am concerned about overall weight.

[sincere01]

Once I get the walls attached I will probably have a million questions about skinning and weatherproofing with my PMF roof and woody wall transition. I'd like to find a PMF method to seal this joint as my budget is really busted.

Thanks so much for documenting your build so well. Its very helpful and fun to follow along.

Excuse my ignorance but what is the PMF method?

[KCStudly]

Poor Man's Fiberglass. It's canvas applied with TB2 wood glue then painted with exterior latex; sometimes the weave is filled with Glidden Gripper high build primer before paint.

By rounding over the edges and overlapping the fabric at the profile edges you can eliminate the cost of aluminum skins and trim, and all of those screws that are likely points for water to intrude. The fabric fibers do a good job of reinforcing the wood fibers (or toughening/strengthening the foam in a foamie build) so that they don't split over time and let water in like painting straight over wood... would.

[sincere01]

Gotcha, thanks for the info. Sorry to hijack the thread here momentarily.

[TimC]

Decided to go with the cedar planks. 5/16" cedar T&G. I see most people putting on 1" (3/4") cedar T&G. Walls already weigh almost more than I care to lift by myself. Wondering what the average TD walls weight with all the different build techniques. Maybe I'll weigh them and post the final weight if anybody is interested.

I'd be very curious to know the weight of those walls if you can weigh them. I really love the look of that cedar and considering it for my build but am concerned about overall weight.

Scott, before I glued and screwed the walls into place today I weighed them without doors and door hardware (hinges, latches). The starboard side wall came in at 60 lbs. Heavier than most have suggested theirs weighed. I have a thread asking what other's walls weighed. ( viewtopic.php?f=21&t=63818 ) I'm thinking my whole build may end up heavier than I had hoped, but, that's OK. It's my first and I am learning quite a bit as I go. I'm not worried if it weighs as much as 1500 lbs. I probably won't be pulling this with my Ford Focus anyway. That was an original goal...