Swampwerks Teardrop #1

[mnswamp]

More CNC fun, and

Cutting splines and gluing the outer walls this weekend, inners hopefully during the week.

https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.co ... art-2.html

[mnswamp]

There are still a couple of minor things to do, like drill pocket screw holes, prep temporary blocking, etc, but the walls are ready to come home and get stood up! And a couple of lessons learned from today's post as well...

https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.co ... -done.html

[twisted lines]

Nice! Model & Shape
Keep sweep'n

[mnswamp]

New blog post(s) up... https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.co ... pdate.html

This was a busy week. I:
Made shelves
Cut, routed and sanded most of the bulkheads/lateral features
Varnished a bunch of the same.
Brought the sides from the shop back to the garage!

And a reminder to check the condition of your tires before you head out for the first trip of the season. I went to use my utility trailer to pick up the sides, and noticed one tire had an extra 'trim ring' running around the sidewall (bad crack). So off to the tire store before anything!

Anyway, the weather is starting to warm up a bit, the big stuff is mostly cut, now the effort shifts to the garage to get it done. Full steam ahead!

[mnswamp]

The right wall is up, all the interior panels have been cut and mostly trimmed, and we're working on...
Varnish.
Man. There's a lotta varnish to go on. I'm thinking the next one will be Formica or contact paper

Anyway, the new update is at https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.com/2022/03/update-interior-work.html

On a side note, would anyone care to share their choices for interior and exterior lights?

Have a great weekend, all!

marsh

[twisted lines]

I bought the lighted ring to go around the vent hole, hoping it’s ez.
Little hard to find at Amz.
If interested will find it for you.

[mnswamp]

Just a quick update - the wordier version is on my blogsite (below).
The bulkheads and shelves are in, the left wall is ready to go up, and everything is queued up to install the ceiling once the wall is in.
Most of the electrics are in house, and ready to begin installation as well, now that I have some space issues sorted out.

ProTip (sort of) - the Festool Domino tool makes a dandy slot for feeding 1" straps to hold down big objects like coolers and stoves.



https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.com/2022/04/fits-and-starts.html

Marsh

[mnswamp]

Monday evening my neighbor and I laid down the PL and got the left wall put in place. It's glued, screwed and plumb bobbed, and it all fit. Next up, bond the ceiling sheets, bring them home and install it and the spars. I think then it'll be time to take a few days and work on wiring to make sure I have everything connectable.


A little more info over on my blog - https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.co ... quare.html

[mnswamp]

Front half done, back half in progress.
Also, my Maxxfan and edge binding arrived today. Moving right along!

New post up:
https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.co ... iling.html

[mnswamp]

It's been a week or so since I posted an update here. I did a build journal update over on my site https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.com/2022/04/whats-that-over-head-roof-roof-no.htmllast week, but since then it's been a lot of small stuff - like blocking, which eats up an inordinate amount of time, and wiring, which eats up an inordinate amount of time, and insulation, which turned into a wild and wooly adventure.

Actually, that's not true - working with Havelock wool is one of the smarter decisions I've made (I hope). Since my stringers/spars are 8¨ apart, and the wool bats are 16 inches wide, it was pretty easy to cut and fit with a pair of scissors. No itchy glass, no peeling/sanding foam, and no hours spent on the table saw kerfing foam. (I spent about 3 years, er hours kerfinng 1/4¨ plywood for the roof. no way I want to do with with pink foam!)

With a little luck, I'll button up the roof this weekend or early next week and start in on the hatch. Y'all have me moderately terrified on that project!

[mnswamp]

Wow, it's been a while. In the past month, I've moved my MIL to managed care (92!), been busy as heck on my 'day job', and still managed to make an actual bit of progress on the build. This past weekend was satisfying - I was able to get the outside skinned (except for the hatch and front box). And it all fit!
Lots of work left, especially on the hatch. I've updated the blog with most of the gory details of progress here https://swampwerks-teardrop.blogspot.com/2022/06/its-really-blue-right-now.html

The front box issue has pretty much resolved itself. I had planned to use a room AC, and fabricate a box around it. But as I started drawing it out, things kept getting more complex, welding and metal bending (or fiberglass work) were going to be required, and the time commitment to do it was getting worse. I decided to change the plan and go to a Zero Breeze ducted unit, which can still sit in the tongue box, and have ducting into the trailer. This simplified several design elements, and will reduce my hours by a significant bit. I was estimating 30-40 hours to fab the box and inside work to plumb the AC. This reduced it to 10 or less, at a not so small increase in cost. I'll photo blog that in the next post or two.

Here's the current 'state of play'

[mnswamp]

It's alive! Sorry for the radio silence over the past few weeks. I've had to make some choices on what got worked on - and work unfortunately consumed a lot of my day. The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of 'punchlist' items - hook up the trailer lights, finish the electrical system, build the AC box, actually build the hatch.. Bloody heck, it was absolute confirmation of the existence and accuracy of the 90/10 rule. I've still got 40+ hours of work left to get everything done and dusted, but it's now roadworthy!

Anyway, SW-1 got its first trip this weekend, up to Cuyuna mountain bike playground. Everything that was connected worked, and there were a bunch of interesting 'lessons' from the past few days.
> the 7 pin cable does not follow the standard color code for trailer wiring.
> The RV industry seems to run on 1.5¨ square drive screws.
> Hilltop Trailer in Fridley MN stocks 16' lengths of most common aluminum trim (most of which I ordered from RecPro in 92¨ lengths _with shipping_
> Buy twice as much butyl tape as you think you'll need - you'll need it.
> Bamboo tools for shaping clay are really helpful for inserting trim strips.
> Bike chain lube works great to make hurricane hinges easier to install
> Aluminum swarf gets tracked in to the house no matter how hard you try to clean it up. I think it may be worse than glitter.
> You don't get second chances with VHB tape
> It's dang hard to wipe the smile off your face when you peel the blue plastic off the sides of the trailer.

[JasenC]

That's great.

Some good life lessons right there.