Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Nice work George !!!

Very nicely done. You are obviously a much better craftsman than I am. When I clamped and cut my two sheets of foam, I had a rough time getting the cuts to be plumb. The jig saw blade kept deflecting. So my sides are not identical despite my efforts. I didn't bother with the shop vac and I'm still finding pink foam pellets everywhere in my garage. Looking good!

I have a old saber saw, probably from the 50's, that has a large base. I did a sample piece with the blade I had and it cut great so I thought I would give it a shot. I think if I was using a jig saw with a narrow base I would attach a wider plate to the bottom. Really the only problem I had was that the blade came loose and started to wander some. I even thought before I made the cut I should check the bolt, but then forgot. Luckily it did not wander too bad, but if it was any looser I could have had a bit of a problem to fix.

If you have a hurricane hinge on that, there is some sideways movement. It's entirely possible for your hatch to move off to one side, so that you can no longer close it.

One way around that is to not lift up the hatch so high, so that is always stays in contact with the inner walls.

Mike...

Today was door day. I was planning on making a hot knife jig for this, but after the success of the outer radius cuts with the sabre saw I thought what the heck.

I made sure the blade was nice and tight and added a lock washer to make sure it would not work loose again. I set up a straight edge and began to cut. As I cut I would add some packing tape to help hold the door to the body. I did not want the foam to break and do not plan on taking the doors out until after I glue the walls to the floor. I only have 6" of foam over the door so I know it is weak. Also there is a potential of some flex at the top which could allow you to glue the door frame to far or too close together on the floor. With the door in place it will make it easy to see if all is well.....



My old sabre saw. Making the top door cut...

So I still wanted to play with the hot wire idea.

In my build I am planning to dado joint the bulk head and the shelves to the side walls. I made a simple hot wire jig. The wire is welding wire and the power supply is a battery charger for a car.







It worked pretty nice.

I tested the fit with a peice of scrap I had laying around. Fit was good.



No foam yet for the bulk head, but I did set up the sides to get a idea of how it will look. When I looked at the foam when it was laying on the floor I thought to my self, this is going to be too small. Once I got the sides up I thought, wow this may be too big.

mikeschn wrote:If you have a hurricane hinge on that, there is some sideways movement. It's entirely possible for your hatch to move off to one side, so that you can no longer close it.

One way around that is to not lift up the hatch so high, so that is always stays in contact with the inner walls.

Mike...

No hurricane hinge in this build. Trying to keep it simple and cheap. Looking at doing three strap hinges at this time. I have to wait till I get to that point before I make a solid plan though. The way I plan on making the galley I should have no need for a hurricane hinge. The idea is to use a foam weather gasket. If any water should get past that then there is a sub roof that will shed the water to either side of the hatch and then out the bottom. Well that is the plan anyway...

Sorta an unusual request here ... but could you post a pic
of the saw you used ? To me a sabre saw is like a jig saw, and
those that I've seen don't have a 4inch+ stroke [you did say you
were using 2in foam, right?]. Your cuts are really clean and
sharp, so seeing what did that for you would be a help to others.
[I'm assuming you cut both foam sheets simultaneously - correct ?]

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

P.S. - No need to do the pic of the saw - I thought I was on the last page
when I posted this, but discovered that was not the case when checking
this after posting - BUT - are you using a special long blade or such ? The
blades I have for my cheapo-piece-of-crap jigsaw don't like to do more
than @ 1&1/2 inch thickness at the most. Maybe perhaps there are longer
blades available that I'm not aware of ?

mezmo wrote: Maybe perhaps there are longer blades available that I'm not aware of ?

The blade I am using is 5" long. It came in a set of sabre saw blades that I got for Christmas a few years back. The wife thinks she got them at Harbor Freight. I did a search online and found a few 5" blades but they do not seem to be very common. I was at HD yesterday and looked at their jig saw blades. They did not have any that long. I think a saws all blade could be modified to work in a jig saw though.

Had a little time to work on the trailer today.

I cut out the hatch sides.



Still a good square cut with the sabre saw.



After sanding the edges for the hatch I installed another inner frame rail. This one goes accross the front.

ghcoe wrote: I think a saws all blade could be modified to work in a jig saw though.

I've never seen a 5inch jigsaw blades, but your above idea is a good one. I'll have to check
out how close they are, and if it'd be easy enough to modify, if needed.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

Like the little model - a good way to spend a little time saving a lot of time!
The teardrop idea appealed to me (I guess it's the shape), but in the end (for me) a folder was the way as it gave more headroom.
As you are mostly using flat panel maybe you could consider moulding in fibreglass using a female mould? It reduces greatly the amount of final finishing required.
Good luck

George, nice those interlocking foam panels you’re doing !!! Floor brace is a Nice idea too ... Best of luck to ya’ !!!

Want to put this some place before I forgot. I have read that Zinsser masonry paint has been used to fill canvas weave for a smooth paintable surface on wood canvas canoes. I was reading the reviews and it was mentioned quite a few times that it was quite sticky. Could be another possible canvas glue too.....