Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

The end grain is the open ends of all those little tubes.... It really is worth the extra trouble to seal it up .... We've been sealing everything up within around here for years now and the wood is lasting very well , even in out WET climate... you just have to keep slobbering on the mix till they're sealed ... The number of coats depends on the wood , the more porous like Red oak , the more you have to apply ...

No examples eh? 4 coats? 8 coats? 12 coats?

Mike...

GPW wrote:The end grain is the open ends of all those little tubes.... It really is worth the extra trouble to seal it up .... We've been sealing everything up within around here for years now and the wood is lasting very well , even in out WET climate... you just have to keep slobbering on the mix till they're sealed ... The number of coats depends on the wood , the more porous like Red oak , the more you have to apply ...

Mike, I put about 6 coats on my cedar side rails that was 1/4 cup varnish to 3/4 cup mineral spirits then I put one two coats of varnish. So far it is holding up fine!! I did the same for all the wood.
I t took 4 days to dry in Texas, it would have taken 10 days in Georgia.

Mary C.

Thanks Mary,

I didn't have a chance to do any "mix" tonight, but hopefully again tomorrow.

Also I hope to cut some eccentric spools tomorrow and glue up the hard edges.

Mike...

The whole deal about the Mix is it’s so thin it wicks into the TINY wood tubes ( capillary action , like water does ) ... then when the full strength varnish is applied the sealing is already done and the ends can be closed completely , if the surface finish film coat is ever broken and water gets in , it won’t damage the sealed wood inside ... I didn’t make this stuff up .... Invented by Chuck Felton to waterproof common corrugated cardboard ... It just so happens to work on wood too ...

If it were my choice , I’d soak all the wood ( in a big tub) for a while in the Mix to thoroughly encapsulate all the wood fibers in plastic ... Just painting it on till the wood won’t take anymore works well enough... let your conscience and tolerance to ROT be your guide...

Although I LOVE making things with wood , I really hate to see wood rot or plywood de-laminate ...

I did 5 coats on my OSB. One side looked like it was beading up on the first coat and I thought that I would wipe it down right away; but when I went back to the start, the mix had all absorbed. It did the same thing on that one side for each of the 5 coats. The other side and the edges just soaked it up (even the blue "waterproofed" edges). I admit that I stopped randomly at 5 coats because the fumes were getting to me, even outside.

Happy coating.

Well my endgrains are finally all sealed up. Took 3 sessions, about 6 coats, but it looks good.

So today the plan is to glue the hard edges to the foam. But we have a heat advisory in effect, with a real feel of 99 degrees F, so I'm not sure how long I'll be working today.

But on the bright side, it's really really humid, and gg is moisture activated!

Keep your fingers crossed. I'll try to get some pictures!

Mike...

The hard edges are glued on. Next up, set the walls on the floor.



Mike...

So that's what it's going to look like!



Mike...

Glued in the doorway frame... enough for tonight... more tomorrow...

Did anyone else get blasted by a heat wave like we did here in MI today?



Mike...

We were supposed to get that here today and tomorrow, but today wasn't that bad at all. Maybe stalled over you?

I'm curious how you managed to form your door header w/o putting a lot of stress on the foam over the door arch. Looks like regular pine furring bent.

Mike,
One thing I learned on the Big Pink is that you will want to put an angle on the door threshold for water to run down and out.
Looks great !
Tac

TAC,

That's a good idea. I'll have to sand it in though...

@KC, gonna be another hot one today!!! The upper piece is made by laminating 4 pieces of .1875" thick pine strips together.

Mike...

Or you could add a thin angled piece on top of your existing threshold ...