Hobbit themed Teardrop

[yayeric]

Hey all,

Been working on this beast of a project continuously for the last 3 years. It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be. I've been taking periodic photos, but it'll be a while before I get those organized.

I'm finally at a point where I can see the end - I don't have much more to do! Can't explain how good that feels.

I certainly would have finished a long time ago if I wasn't building everything from scratch. Door hinges, doors, windows, window latches, window hinges, door latches, all from scratch. Takes a long time to prototype everything and make it work while looking good. I started this without any carpentry or metal working skills, I've only built a bench before this. Had a ton to learn.

From here I have to build an upper rack in the galley, get the walnut trim around the trailer fitted, get the frame mounted and axle welded (both of which need to be painted). I also need to do a TON of varnishing, which will take a week or two. Electrical needs to be completed. I also need to build a battery box (should be easy now after building drawers), and a boot box above the wheel well.

I'm really hoping I'll be done by the end of the year. Everything seems easy from here, so I think it's doable.

 

[yayeric]

Some other photos of the interior and the galley table

Here is the window I made. Spent about 1.5 months making this, turns out building a window from scratch with a mechanism that allows you to open the window through an insect screen while on the inside of the teailer is a bit tricky.

Used brass as the handle, as it will only look better as it ages. This passed through a hole in the window. There are two 1/4" baltic birch pieces that will have an insect screen sandwiched between them. Every thing is held togethor with machine screws and threaded brass inserts to allow for easy dissasembly

Same for the frame of the window - that can be easily disassembled to replace and scratched or damaged acrylic

The weight of the brass handle also serves as a locking mechanism. There isn't enough leverage to open the window that way withoit breaking it. Basically as secure as it gets =]

 

[Tony Latham]

Been working on this beast of a project continuously for the last 3 years.

What a great 'drop!

Tony

 

[yayeric]

Appreciate it Tony. Your book has been my guide through this process.

Got my handmade sconces mounted and the galley base along with the water and cooler drawer coated in epoxy (in case if any water leaks)

 

[yayeric]

I also got some planning done.

Initially I was going to CO2 laser cut hundreds of leaves, stain them the color of autumn and epoxy them on. I decided against this, did a test run and realized it would be too difficult.

Decided to make a woody last minute, just throw on some walnut trim and be done with it.

Because it wasn't going to be a woody initially, I didn't buy the highest quality birch - I have a few footballs to cover up. Did some planning in illustrator to see how to cover them up and plan for how much walnut I'd need

Turns out I can cover them up easily, and the skeleton of the trailer (brown) lines up with the trim (yellow). Perfect, glad I got lucky with that.

Bought some relatively cheap walnut boards and resawed them to 1/4" thick followed by planing

I also needed to make some walnut dowels. This would add a nice asthetic look, increase attachment with added shear strength, and assist in epoxying them on while they serve as free finger holds.

Rather than spend $8 on a stick (I was going to need a lot), I made my own from some throw-away scrap. Initially I cut them to size with a tablesaw. Had to make 4 extra 45° cuts so my drill could hold it

First passed this through a die (turns the square cuts to a round screw-like dowel), then passed it through a dowel jig. Made the jig by welding on a glob of steel to a bar, drilled through the glob, then serated the edges with an angle grinder. Has worked very well for me so far

I guess the next step for me will be the rack above the table in the galley for storage, galley electrical box and the exterior walnut trim.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Seems more at home in a museum than to be bouncing down the road

 

[gearsoup]

That looks really nice, not gonna lie

 

[Tony Latham]

Your book has been my guide through this process.

I thought I caught that.

Can't wait to see a photo of her out in the wild.

Tony

 

[S. Heisley]

What a delight!

 

[yayeric]

Put some final trim into the galley. Still have to add trim the tray the stove sits on, change the handle to the front and bolt that down. I'll have to remove everytbing again in the future to varnish, but I'm glad with the way it turned out.

Decided to start on the trim. Didn't have much time tonight so I wanted to get something done.

Pretty easy process with the dowels. Should be able to finish the rest by the end of the weekend.

Other short tasks to complete would completing the battery box, cutting a hole in the ceiling for the fan, sanding the trim and routering a 45° edge. Short easy tasks with daily noticible differences =]

 

[yayeric]

For the walnut and canary trim, i dont think I'm going to fiberglass it. The fiberglass shows clearly with a dark background, it's impossible to completely saturate the cloth. I'll be adding a soaking layer of epoxy l, then add several coats of varnish

 

[yayeric]

Seems more at home in a museum than to be bouncing down the road

It has a dexter torsion axle, shouldn't be bouncing too much

I'm okay with road scars =]

 

[Pmullen503]

Wow!

 

[Sparksalot]

All I’ve got is a menu.

 

[yayeric]

Got some prep done today, trimming walnut to size. Glad I had a scale outline of the teardrop.

Had quite a mess to clean up too!

 

[Paintsalot]

Love the doorway. The window is killer. Those Wood drawers are cool. Walnut I guess. I’m getting to where the end is in sight on my build too. A Folding wooden camper. Pic folded down- about to put roof on soon.
Where will you go to when you leave Hobbiton?

 

[pchast]

Pretty!!!!

 

[yayeric]

Love the doorway. The window is killer. Those Wood drawers are cool. Walnut I guess. I’m getting to where the end is in sight on my build too. A Folding wooden camper. Pic folded down- about to put roof on soon.
Where will you go to when you leave Hobbiton?View attachment 1478903

I saw your build the other day, the folding aspect you have seems really cool and easy to assemble!

 

[yayeric]

Bit more work than I though getting the wood trim on than I thought.

The flat portion were easy, but I didn't like the amount of force it was taking to hold the curved parts down. Fortunately someone in the art studio made a steaming device.

The wood has a secondary curve, almost like it's trying to become a C-channel. It's particularly difficult by this knot

I'm probably going to have to re-steam it and flip it over, I think it'll be easier to press out that bend in that orientation.


Following this, I'll be taking everything to be sanded and router a 45° chamfer along the edges, allowing those connection points to pop out, like the canary door trim. I'm liking the way it's turning out so far

One of the curved Galley pieces of trim doesn't want to bend as much either - made a mold with a tighter radius to account for that. We'll see how it turns out on Tuesday

 

[yayeric]

Here is my entire build process so far. May take me a few days to fully update everything.

I following Tony H. Latham's book, with some modification to fit what I was trying to build.

Initially I was going to build a van, but I liked the idea of having a trailer I could tow with a Prius if I wished. It was going to initially be a normal trailer (whatever that means), but when I drew a round door I knew it was going to be hobbit themed. I spent about 6 months drawing plans for the trailer, taking everything I could into consideration.

1) I wanted the galley counter to be 36-38" high for ease of cooking.
2) I wanted the the galley from the table down to be perpendicular - I did not want to lean forward to have to access anything. I have chronic back pain from the military and didn't want the galley to cause any pain
3) The door should be centerlined with where I sit down/ rise up from bed relative to the headboard.
4) Curvature of the roof should prevent any head banging with some wiggle room
5) Keep everything simple - no plumbing, no refrigerator, no heating, no AC.
6) Make the trailer as small as possible


Here are some of my initial plans - I didn't have any knowledge in any modeling programs so everything was hand drawn