Hobbit themed Teardrop

[yayeric]

Next I had to figure out the propane tank.

Bought some hoses to test what would fit. This one didn't work, it was hitting the control panel. I could move it, but I just want to get this done

Waste of time in the end, it appears the attachment point on the Partner Stove has a fitting I couldn't find in town, nor did I have the patience to search online for a part with components I don't know the name of as well as the delivery time. I'd have to make the factory hose work.

I did not want to store the hose in the drawers, I'm trying to free up that space. A thick hose that has a tendency to straighten itself out felt like it would be a headache to pack. I probably spent 4 days while working on other items to think of a good alternative way to store the hose. I initially thought of a cubby, or a hook to hang it off, or some sort of clip but I didn't like any of these for various reasons.

I stared at the hose, and noticed it wanted to be straight. Had a flash of a thought and figured I could take advantage of that property to hold itself together with channels for a particular shape.

This would be a simple way to store it, no moving mechanisms. I like the simple elegant methods.

Here is the little channel. I initially made two

The canary was very strong, I was unable to squeeze these arms and snap them so they should be good enough for the job.

I initially made two, but the brass cap that attaches to the stove was too thick to fit. I did not want to thin out the arm of the wood and weaken it, so I made third with a step in the middle to fit the hose and the brass end

Had to make sure they cleared the gas springs. Juuuuuust made it

Attached the end point, and traced the interior diameter of the hose. Some simple geometry to position the three 60° apart for even pressure on the hose

And it's done

The hose reaches the stove just fine. The attachment to the 1L tank will hang off the bottom of the control panel when the tank isn't in use. I just need to buy a nice brass or stainless hook

 

[yayeric]

Cleaning up the wall of pencil marks

I wanted to test the ease of swapping the propane tank, so I cut a hole in the..... I don't know what to call it. I flattened a pencil on the belt sander to my hole would be precise, it can sit flush on the side of the propane tank. I only had an 1/8th of an inch of space to spar, so this needed to be precise.

And it works. A bit snug and only slightly difficult to remove

Cut some holes for the kettle and french press. Looking good

 

[yayeric]

Had some trim to put into the galley hole to the bedroom

This little bit of wood has an overhang to cover up the bottom edge of the baltic plywood. It wasn't a clean cut, this was my quick solution to cover it up

Using strips of scrap wood as bows to apply pressure is a good alternative to clamping when clamping is impossible

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Nice work!

Tom

 

[Tony Latham]

Great job. I really like your paper towel holder.

Tony

 

[Pmullen503]

Fantastic build. I hope you have a garage to store it in when you aren't enjoying it!

 

[yayeric]

Spent most of the weekend pounding away on the trailer - still feel like I'm close to being done, yet I can't help but keep adding tasks

Firstly, decided to knock out drilling and threading holes to attach wood handles to the window rod

First had to drill a hole in a round brass rod. I'll be using a 4mm bolt, so I have a 3.27mm bit to drill the hole.

Two considerations to take
1) The hole has to be centered
2) a 3.27 bit is quite thin, and 99% of the time it will bend left or right along the rod

First, center the bit. I used to eyeball this, but an engineering friend had a handy trick to center the bit. Using a flat piece of aluminum between the bit and the rod, push the bit down and pinch the aluminum between the rod and the bit. Shift the vice until the aluminum is parallel to the vice surface

Too left

Too right

Juuuust right

From here, drill a nick into the rod, swap out the bits, and finish the hole

Looks centered to me!

Thread the hold, drill through the wood, and attach.

 

[yayeric]

Second project this weekend was the spice rack. I didn't want to limit myself to 5 spices or so, and I also did not to pack my drawers with spices. So, a spice rack it is. I chose 11 total

Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Italian Seasoning (parsley, basil, thyme, oregano mix)
Paprika
Cayan
Cinnamon
Cumin
Nutmeg
Ginger
Dill
Turmeric

Salt and pepper will go below the spice rack, next to the 2 coffee mugs.

Couple thoughts of how to do this. I could either do a rack with the jars straight up, but this would require 1 jar length of height of extra space above the rack. Also thought of a swinging system attached to the galley door ceiling, or some sort of cabinet.

I chose to angle the spice rack. This requires no moving parts, and saves space because it requires no extra space above to clear the galley hinge beam. 45° perfects clears it perfectly.

Hard to see, but these are the plans and pre-cut pieces

Quick test fit for the jars

Gluing......

Cured

The top portion was not holding itself together very well. It was already falling apart, the butt-joints were pretty weak. I should have made that portion 1/2" thick instead of 1/4".

To reinforce that portion, I shaved off 1/8" with a router and chisel

Then I glued on a scrap piece of 1/8" thick slab

Once dried, sanded all exterior portions to 240 grit (should have done this to every piece prior to gluing.....). Sanding until all my pencil marks are gone.

Cutting to 45°

And it fits. The coffee cups clear the base of the rack and the jars can be removed without anything in the way.

And that's what 2 days of work looks like. To complete the rack, I need to find a way to attach it to the wall, and label the lids of the jars. I'm thinking of laser engraving the lids of the jars with some LOTR text.

I'm really hoping the jars don't bounce out when on the road.

 

[Tony Latham]

I'm really hoping the jars don't bounce out when on the road.

They should be fine, assuming your suspension is matched to the weight of the trailer.

Tony

 

[yayeric]

They should be fine, assuming your suspension is matched to the weight of the trailer.

Tony

The axle I bought was rated for 1700 pounds. Not sure what the trailer will weigh at the end. It's one foot shorter than yours, but has 2 extra ribs for the metal frame, and the internal/external adornments. Those 2 drawer slides alone add 70lbs. I'm hoping I'm on the money with my guess-timation

 

[Tony Latham]

I'm hoping I'm on the money with my guess-timation

She'll do great.

Tony

 

[yayeric]

Weeks work so far

Bought my first dado blade set for the table saw. What a game changer!

Attached some 'wings' to the spice rack. Simple but strong joint

Messed up one of the female ends by cutting it too thick. Added a shim to fill the void

There wasn't enoigh room to drill the attachment points. Made a platform for the rack so I could drill a perpendicular hole through the other end with the drill press

 

[yayeric]

Wish I remembered I had this bendy drill bit attachment before I went through the trouble if building that platform for the drill press.

Added brass inserts and attached the rack

Moving back to the collapsable sink. Added some trim to the rails the other day, attached it to the wall today.

I ran out of 4mm threaded brass inserts, so I converted some of my 3mm stock to 4mm. Pretty simple with the drill and tap.

There was maybe 1.5mm of remaining space? Pretty tight fit, but it slides out smoothly and the cooler doesn't drag it out when opened, so it does its job well. That large gap between the cooler and the wall, due to the drawer slides I had to buy, bugged me. Glad the space could be put to good use.

Bought some nicely colored and designed local hand towels from a market yesterday. I think I'll make a simple hand towel rack on the galley roof tomorrow. I think they'll add to the aesthetic nicely

That about covers it. Nearly done with the galley, just the towel rack, some pockets for salt, pepper and soap for the trays (once those items arrive), and something between the towel rack and paper towel holder. If I dont think of anything practical, then I think I'll CO2 laser engrade a piece of birch with a map of middle earth or something. I think that'll look nice

 

[Tom&Shelly]

"I think I'll CO2 laser engrade a piece of birch with a map of middle earth or something. I think that'll look nice"

Always a good idea to have a map of the places where you may be camping!

Great workmanship!

Tom

 

[yayeric]

"Always a good idea to have a map of the places where you may be camping!"
I'm going to use this quote if you don't mind....

Found a Middle Earth map off reddit I really liked, not my creation (credit to /u/kyurtseven7)

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/18fy0ga/middleearth_map_on_the_movies_8k_7680_4320

There was a .svg file on thingiverse but a lot of details were lost in their transformation of the image. Ran it myself through photoshop, lots of contrast adjustments until the background noise disappeared. No image trace, this would just be for raster engraving.

Here is the first burn

Wasn't bad, but still had to dial in the CO2 laser. If the speed was too slow, the details would get lost due to the time the laser spent on each spot which widened the burn marks, decreasing DPI. If too fast, then the quality was lost due to being imprecise.

I also fooled around with staining a board with a water based stain followed by burning. I'm keeping this one I think

 

[yayeric]

Also made a hand towel holder.

As with everything I tend to overthink it. Couldn't help myself but imagine the hand towel falling in the dirt every time I opened the galley, so I planned for a 'finger' to hold the towel in place. Initially I thought of using a spring like the paper towel holder, but I settled on magnets. They'd require less space

Planning and prepping wood

Always good to put things through a stress test. I made this piece without considering grain direction.

Making a round hole square....

Final sanding

Gluing the pieces together and installing the magnets. Thought I could hide the magnets behind a camouflaging layer of canary wood dust, but that didn't work out that well with epoxy compared to wood glue

And it seems to work! Wasn't able to shake the magnets apart, yet it opens easily

I was thinking there would be a way to position a single set of magnets using repelling force so that the finger has an open and closed position, similar to the gas springs used to hold the galley open and closed. That would be pretty cool. Maybe next time....

A friend asked me why I didn't just use a clothespin. Wish I thought of that....

 

[Tom&Shelly]

"Always a good idea to have a map of the places where you may be camping!"
I'm going to use this quote if you don't mind....

Absolutely! Stealing (a joke) is the sincerest form of larceny!

The map looks great.

Tom

 

[yayeric]

Didn't get much done this weekend, just made a frame and installed the map

Routing

Preparing to glue, trim, and chamfer

Installed

 

[featherliteCT1]

As I gaze at your penciled drawing and the dimensions scribed onto the wood to create your pattern, after a while, I can feel my blood pressure dropping. Very satisfying.

 

[yayeric]

The holidays combined with being sick slowed me down a wee bit. Got some various small tasks started

Started getting the spice jars labeled. Found some patterns online and merged them with some text.

First had to use the CO2 Laser to cut out a mold to hold the lids. I'd zero the X and Y axis to the mold, and adjust the Z axis accordingly. The lid would fit in the circle, and the line at the base would allow me to line up the lid's orientation so all the text would be orientated in a legible manner when screwed on. From here I could just insert a new lid, upload a new burn file, and move quickly. About 25 minutes to burn 11 lids, not too bad.

After that was cut, the lid was placed and the pattern engraved

The 'acacia' was too dark to be legible. I don't think it was even acacia wood, some of the lids turned out very light after engraving, similar to the map. I think they were stained..... I'm waiting for the only lighter alternative to arrive, bamboo, before I remake them