the roswell

[Miriam C.]

Thought I'd add a couple illustrations on the subject. Just food for thought. You know, adding some fuel to the fire!

Bob, any chance you can add a step to the bottom door panel?

[mikeschn]

Here's a pic of the wrl I posted a couple messages back...

Also go back a few messages and check out Andrew's wrl...



Mike...

P.S. FWIW, that's a king sized bed in there.

Mike...

[mikeschn]

Ever wonder what it looks like inside a Roswell? Wonder no more...



Mike...

[del]

mike

i could get lost in there on a king size bed all by myself. i started today making spars per andrews drawings. if i were to make this wider version how would i make the spars (they are different now)? longer would be easy, but wider would be nice. the skin would be a different size, or would you just add according to pogthagerian therom (sp?) and leave the angles the same? hope i made sense.

i like the idea of a wider trailer for the space, like the looks of the narrow one with fenders. if i build andrews version i can spend the summer building the body, and put temp fenders on. then spend the next summer building fenders. or do i make the wider one, leaving the orginal roswell to someone else? any idea how much the trailer would weight, and how wide is the wide track roswell?

thanks del

[sledge]

Hey Mike..........Great Job bud, what did you use to design that ???

[grant whipp]

Firstly, in my own defence, here is one of the famous sketches of the Roswell with my model overlaid on it in blue. Most of the differences between my model and the sketches are due to inconsistencies between the two views of the sketch!

Not being critical, Andrew, just seeing if you could get it closer to my vision of the Roswell. I told Bill he had it too high, that it needed to look like it was hovering just inches off the ground. With today's neon lights underneath, that would only increase the illusion ...

... I've also put a flat on the back of the fenders and added some 59 Caddy tail lights there - though I can see that's not too bright as they'd get knocked off by people walking around the trailer in camp.

Ideally, those Caddy lights should be tunneled (with a bologna-cut tube) into the outside trailing edge of the fender, with only the tips of the lenses protruding just past ends. Of course, as originally penned, they should be in the trailing edges of the little winglets between the fender and the body, but we'll leave that for Version 4.0 ...

The various movements you described mean that the chassis is now recessed a long way into the body - in fact the floor comes slightly above the door opening!

Actually, that's not much of a problem. Just raise the bottom of the door ... or adapt Bob's solution and let the bottom part of the door act as access to some under-floor storage.

Thanks, too, for explaining the Tardis Principle in a few succinct words (if indeed that's its proper name, which I doubt). The exact verbage of it and the theory behind it always confounded me, but I was always amazed how the good Dr. could pack so much into a little callbox ...

And hey, Mike! I really like what you've done with the expanded version! Ya know, if you added fenderskirts with just a hint of wheelwell cutout, it might just be the little extra that puts the design right on target! What are ya gonna call that one ...

... oh no, tell me he isn't gonna say it ...

... yes, he really is ...

... the Rosie-well!

UGH ... sorry folks, it just slipped out ... ... ...


Oh, and Bob ...

... one little problem with your lifting hatch is that you've got a real head-banger on those corners. You could round off those corners (like on the side door), though, to take care of that.


Gotta tell ya folks ... I'm pretty sure Bill would be amazed at what y'all have done with his little "vision". I'll be sending him a few of the images here pretty soon ...

'Til later, then ...

CHEERS!

Grant

[angib]

Grant,

Here is your galley idea:



It doesn't work as well as might be wished as the lower doors cannot open any further (they could go another 15 deg before hitting the fenders) or the moving worktops will no longer overlap the fixed worktop. Sadly the cooker idea doesn't work as it is too big to fit on the triangular moving worktops.

I appreciate the idea was to have each moving worktop nearly the full area of the galley, but that doesn't work either - as the doors can only move through 45-60 deg, if the moving worktops are full-area they will just prevent access to the fixed worktop. So as they have to be cut back, they can fit in half the area, and be at the same height as each other, as shown.

Andrew

[del]

andrew

the fenders look easy to build now, the lower cabinet area looks to be the challenge.

mike

now you started me thinking about the wide track roswell.

everybody

i hope you do not mind, but i believe the lower part of the galley i will leave fixed. access being through the counter top. what are the thoughts of a hybred somewhere between the orginal design and mikes wide track?

[angib]

Oh, dammit, I started thinking about this lying in bed this morning when I should have been sleeping!

I've started playing with a more practical Roswell - I think the original is really hard to build, mainly because it's a bit too short. So for example, you'll see in the 3D above that you can't fit a complete bulkhead into the upper galley area without putting it through the rear side window.

Another idea I had was to standardise on just one cross-section - so the front and back would be the same as the middle. Here is a preliminary drawing with 45 degree back ends, 30 degree front ends and side panels that are just short of 8 feet long:



It looks a bit dumpy, so there's more work to do.

What came to me this morning was an alternative build method that might work. Build a jig that's the shape of the side curves (another reason for wanting all the curves the same - so that one jig will do) and laminate the skin out of three layers of 1/8" ply. They would then be largely self-supporting and there would be minimal need for framing inside. It would be easiest to do the lamination on a male jig (ie, so the outside skin is exposed), but a female jig would enable things like the door openings to be framed on the inside while the side was still in the jig.

Cutting the end profiles of the panels would be a bit tricky, though it isn't hard to make a lay-on template. Final fitting would still require careful trimming and sanding if filler is to be avoided. I think the corner joints would be quite strong enough if they were made with a thickened epoxy resin 'glue' and then reinforced on the inside with glass tape.

Another nightmare in the original Roswell is those fenders - hundreds of hours of work and what the sketches don't show is the very complex shape of the structure needed to connect the fenders to the body. A bit more simplification work is needed there too.

And now I'm gonna start doing what I intended to do today.....

Andrew

[del]

andrew

would making the trailer a little wider,and only making the outside half of the fenders make it any easier? i was thinking 4.5 feet or 5 feet (my subaru is 5 feet wide). this would hopefully satisfy the purists who like the fenders (that group includes yours truly), and give me more space on the inside (can not see the fenders while sleeping).

cheers (i am not english so i hope this means thank you)

del

p.s. would everyone like build pictures here, or on a new thread on the construction page? is there anyone who can resize the pictures and post them? i have figured out how to post but not resize.

[angib]

All the designs I've shown here are 60" wide at their widest (at the 'bellyband'), but 48" wide at the floor level.

And, yes, my idea is to move the wheels in just a bit and push the fender against the body side.

Andrew

[madjack]

del...we luv da pics, wherever you put them but you might want to start a "construction progress" thread for them...as far as resizing, here is an excellent little program to do that...the site contains the program "irfanview.exe" and a tutorial on how to use it...it is very simple....
http://www.somewhere-in-time.net/tutorial/irfanview/

madjack

[del]

madjack

i knew pictures would be liked. problems in that is i am not the most computer literate person, down loading a program is not a sure thing. compounding my problem is the fact i have a computer geek for a brother (why i run Ubuntu not windows). i have a program called picasa, which my brother can resize pictures in no time. i can not, he explained to me how, using i believe english words, i did not understand though.

del

p.s. i tried to download the program suggested by madjack, no luck.

[Dee Bee]

I am beginning to like this one

Dee Bee

Grant,

Here is your galley idea:



It doesn't work as well as might be wished as the lower doors cannot open any further (they could go another 15 deg before hitting the fenders) or the moving worktops will no longer overlap the fixed worktop. Sadly the cooker idea doesn't work as it is too big to fit on the triangular moving worktops.

I appreciate the idea was to have each moving worktop nearly the full area of the galley, but that doesn't work either - as the doors can only move through 45-60 deg, if the moving worktops are full-area they will just prevent access to the fixed worktop. So as they have to be cut back, they can fit in half the area, and be at the same height as each other, as shown.

Andrew

[glassice]

mikeschn look great .I started to cut spars from angib plan's but it take a lot of time . My worm wood run on g code.I have no ideal what it is i pay some to make the tape for me . Can you do that ?If so we could cut a foam plug . What do you think ?