Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am trying to decide between building a frame for my walls or cutting the frame from a sheet of ply ( I have seen pics here, was it Mike?). As I was building some shelves for my shop last week I used 1/2 inch OSB for the shelving. The OSB at HD was less than $5 a sheet. I bought an extra sheet to cut my template/ profile from. I was thinking that since the OSB is so cheap could I use it as my frame. If I cut two profiles from 1/2 OSB and glue them together to create a 1 inch frame to be insulated and skined with 1/4 ply. So four sheets of OSB total approx $20 for framing and four sheets of 1/4 ply (oak) for skins.

Does this sound economical? Is the OSB structual enough? What do yall think? Has someone already tried this?

Thanks for you help and comments. I think I am going to cut my profile in the next couple weeks (generic benroy) and begin the build early March. So, it won't be too long before I start feeding the animals some pics.

War Eagle wrote:Has someone already tried this?

I haven't but I now know how I'm going to make the frame on my next teardrop. Not from OSD but making it from plywood would be a lot easier than cutting and gluing boards the way I did. Thanks!

Joseph

War Eagle wrote:I am trying to decide between building a frame for my walls or cutting the frame from a sheet of ply ( I have seen pics here, was it Mike?). As I was building some shelves for my shop last week I used 1/2 inch OSB for the shelving. The OSB at HD was less than $5 a sheet. I bought an extra sheet to cut my template/ profile from. I was thinking that since the OSB is so cheap could I use it as my frame. If I cut two profiles from 1/2 OSB and glue them together to create a 1 inch frame to be insulated and skined with 1/4 ply. So four sheets of OSB total approx $20 for framing and four sheets of 1/4 ply (oak) for skins.

Does this sound economical? Is the OSB structual enough? What do yall think? Has someone already tried this?

Thanks for you help and comments. I think I am going to cut my profile in the next couple weeks (generic benroy) and begin the build early March. So, it won't be too long before I start feeding the animals some pics.

Start feeding the animals some pics? What kind of animals are you raising that love photos?

Classic Finn

Finn, just a little dig at the T&TTT community. You guys love pic. Visualize monkeys in the zoo with their hands out stretched asking for more. Just my attemp at humor.

War Eagle wrote:Visualize monkeys in the zoo with their hands out stretched asking for more. Just my attemp at humor.

You want humor, go to the monkey cage and give 'em bubble gum. They expect food to break down when they chew it and they'll chew and chew and chew, pull a long strand out of their mouth, put it back in and chew and chew some more, getting madder by the minute!

Just make sure you stay out of poop-throwing range!

Joseph

That would be funny. I'll bet the Zoo keeper really appreciates that too.

War Eagle wrote:Finn, just a little dig at the T&TTT community. You guys love pic. Visualize monkeys in the zoo with their hands out stretched asking for more. Just my attemp at humor.

I like to think of us a more evolved species but still animals just the same. Lyons and Tigers and Bear OH MY! Pictures are greatly appreciated.

I stripped my framing out of 1x2 x6's. Cheap way to go. If I cut it out of anything other than ply it would be OSB, but if you read the warning on the board it isn't structural and needs framing. May not be ridged enough.

That doesn't mean you can't try it, just feed the animals

War Eagle wrote:Finn, just a little dig at the T&TTT community. You guys love pic. Visualize monkeys in the zoo with their hands out stretched asking for more. Just my attemp at humor.

Its true we luv da pics....

Classic Finn

...why not...only I think I would use a single 1/2" sheet and skin the inside with 1/8th (maybe even the outside, especially if skinned in AL)...........
madjack

I would try a peice of "scrap" cut into a frame thickness and see how fragile and how it holds together. The question of OSB has come up before but not as framing. My friend has had 2 cargo trailers and their floors are OSB. They come untreated and unpainted. He has painted the inside buy the outside, road side, is still untreated. Years later they still look fine.

This is an interesting idea. I guess that the framing is sufficiently sealed from the weather than delamination isn't a worry. That just leaves the question of how strong the OSB is when a (relatively) narrow strip is cut out of it. A narrow strip may contain just a single strand/flake on the surface, so where that ends is a real weak point.

My guess is that it will be quite strong enough as the framing inside a double-skin panel, as it's only there to connect the skins to each other. I doubt it would be good enough for a single-skin panel (ie, one skin plus framing) but that isn't what you're talking about, right?

The one area where we need you to conduct the official T&TTT Forum Field Tests™ (or T&TTTFFT, as we say.....) is whether it is strong enough when it's just cut out, on its own. It seems to me there's a risk that it wouldn't be strong enough, for example, to pick up and turn it over.

Driving screws into the end-grain of anything wooden isn't best practice, but doing it into OSB is going to be impossible without splitting it, isn't it?

Andrew

If you get the OSB that is used for roofing, it has a water resistant side. You need to sand that so the glue will stick. I soaked a chunk of it in a bucket for a week and it swelled a small amount. As soon as it was dry it went back to normal.

If you use it for flooring you need some real wood or aluminium to attach the sides to.

PS No gaps wider than 2 feet.

War Eagle,

Here is a website that offers a lot of information about OSB. It even addressed the issue of OBS's capability to hold screws and nails in comparison to plywood.

http://www.umass.edu/bmatwt/publications/articles/osb_vs_plywood.html

Todah

That's great Todah. Real interesting read.
Just found this one point that seems to be of interest to the structure question.

Osb, on average, is 7% less stiff because it stays closer to its target spec. However, osb feels stiffer when you walk across a floor covered with it because there are no occasional weak panels like plywood.

7% shouldn't make a difference, unless you were using thin material.

As yall brought up, one of my concerns was skrewing into the end grain, but when combined with glue do you think it would be OK as long as everything was clampped long enough for the glue to set.

Madjack I was thinking two layers of 1/2 because I am able to get some 1 inch insul with the silver backing (we used it to insulate the garage door but with 2") at a very good price (free) and was planning to use that. Also I just thought about my wiring. With two 1/2 layers I could use the router to cut a groove in one layer to run wires.

I don't know, I was just trying to come up with a quicker/ easier frame than making curves out of straight 1x6. I have never done that and it looks kinda complicated. Unless one of you have a secret to share. That would be a great tutorial. Maybe if I end up going that way I will try to document it and add some value to the community. No matter what I do I will contribute my findings so others can learn from my mistakes or benefit from my success.

MAN I"M SO READY TO START CUTTING SOME WOOD!