Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Greetings all! Long time reader/first time poster. I have already begun my tear (trailer and floor are already assembled, insulated and ready for walls). I have decided to go with an aluminum roof and wood sides. I have a local supplier here (Peach State Lumber) that got me a really good deal on 3/4" Birch ply. The grain is absolutly beatiful. Herein begins my problem. I have been reading as to suggestions on cutting out the sides and doors. I have no router experience and a little jigsaw experience. I am hesitant to ruin over $40 worth of fine wood in the blink of an eye.

Am I ok to go about this segment with the jigsaw? If so, should I place them both together to cut at once (I understand the implication of possibly ruining 2 pieces at once, but if I cut twice, I'm just doubling my chances for an "oops")?

Also, in cutting out the doors, is the best way to execute a plunge cut with a circular saw and continue with a jig saw? I assumed that both tools rendered different thickness cuts. I have the cubby plans (I have modified) and see no mention of needed spacing in the door jam. Is this usually created by sanding or perhaps a particular router bit?

Sorry for the long post. I know that I will get some great responses from this knowing some of the guys and gals on here. Thanks again and I can't wait to get involved and camp with you guys!

Hey Jpenning,

I've had those fears before too. What I do is draw my lines where the final cut is... and then I strike another line 2" further outside those lines. That where I make my practice cuts... when my practice cuts feel comfortable, then I do the real thing...

Before you cut all the radii off with your jig saw, use your circular saw to make a practice cut for the door. And yes, plunge with the circular saw, and finish with the jig saw.

Experience is worth it's weight in gold, and practicing on corners to be discarded is a good way to get experience.

Hope that helps...

Mike...

You could cut the sides separately, then clamp them together and true them up to match with a belt sander. If both are 3/4 inch that would make 1.5 and I'm not sure a standard jig saw goes that deep does it? At any rate, a jig saw should go pretty slow cutting 3/4 ply, not so fast that it ruins the piece before you catch it. Good luck!

It seems like no matter what I do, I can't follow the line the entire time on long cuts. What I usually do is cut outside the line (maybe the width of the kerf) then sand it to the line with a belt sander. It is a little extra work but the edges come out smoother than the jigsaw cut.

Don't let my skill, or lack of, scare you. Some people don't have a problem.

Successful builders have ways to minimize mistakes and imperfections. They better, 'cause everybody makes mistakes!!!

One thing to keep in mind,,the cuts you are gonna make are probably gonna be covered with moulding, edging or some other material,,this is not to mean to get it as close as ya can but a strip of angle mould around will cover or bridge minor imperfections,,cut slow and use a fine tooth blade to minimise tearout and splintering

chip

Ive been thinking about this too. In my case Im concerned about the doors and door opening matching.

I was planing on making a door template, screwing it to the side wall ply and then using a router with 1/4" flush cut bit to get the door cut right out of the side wall. If I did it right they would match perfectly and I would only need to cut once for each side wall/door pair. That was when I thought I would do sandwich constructionm for the side walls but now Im doing 3/4" solid ply. Can the router do that thickness?

Dave

That is my plan also. Templates for door and window have been tacked to first side for several weeks now without progress. I know exactly what is meant by "cutting jitters."

I cut my sides with a 1/4" router bit. Router was bolted to a home-made circle guide. I cut 3/4' plywood in three steps, but am confident the router could have done it in one. The two sides were clamped together when I drilled the holes for the guide pivot-bolts, then bolted together, after the cut, to true and square the edges. Used a belt sander and plenty of applications of the square for that step.

Learning to use new tools, and developing new skills, while working on expensive raw materials, can be intimidating, but I'm confident the experience and the end result will be well worth the effort.

McTeardrops wrote:I cut my sides with a 1/4" router bit. Router was bolted to a home-made circle guide. I cut 3/4' plywood in three steps, but am confident the router could have done it in one.

I can relate from experience that you don't want to try to cut 3/4" in one go with the router. I have this funny looking "design feature" in the corners of my doors that resulted when I tried to cut all 4 layers of 5/32" ply at once. The router was way overworked, and I managed to cut into the template.

Using a template for the router, it's preferable to just cut a little bit of the depth at a time. 1/4" for each pass is probably fine.

Rik

I cut the doors and walls with a variable speed jigsaw. Cutting the doors with a 1/4 router would avoid having to increase that gap for hinges, weatherstriping, etc. However, I didn't use a router is because I KNEW mistakes were inevitable and wanted to leave a little extra wood to account for that. Mistakes can easily be worked down with sander.

Another observation about doors. If you look at cars and trucks from the 1950's and earlier you'll notice the doors only approximate the body opening. They're not way off, just a tad, but if you look closely you'll see they aren't perfectly matched to the body opening.

In a teardrop, if any kind of overlaying trim/weatherstrip is used over the door gap, it's unlikely minor door/body mismatch will be noticed.

All of my plywood and aluminum cuts were done with a router including windows in the doors. Used a 1/4 carbide cutter with a router collar and template then made three passes on the 3/4 thick birch. When cutting the aluminum I cut the router voltage to 40V to keep from melting the metal and preventing balling up in the cutter.

Denny