Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Well, my ocd kicked in yet again today. I was in Home Depot picking up yet another load of plywood for the tear and came across a new stock of plywood. I started to check out the new stuff and found it was 3/4 Classic Oak. The grain and lack of any voids made the plywood look very awesome. I have been buying 3/4" Birch for my floors and walls but the Oak was just calling out to me. Most of my internal cabinets and framing will be oak so I figured I would buy two sheets of the stuff. It was a bit more expensive than the birch at $39.99 a pop. I loaded up two sheets and figured I would use it on the inside of my tear. When I got home, I began to stand back and look at my birch walls and decided something was bothering me about the shape near the rear lower portion. On a snap decision, I put my trusty 1/2" Sandelply Template back up on the saw horses and began to reshape it giving the template a more rouned and smoother appearence. WHen I got done shaping with the belt sander, I decided to use the newly acquired oak plywood for my walls...even though I had already routed out two nice birch walls with doors. Yep, my OCD forced me to route out two more walls with the improved profile. I figured I can cut up the birch plywood walls and use on the inside instead of wasting it.
Anyway, I placed the newly routed oak walls up against the floor and took a few pics of the improved profile.

A front shot of the walls leaning up against the floor.


A nice shot of the improved profile. Something about oak just catches my eye. Sure, I may cover it with fiberglass or filon but I believe in using the best materials in and out.
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Build two!

Now there's a thought!!!

you might as well do two, you can experiment on the birch and do it perfect on the oak,

Have fun

Looks good. Are you planning a woodie or are you going to paint or skin it in AL? That oak looks like it would finish nicely.

Tripmaker,

I haven't really decided if I want to leave it woody or cover with fibreglass. When I get closer to completion, I will make the call.

On a side note, Yesterday I was marking out and cutting out my doors on the oak wall. I am using the measurements provided in Steve's plan for the location and size of the door which is 24x30. Anyway, I marked it out and began cutting it out with my jig saw. I had a nice smooth cut right outside the line and was very pleased with the results. I began to eyeball the profile after I placed it against the wall. Something didn't look right. I began to take some measurements and found that I had marked the door wrong and it was cut at a slant. Upset but not dashed in my hopes to build my teardrop, I headed back to Home Depot to buy yet ANOTHER piece of oak plywood since I ruined the wall. My teardrop will be the most expensive in history after all these mistakes and return trips to Home Depot. Anyway, I got the wood home and routed out another wall so now I am back where I left off with two nice walls and no doors cut out. They say you learn from your mistakes and the lesson learned is measure 5 times then cut once.

I will not quit until this thing is done or it kills me.

Sandman,

UIf it help draw the outline of your doo and profile before you cut anything that way you know you have straight edges to work from and it should make your drawing easier, then you can step back and look to make sure it is not crooked. It is easier to erase and remark. If you can use chalk it might make it easier to erase if needed.

Yeah... Sandman, build two. Or cut all the parts as you do your and sell it as a kit!

I use one of those 4 foot aluminum drywall squares for laying out big stuff... they are not expensive. Prolly saved mje a lot of boo boos.

Podunkfla- I actually have a dry wall square and did use it to mark my door. I was not paying attention when I drew out the very top of the door. It was just me being dumb and not having my mind on what I was doing. Lesson learned .

rbreemer-I generally use a contractors pencil to mark out my lines and I have a huge eraser I use to erase boo boos. You do have a great point about doing the layout before the plywood is cut. Next Teardrop will be done that way for now, I have to use the flat bottom edge as my reference point for the drywall square.