Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Has anyone ever tried making a perfectly round door? I'm thnking with one very large, strudy and tight hinge it could work and might be an interesting idea to try.

Lucas

LMarsh wrote:Has anyone ever tried making a perfectly round door? I'm thnking with one very large, strudy and tight hinge it could work and might be an interesting idea to try.

Lucas

You can do it!!! I think they make a Router jig that can cut circles. Maybe one of the woodworking gurus will chime in.

Also, Check out Del's Jelly Belly build. He has a unique hinge on his door you might be able to use.

Good luck!

Mk

Like a big port hole window, that would be cool.

Hinges would be pretty easy, look for the large stainless ones used on walkin restraunt freezers and such. They are long enough you could use two and have the pivot point far enough from the edge that the entire door began moving outwards as it swung open. You could probaly do one continous T molding with a seal behind it around the whole thing.

Sounds like the beginnings of a Hobbit house.

Nitetimes wrote:Sounds like the beginnings of a Hobbit house.

Well, I had visions of crawling into a large commercial clothes drier!!!

Wonder what those hinges look like?

Well, ditto Mary K and Rich(Nitetimes).

Except you don't really need to buy a jig to cut out circles with a router(rotozip, dremel, trim router, depending on the clearance between the door and the jamb you are looking for, and it will be the size of the bit). The bases of these tools usually come off with 3 screws, or so, depending on the model. Pull the base off and trace it on a piece of scrap plywood, hardboard or whatever is about 1/4" thick and sturdy enough to take a little punishment(no cardboard, please) and a little longer than the radius you need and a little wider than the base you pulled off. Now, the fun part. Drill, cut or chisel(whatever mehod is more familiar to you) the business holes(did I mention drill) which are the mounting holes and the hole for the bit. Then measure from the center of the bit to the center of your door(the door radius, plus or minus)...

A few more things to consider, PM me if you need to know how... And I've never heard of a strudy hinge...

Call Norm...

Yeah OK so the site could use a spell checker or I just need to type slower.

I'm going to see about getting a trailer today but it may be a while until I'm ready to do my sides and door. I'm also thinking my wife might appreciate not climbing through a round hole too. I'll be considering the round door but probably won't attempt it at this point.

Round would look cool but (pun intended) might be hard to sit in the door way to put the shoes on.

Wonder if you could salvage a large commercial dryer door. I mean or a washer door. You know they seal.

LMarsh wrote:Has anyone ever tried making a perfectly round door? I'm thnking with one very large, strudy and tight hinge it could work and might be an interesting idea to try.

Lucas

A Hobbit tear?

Lucas, don't get scared!

It looks a lot easier than it sounds. Check these out:

http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/etip102000sn.html
http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/2004/10/08/sn/
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/tl_power_tools/article/0,,DIY_14392_2270388,00.html

Even if you choose not to make round doors, you can still do rounded tops on them(like http://www.flickr.com/photos/johngwalkerjr/) or just round windows

This got me thinking ( dangerous times ) I got the hinges worked out (build my own) How to cut out the door. About 33-36 diameter. With a smaller round window above the center line.

But, what profile? Benroy jumps to mind for me.

I can see all you guys now out searching the scrap steel yards for an old cissile commercial dryer to steel the round door off of. Make you flash back to the 60's when we climbed in the dryers for a ride!

The thing is about having even round windows is how could to make them open and be screened in?

LMarsh wrote:The thing is about having even round windows is how could to make them open and be screened in?

http://cgi.ebay.com/14x9in-Nautical-Maritime-Brass-Oval-Porthole-w-Glass_W0QQitemZ120234085510QQihZ002QQcategoryZ63618QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Put a couple of these in the walls with screen trapped between the porthole and the wall. Make your door out of your sidewall by cutting a larger door to scale of the porthole.