Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Good afternoon fellow garage mongers! I'm slowly working my way into the dreaded "hatch zone",and have had a stare-down with these ribs I've cut out,such as they are Now I'm going to reveal my geometery ineptness. Before I cut these wrong,and have to start drinking heavily, what is the best way to scribe the proper angle on the top of these ribs for the right cut to match the last spar between the hinge and the hatch. Does that make sense? Anyway, any help would be appricieated.........Thanks guys and gals

Yeah Mitch...that makes sense to me. The only help I can give is to leave that cut long, work it a bit at a time, and build in place so everything fits. The other method I can recommend involves three shots of JD, a stuffed amadillo, and a dozen eggs...the second method gets results but not quite what a fella would hope for!!!

Although the second method is curiously tempting. I think that I'll stay with your first suggestion......Thanks

I know what you are saying. I had to deal with that today.

When I finally got the length right, the angle was wrong. What the heck. I glued it up anyways. Then I added a three shorter pieces which I glued and screwed to the top spars and the ribs. So it's plenty strong. But it was frustrating.



Mike...

Does it have to be JD??? Will Jose Cuervo give the same results??

I've got one of those adjustable bevel thingies....I'm hoping that will get me close!!

Here's my error of the day... If it still bothers me in a week, I'll have to glue in a tiny piece to make it look right, otherwise, who cares...



Mike...

Mitch...iffn the cut doesn't turn out quite right...it's ok...your going to gain a lot of strength when you put in the blocking (assuming you do) or especially if you add an inside panel...This pic shows the blocking...I could have made the cruddiest cut in the world and it would never show.

The one thing you do want to do is make sure that your hatch matches the body of the tear...

mikeschn wrote:Here's my error of the day... If it still bothers me in a week, I'll have to glue in a tiny piece to make it look right, otherwise, who cares...



Mike...

If that was your only error of the day then I say you did a great job. The perfectionist in me would say "fix it". But it's not really that noticable so "who cares".

Thanks for the replies guys. And,yes Mike that is exactly what I was concerned about. I am quickly becoming a function before form guy, but I am also becoming better at concealing the "measurement indiscretions" that are unavoidable when usuing a sabre saw aka Jaws.

You can use a square or a level to get that cut. You need to clamp it on the outside (so it can be long enough) and mark from there.

Oh yeah---take a picture so when this works someone will have one!

Ok this is a pretend hatch rib. If you make your mark where the hatch spar joins and cut back the distance of your end board+ whatever gap you need for the hinge you are using you should be there. Thing is too long is fixable and too short is too. You just double the end board.

New picts. in my album reguarding my hatch build.
O.K. Mike,& Dave,Gage,& Miram. Believe it or not , all of your advice got me through the hatch build and I can't thank you guys enough! The key steps that helped me out were ... #1 Build in place. #2 Mike's advice about adding pieces between the ribs on the top hatch spar.It really stiffened things up. #3,And very important,was Gage's advice to not"overthink it". Sometimes you just have to start building and "modify" as you go along. #4 Clamping, squaring,and spacing the outside ribs before building in place.