Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Ok folks, I’m getting ready to do another build and need some info. This is the first time I’m going with a rounded front. I’m trying to keep the weight down. I need to do some “bending “of some framing members and do not have a steamer to do it (not the plywood, I know how to do that) The finished dimension of the wood will be 3/4 “ thick. I do not want to kerf it. I’m thinking of glue and laminating strips together to make the needed bends on a full size jig. How thick should I cut the strips to get a good bend without breaking? Glue? Have you built a home made steamer ? Pics would be most helpful

I simply flipped my 3/4" pine molding members, up on edge and cut them into 3 equal pieces. They ended up slightly less than 1/4" thick and I glued and clamped them to the curved roof and it was a snap. You can see my method and results in my construction pages below.
Roly

Doesn't take much...I like 1/4 inch strips at about 15 minutes steaming in my coleman stove, teapot, recycled gutter downspout stuffed with rags contraption. For 3/4 inches of total thickness, I'd run the strips long, put all three 1/4 inch thick strips in the steamer at once for about 20 minutes...


Pick straight grained wood, use lots of clamps on the jig, let the strips dry at least 24 hours in the jig before glue up, and you are there!!! Remember, you have only minutes after you take them out of the steam box before they cool...so have your clamps ready and get'em in the jig!!!

Ooo Ooo!! Steve Cox's is your man Scott!!! Go check out his Gypsy Caravan thread. He did some amazing laminating on both his builds.

Mary K wrote:Ooo Ooo!! Steve Cox's is your man Scott!!! Go check out his Gypsy Caravan thread. He did some amazing laminating on both his builds.

Yep MK...you have a good memory (duh...you must have missed the sixties) ...here is a recent Newby thread that went out of control on steam bending...Poor Lyn got more advice than requested It has some good pics on what builders have done!!!

Hi Scott, Did'nt Mike do a laminating procedure on the lightweight he built. I can't find the thread he posted it in but he did have pics and all on how he did it.
Cheers
Paul

Juneaudave wrote:

Mary K wrote:Ooo Ooo!! Steve Cox's is your man Scott!!! Go check out his Gypsy Caravan thread. He did some amazing laminating on both his builds.

Yep MK...you have a good memory (duh...you must have missed the sixties) ...here is a recent Newby thread that went out of control on steam bending...Poor Lyn got more advice than requested It has some good pics on what builders have done!!!

I missed the 60's too! and I was there

To make a steamer you can get a 10' length of schedule 40 PVC, cap one end and drill a small hole in end to relieve pressure. Use a threaded cap on the other end, the end you load . Get a NEW metal gas can and radiator hose and connect the hose to the can and the other end to a hole cut in the pvc pipe. Fill the can with water and put it on a burner, the burners from turkey fryers work well because the can can sit on top of it, but any heat source works. Load the steamer box and cap it. It only takes a few minutes to make the wood pliable enough to bend.And use tongs and gloves when unloading the pieces.

P.s. If you can leave your pieces a little long and trim off the excess later because the wood will shrink a bit after it dries out and may cause joints to open.

I've made some curved pieces by laminating 1/8 pieces of Luan ply. Bends easy without steaming. Can make a pretty tight radius with it too.

Mark

Elumia wrote:I've made some curved pieces by laminating 1/8 pieces of Luan ply. Bends easy without steaming. Can make a pretty tight radius with it too.

Mark

this is how I would go, especially if your doing a 5'-er. You will have lots of left-over 1/4' or 1/8" ply that you don't use for the roof.

I followed Mike's lead and ripped/planed common 2X framing lumber to 1/8" by 1". I just happened to have a few gallons of epoxy laying around, so I laminated everything at once. As long as they're mostly knot free they should bend to a rather small radius.





I butt-jointed 8' long sections with epoxy and fiberglass tape to give me full 16' pieces to work with. Worked great.

Eric

I forgot to mention, by using plywood, you are pretty assured that the width of your stock will be consistant, thus the laminated curve will have a consistant thickness too. It's not fun trying to cut a bunch of 8' lengths to 1/8" thick strips either, unless you have a real good table saw set up. It was much easier to cut 1/8" ply to 1-1/2" wide strips. A belt sander will clean up the edge nicely. I just used titebond to glue it up.

Buying thin stock gets you into the molding department and that is more costly than plywood. A $10-$20 sheet of ply will give you lots of strips.

Mark

PaulC wrote:Hi Scott, Did'nt Mike do a laminating procedure on the lightweight he built. I can't find the thread he posted it in but he did have pics and all on how he did it.
Cheers
Paul

That's exactly right. You can see those pics in this thread...

http://tnttt.com/viewto ... ultralight

Mike...