Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

This was a good weekend, I was able to cut the perimeter framing wood for both side walls sandwiches that I am building per Steve Frederick's shop manual and the door frame and base for one. I will be using pocket screws instead of bisquits and clamps to build the framing. The drilling for them can be seen in the following photo.




Next I will add the vertical frame parts to create the mounting pockets for the front and back bulkheads and then the wall backing to attach the sides of the shelves to the walls then apply the Titebond III and the screws.

The pile of wood is the second wall's perimeter pieces.

I've added a few more photos to my album.

Very nice Gene! Your teardrop is really starting to take shape.

Pocket screws are one of those "how did we get along without it" tools.

Nice!! That is very similar to what I am doing except I am using hardwood dowls for the joints. My choice of dowling was based on my belief that dowls are stronger than biscuits and I don't have the mental agility to keep the screws out of the cut areas. I had thought about finger joints which I believe would be best but I already have a dowling jig and I didn't want to spend the cash for the finger joint jig or router bit.

I notice two cut lines, are you cutting the inside too? I am planning on leaving the inside alone. That way I can glue it to the plywood before cutting and thus have it better supported during the cut.

Thanks for the very informative post.

Jocko

This is my first use of pocket screws but they do seem to be very useful.

The outer of the two lines drawn on my framing represents the cut line that the cabin ceiling will rest on as described in Steve's CD. It is 1-5/8" inside the roof line to allowing for 1/8" luan as the ceiling and 1-1/2" spars with foam insulation between them. The bottom line shows what I can remove with a router and still have a 2" wide perimeter frame if I figure it will save me enough weight to be worth the effort. I may just route away the excessive areas and leave the areas around the joints larger for the Titebond III to work with.

Puttin the lines in first allowed me to locate the pocket screws where they would not be hit during the cutting.

looks great. A suggestion. Glue the framing and remove the pocket screws before you do any routing. You can put them back in if you feel the need.

Miriam C. wrote:Glue the framing and remove the pocket screws before you do any routing. You can put them back in if you feel the need.

I agree. I used biscuits although pocket screws probably would have been better. But with the biscuits I didn't have to worry about hitting a screw when I trimmed my frame. I used Steve Frederick's shop manual for portions of my build too and remember that you will have to cut the frame twice in the hatch area. And I would not bother cutting the bottom portion off. It will be more work than it's worth, you are not going to save that much weight.

Looking good, brings back memories of building my wall framing

Miriam C. wrote::thumbsup: A suggestion. Glue the framing and remove the pocket screws before you do any routing. You can put them back in if you feel the need.

Amen! I have personally seen how fast a pocket screw can go when propelled by a table saw blade. I hate to think about the speed it could attain when propelled by a much faster router bit!

Hmmm Flying Pocket Screws ... I'll bet that was a startling incident.

I am probably going to use a jig saw to cut the top section of the rame off rather than a router just because of my lack of experience with a router.

Even so ... temporarily removing the screws that are close to the line is probably a good idea.