Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I had a genius idea; I needed to mark the notch for the hatch weather stripping. I tried to use a square but it wasn’t accurate enough because it rocked back and forth while striking the scribe. I figured that 2 points would be best so that it wouldn’t rock yet still follow the arc.

I took a U-bolt and notched it in 2 places, then I tie wrapped it to a compass. The 2 legs of the u-bolt followed the arc while the pencil marked the amount of sidewall I needed to remove. This was all done using the hatch as the reference.

Click thumbnails for larger pic.

Modding the compass:


The mark:

Nice idea! I've had several times a three legged compass would come in handy.

So how will you cut to the line? This is my next step, wondering what is the best way.

I've still gotta figure that one out. I have a couple different options: sand down to the line with a belt sander, jigsaw, router.

What I'm considering is a hybrid of the three I can cut down with the jigsaw, square up the edge with a router, then hit it lightly with the sander to clean it up.

Just a suggestion:

Put a rabbeting bit in a router and make a pass on the surface you want to "cut back". Use a bit that matches the step you want. Then take a flush cut router bit and run the bearing on the surface you just cut. Of course, the router will have to be used from the opposite side from the first cut. This cut will bring the surface down to the new level. Try it on a sample piece........it works.

Rickxr2 wrote::applause: Nice idea! I've had several times a three legged compass would come in handy.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... 50298&ap=1

Cheers,

Coop

Chris C wrote:Just a suggestion:

Put a rabbeting bit in a router and make a pass on the surface you want to "cut back". Use a bit that matches the step you want. Then take a flush cut router bit and run the bearing on the surface you just cut. Of course, the router will have to be used from the opposite side from the first cut. This cut will bring the surface down to the new level. Try it on a sample piece........it works.

That's how I did mine. Worked perfect.

goldcoop wrote:

Rickxr2 wrote::applause: Nice idea! I've had several times a three legged compass would come in handy.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... 50298&ap=1

Cheers,

Coop

I actually saw that one in the catalog. Then I saw the price!

This is what I ended up doing. Of course I didn't read Chris' suggestion till after I was done.

Anyway, on the areas where there was a lot of material to remove, I cut it down closer to the line with the jigsaw, the rest was taken down with the belt sander. I put a slight taper in it so that I could sand down to the line quicker. When I sanded it down to the line, I used a top bearing straight bit to square up the edge. I hit it with the sander one more time to clean up things some more when I was done with the router.

Asian....just make sure you seal up the raw plywood edge well...water penetration may make it delam....Doug

Good idea Rocky!
BTW- I really like your clickable thumbs... Took a peek at the text.

doug hodder wrote:Asian....just make sure you seal up the raw plywood edge well...water penetration may make it delam....Doug

Yup, I had put some epoxy on the edge to seal it. I ended up sanding and cutting it off to make the notch.

I'll mix some more up and put it on the new edge. I also have to roll some on the rear roll pan because I forgot to put some on when I did the rest of the trailer.

My goals for the week are to get it water tight so I can camp this weekend. Took the whole week off to work on the trailer. Well, actually 2 days because I had to take Fri and Sat to camp.