Tom & Shelly's build

[tony.latham]

Looks great.

Wonder if we can find some quarter inch triangular shaped bass wood, or similar?

I assume you are talking about exposed wood that doesn't have varnish on it? Can you just give it a coat of poly? If not you should be able to find some quarter-round molding that would finish that off nicely.



Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

Looks great.

Wonder if we can find some quarter inch triangular shaped bass wood, or similar?

I assume you are talking about exposed wood that doesn't have varnish on it? Can you just give it a coat of poly? If not you should be able to find some quarter-round molding that would finish that off nicely.



Tony

I probably could just touch it up with poly, but we think the trim molding will look nice.

Maybe stained to match the plastic Kreg jig style hole covers that arrived this evening:




I'm partial to the darker brown, but Shelly likes the lighter shade, and she's in charge of the interior design. Not sure why, but Kreg is only selling them in white. I found these from a Chinese vendor on Amazon in a variety of colors. They gave metric sizes, but they appear to be a perfect fit to the Kreg jig holes, and best of all, they cover the tear-out



(We won't glue them in until we've matched the color with stained trim and are sure we want this shade.)

Almost have to wonder if a Chinese entrepreneur found a way to take the Kreg design and make them on a 3D printer. They did take the slow boat from China to get here.

Didn't mention it earlier in this thread, but before gluing in the bulkheads I had to deal with a design detail I screwed up earlier--putting the galley bulkhead right over two of the bolts into the trailer frame. I cut two "mouse holes" in the bulkhead, but didn't want to cut all the way up into the foam, so they weren't tall enough to get the bolts in and out. I solved that with a reamer, giving the holes in the floor a taper.



Now, they will go in and out, and will hold the floor down, but will not necessarily hold the box from shearing forces. I'll rely on the other six bolts for that.

I may take a scrap of 1/8" Baltic Birch and run it along the bottom of the bulkhead (on one side or the other) to help keep dust from migrating from the galley into the cabin.

Tom

[KTM_Guy]

Getting the walls up was a fun step for us. I put up one wall then put the cabinets in then put up the other wall. Seemed like in one day we had a camper.

won't the mattress cover the pocket screws?

Todd

[Tom&Shelly]

won't the mattress cover the pocket screws?

Todd

Hi Todd,

I had the admittedly not too logical answer, "well yes, but I'd rather the chip out be covered by the plastic covers rather than simply hidden by the mattress".

but Shelly's answer is that, this way, we won't get dust in the pocket holes.

I'd rather have it look as good as it can, even in the parts that aren't seen easily. Can't explain the logic, but it makes me feel better. Also, we may decide someday to get one of those fold up mattresses, so we can make it into a love seat, or something like that, where the holes and floor would be seen. That's why we plan to paint the floor.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Spent the day modifying my Climateright air conditioner. Yes, it might void the warranty, but, from what I've heard, they aren't too good about honoring their warranties anyway, and besides, it's only good for a year, and we've owned it for almost that long already. It will be well over a year before we take it to anyplace where we can truly test it under real conditions. (Not just hot, but hot and humid.)

First, I tried it out, and found it blows hot and cold, as requested. For some reason the thermometer seems to think it's about 10 degrees warmer than my digital thermometer, which I trust (to better than that).

The cord for the non-remote panel was designed to go up the return vent. I didn't like that, so I opened it up to see what could be done.



In this shot, the return is on the bottom, the cooler is showing, and the electronics are on top. That cord used to go out the bottom of the electronics box and was wire tied with the wire to the thermometer, right inside the return.



Here is a close-up of that wire, and the side of the AC with the side cover removed. I decided I'd rather have that cable come out right there, so I drilled a half inch hole in the cover



Pictures from before, after, and while testing. Funny thing about that grommet. It likely is older than I am, having come from my Dad's electronics junk drawer. The rubber may be from British Malaya or French Indochina. Yet, it's still the required texture, etc. Just like new! I retested the AC system after the mod and it still works!

As I worked on this, I realized there were a few minor issues with the design and implementation. For one thing, they used wood screws to attach the flanges to the metal case, and, for another, they drilled the holes too big, with the result the screws never tightened. I found some similar half inch wood screws that were slightly thicker (8's vs 9's perhaps?) and they held much better. Also, they have the flange just slightly too high on the panel and so the top cover interferes



I decided to trim the flange on the bandsaw, just a little, so the whole thing fits together better now



Tomorrow, I'll figure out how to mount the AC to the teardrop, and cut and attach the flanges to the bulkhead/headboard



Vibration while the AC is running doesn't seem like it will be a problem, but I want to mount it in such a way the vibration from travel is less likely to break the unit. Seems like we will have noise from the air out of the vent, but not sure we can do anything about that.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Decided to mount our ClimateRight by replacing the feet with home-made mounts:



These came from my scrap wood pile, with rubber that came from a Harbor Fright floor pad. The band saw cuts the pads nicely enough. I used some glue that came with a dryer fix-it kit which was originally intended to glue a rubber ring to the metal drum (not sure why they gave us such a big tube). The mounts went on the AC like this:



I went to the hardware store with one of the feet and found it was a metric thread, so bought four matching bolts. I tightened them down to the AC so the 3/8 rubber is compressed to about a quarter inch. The idea is that some of the vibration from the road will be damped by the rubber, so the AC won't see the full shock. When I make the final install, I will likely add Locktite to the bolts to keep them from vibrating loose. Since they are metric bolts, I guess I should've picked up some metric Locktite while I was at the hardware store. Just kidding! (I already have it in my shop!)

I did buy a foot of hose that is 5/8" id, and 3/4" od. Fits over the AC drain nice and tight. I cut a hole in the right place in my floor and tried a test fit



I'll wait until we've coated the drain hole with epoxy and painted the floor to drill the holes in the mounts (which I will also varnish) and mount it more-or-less permanently.

Also mounted the brackets for the hoses in the bulkhead, as well as the louvers and controller



Next steps include making the upper deck over the utility room, a mid-deck above the AC (which will hold our Easy-up and other camping furniture), and the shelves for inside the cabin.

Shelly and I are on Spring Break this week, so hopefully I'll make some progress.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Test fitting the upper deck and mid-deck in the utility room:



We had tried fiber glassing 3 butt joined pieces of quarter inch Baltic birch last Fall to be used for one wall, then decided we were doing it in the wrong order and built the walls first, then fiber glassed. So two weeks ago I cut the original glassed piece apart and am using it for these decks and the dresser shelves inside the cabin.

The upper deck is made from the quarter inch fiberglassed BB, two sheets of skeletonized 3/4" AC plywood, and a piece of scrap 1/8 inch BB for the bottom. The skeletonized hole is filled with blue foam, mainly for insulation (temperature and sound) between the utility room and cabin, but also for added strength. I made the piece a little tight, and hope I can get it out without damaging the interior finish. think I'll route off a little so it fits in easier, and depend on trim to cover the gaps (as I need to do most everywhere else). Once the bottom and the cleats are varnished, I plan to glue it in and make it a permanent part of the teardrop.

It sits about an inch below the top of the headboard so small things won't slide off. I may try and build some sort of a small bookcase along the lines of those on ships to hold our "teardrop library"--a few nature identification books for the areas we are visiting, a camp cook book or two, and perhaps some night time reading.

The mid-deck is designed to have enough space to hold our eazy-up. The shelf is sturdy--I skeletonized a 1/4" piece of AC plywood (we have plenty because we were going to use if for our outer wall skins, until I discovered BB is much higher quality as well as being less expensive), filled the skeleton with foam which we cut down with our hot wire, and skinned the shelf with the quarter inch BB with fiber glass on the top and a scrap of 1/4" BB on the bottom. Probably didn't need the foam, and didn't even need to skeletonize the plywood, but the process isn't difficult, and is only a little time consuming.

I did make a design mistake. I forgot the cargo doors go in almost an inch from the side walls and a half inch from the front wall.



I'll trim the piece this weekend, but I'll have to come up with some way to support the one corner. Probably an aluminum angle up from the floor. I'll also build some small barriers around the edges to keep the cargo from sliding into the doors. I do want to make this shelf removable, for easier access to the AC, and am being careful to make sure I'm attaching it in such a way that we can get it un-attached and removed using just the three cargo doors. It is a design challenge.

I'm holding these two shelves, and the shelves in the cabin, in with cleats I made by cutting down some pine 1 x 2 I had in the back room. I selected pieces that weren't too twisted, got a good side with the router set up in the table to act like a joiner, and went from there.

A few weekends, and we should be ready to put the ceiling on.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Wow! Just about a month since the last update! I've been working on details for the utility compartment, which are not too photogenic until I finish. So I'll post pictures of how it all fits together then. (Perhaps in two or three weeks.)

As part of the process though, we (and in this case that means Shelly) primed and painted the utility room floor



(That hole is the drain for the air conditioner), and the panel for the upper deck of the utility room, and two panels for the shelves for the dresser in the main cabin



The paint is Rustoleum multicolor textured paint (Desert Bisque). We are hoping the textured surface (like sand) will help keep things from sliding around. Bit of a learning process with this paint. First, this took 7 cans--it doesn't go far! Shelly also found out she had more control with this thing



At first, the stuff dripped and built up in places, and really looked bad, but Shelly sprayed it on thick, and it mostly settled out. We may experiment (on the utility room floor where it least matters) with sanding out some of the uneven build up, and recoating.

We also plan on using this stuff on the galley floor, which Shelly primed this morning



For the cabin floor, since we will have a mattress covering the whole thing and don't need to worry about slipping, we will probably use some hammered finish silver (over primer) which we may use for the exterior of the tear drop as well, although i'm holding out hope for the hammer finish white. We tried a Rustoleum hammer finish white with primer combined and didn't like the results, but I suspect separate primer and white will work okay. Our other option is to do the exterior in Monstaliner.

I cut a mid-deck for the utility compartment which will fit above the air conditioner, and store our eazy-up, a folding table, and several folding chairs. We bought some carbon from Raka and are experimenting with "black epoxy" for the edges. If that works, we plan to use it on the wall edges where they meet the galley hatch sides, and for the corresponding parts of the galley hatch.

No pictures of the carbon black yet. We did one edge of the mid-deck, but this morning filled a void in the plywood on the other side before coating it with black epoxy



We have put several coats on the other side, and I'll take pictures after sanding.

Finally, our remaining standing army



I will need to buy more desert bisque, and will buy a can of hammer finish white for testing. Anything we don't use on this project will likely wind up on our wheelbarrow, and perhaps on some bow saws if I have any non-camouflage colors left that will make them stand out better in the woods.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

We have it from a wildlife professional that our utility room floor came out good



(He kept me company for the evening. I have too much Scottish blood to kill a harmless spider. And with the rain we've had, I expect he'll do his part and be well fed this Spring.)

Shelly talked me out of installing the air conditioner just yet--something about the paint fully curing. But I did install the outlet and the tow vehicle power junction box



I like how the grey outlet box, ivory switch plate and white outlet complement each other. Contributes to the overall amateuristic look, even as it helps clean out the junk box!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Shelly painted the floor in the galley this weekend



That's Rustoleum's multicolor textured Desert Bisque. If we make bisque, and spill it, it won't show! (At least if we're camping in the desert.)

She also primed the cabin floor



We are experimenting with black epoxy (carbon powder added to epoxy)



I'll sand the glossy result down and get a flatter black. I do like how it's coming out, but not so much the transition with the varnished edge



I'll want to do better if we use it on the edge of the galley hatch.

Regular masking tape doesn't seem to do well here. Any suggestions?

Tom

[KCStudly]

Were the end/edge fibers sealed already with straight epoxy, or were they raw?

If raw, try sealing with clear epoxy first; let cure or at least kick pretty well; if fully cured scuff; then re-coat with the black.

Nice work, BTW.

[KCStudly]

p.s. I plan on blackening my door jambs and galley wall edges, like I did the edges of my inner wall toe kicks and inner door surrounds, but I was just going to use spray paint from a rattle can. I was happy with the result I got on the inside trim.

[Tom&Shelly]

Were the end/edge fibers sealed already with straight epoxy, or were they raw?

If raw, try sealing with clear epoxy first; let cure or at least kick pretty well; if fully cured scuff; then re-coat with the black.

Thanks for the idea KC--we did seal the edges starting right with black epoxy. We're trying the last edge with clear tonight and will see how the black looks over it.

Nice work, BTW.

Thank you, but I'm afraid we may have created a catastrophe! I noticed a chip in our brand new paint job in the utility room floor. Turns out the primer didn't adhere very well to the epoxy floor, at least in that spot, because that's what came off. Shelly scraped our test panel, and sure enough, that Rustoleum 2-in-1 primer was not adhering well. We had also tried another Rustoleum primer that did much better on another test panel (both scraps from the door cut outs, with epoxy over fiberglass), but too late for the floor!

We're fearing we may have to scrape everything off and try again.

The 2 in 1 primer is automotive primer and it says it is good with fiberglass (and we assumed that meant epoxy, not just polyester resin). I wet sanded all of the epoxy surfaces which, according to West Systems, is an acceptable way to remove any amine blush. (I didn't see any, and we are in a very dry climate.) The floor and test panel had been primed and painted a week and a half ago.

Does anyone have ideas on what went wrong? Should we just leave it for a few weeks and see if it improves? Or should we scrape and sand it all off and start over? And if so, with what?

Tom

[tony.latham]

I wet sanded all of the epoxy surfaces which, according to West Systems, is an acceptable way to remove any amine blush.

What grit sandpaper? If the surface had some "tooth" it should stick fine.



Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

I wet sanded all of the epoxy surfaces which, according to West Systems, is an acceptable way to remove any amine blush.

What grit sandpaper? If the surface had some "tooth" it should stick fine.



Tony

I used 120 to bring the high spots down, then 220.

Tom