Oregon Teardrop

[sincere01]

I had a few hours of comp time saved up at work so I took most of the day off yesterday and got to work on the teardrop. I decided against the benroy as I just would never be happy with its profile. I cut my template out of OSB that I previously extended with a halflap joint. The OSB will not be used in the actual construction of the trailer, just as a template for my sidewalls.

Here is the template profile:

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I also wanted to get a look at the profile up on the trailer and took a pic of it sitting there.

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[sincere01]

I also hogged out the material on the 3/4" ply for the half lap joint for one of the sidewalls. I went with a 6 inch overlap. I didn't want it to be overkill with the overlap but also wanted to make sure there was enough surface area for a solid joint. Routing out that much material is a ton of work and takes a lot of concentration to make sure you don't tilt the router at all while making all those passes.

I also ran into one other problem. I was using a cheap harbor freight cutting guide that clamps on to the ply. That thing works great for use with my circular saw, but not so great with the router. Apparently in my attempt to not let the router tilt, I pulled the router too tight against the guide and it bent slightly in the middle. I didn't notice that until both pieces were done and I dry fit them. They met up perfectly on the outside but had a 1/4" gap towards the center. Luckily I had cut the sheet two inches longer than I needed so I had some wiggle room when I put the template on. I was able to add an extra quarter inch to the half lap on both sides, use a better cutting guide and get a better fit. That piece is currently being glued with TBIII but I forgot to take a picture. I hope to cut the half lap and glue the other sidewall this weekend.

A close up as I was routing, took about half hour for each side.

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Here you can see the cutting guide I was using that didn't work well. The cut looks straight in the pic, but once those boards were put together it was obviously not right

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Another close up with the "straight" line

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[sincere01]

I wish I was better at stopping and taking pictures while I work. I tend to just get so focused on doing stuff and keep working.

Anyways, so far I have:
-Completed extending the plywood for both sidewalls
-Finished the template in OSB
-Cut and routed both sidewalls using the OSB template
-Routed out 1/4" deep area that the headliner and sparring will sit in
-Routed out a larger slot for a bigger piece of lumber that the hurricane hinge will attach to

Here you can see the sidewalls set in place. They are just leaning up against some five gallon buckets so I could get a feel for what it will look like. It's amazing how much weight that cut out when the walls are skeletonized.

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Next up:
-First I need to seal the bottom of the floor with the asphalt emulsifier stuff (or whatever its called)
-Then I will attach the floor to the frame
-Then I will start cutting pieces for cabinets
-Once cabinets are cut I'll start assembling and gluing them

Hoping I have some more time this coming weekend to make some progress. I still haven't decided on how I'm going to finish it.

Anyone know if its possible to get a nice gloss coat that looks like a car finish on PMF?

[sincere01]

I was able to get over to my brother-in-law's house this afternoon for about an hour and get some work done on the TD. I had been looking at getting henry's asphalt emulsion product to seal the bottom of the trailer, but then I remembered my brother-in-lay just put a coat of seal-coat over his driveway. I asked him if he had any extra and he said he had about ten gallons, way more than enough for what I needed. So that saved me some cash on sealing it and I didn't have to go anywhere since the barrels where about 20 feet away from the garage where my TD is being kept and worked on.

Today I was able to use a forstner bit and create some 1/2" deep holes so the bolts that hold the trailer together can go into them allowing the floor to lie flat. Then I put two coats of sealer on.


Here is the overview of it being sealed:

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And a close up of the counter sunk holes:

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[rebapuck]

Saving money is always good. Kudos to the brother-in-law.

[sincere01]

I was trying to remember to take more pics while I was working, but once again I forgot.

Today I drilled holes around the side for sixteen 3/8" bolts to attach the floor to the trailer. I don't think I mentioned it previously, but my flooring is framed with 3/4" x 1-1/2" furring strips laid flat and covered on each side with 1/4" luan plywood, and as seen in my last post covered on the underside with a few thick layers of asphalt seal coat. After drilling the 3/8" holes I counter sunk a 1" diameter hole 1/2" deep. This is so the washer and head of the bolt can sit down in the floor and the top of the bolt lay flush with the floor instead of sticking up.

Before placing the floor on and securing the bolts I made sure to cover each steel trailer beam with PL Premium construction adhesive. I'm not sure how well that adhesive adheres to coated steel, but it can't hurt and hopefully will help with the strength of the trailer. Since I had counter sunk the washers and bolt heads in to the floor, I could easily cover them up. I used 1/4" baltic birch as the finished floor sheet. This was also glued down with PL Premium and then secured with an air stapler.

Here is where the trailers stands currently:

IMG_3725.JPG (106.39 KiB) Viewed 2310 times

[sincere01]

Some parts came in last night. I received my stargazer window, fantastic fan, and my hurricane hinge. Super exciting.

Unfortunately I will be too busy this weekend to get any work done. I'm hoping next week to be able to get the inside of the sidewalls skinned. That way the glue can dry by the weekend and I can put the sidewalls into place with some temporary cross braces and start designing cabinets.

[sincere01]

A few days ago I was able to glue the inside wall skin on to both sidewalls. Put a ton of weight on it and let it dry. I was hoping that I would be able to use a flush trim router bit to just follow the pattern around the rabbet. Unfortunately what I didn't realize was that the piece that holds the bearing on sticks far enough down that its impossible to ride the bearing inside the rabbet. So I had to have the bearing run on the outside to get it trimmed to the outside shape, then set a straight bit to the depth of the rabbet and use the router guide set to width of the rabbet. Basically the exact same setup I used when making the rabbet in the first place. Now that's done I can start working on cabinets and see this thing start coming together.

Here it is being glued up with all the weight on it. I placed 3 full sheets of 3/4" ply over the top first so it would even out the weight.

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Here it is after routing to the outside edge.

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A close up of it routed to the outside edge and the rabbet that is underneath.

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I also have two short time lapse videos of me doing the routing. I'll try and upload them tonight when I get home.

[sincere01]

Just for fun here are the time lapse videos of me routing the inside skin.

Getting it trim to the outside with the flush trim bit and cutting out the door:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evv1UA9Faw4


Trimming it flush with the rabbet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_l_Q2Ea2pg

[sincere01]

Well, I've been gone for a while cause my best friend bought a house that had to be totally gutted and remodeled in less than two months. I've been over there most nights and weekends helping out. Plus, I started a new job at the end of November.

I was finally able to get some work done on the teardrop. The way I designed the walls, they sit on top of the floor. I needed to attach them securely so I got some 1"x4" and attached that to the floor so I could butt the wall up to it. The mattress will go right over that and should go unnoticed.

After that was done I got the headliner and sparring installed. Everything was glued with PL Premium construction adhesive and screwed together in areas the screws won't show.

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Here you can see the 1"x4" I put down and the wall butted up next to it.

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Here you can see the 2"x3" I am using to attach the hatch to.

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A pic of the inside. I'll need to trim out the bottom. As you can see, I ended up with a small gap there that I wasn't happy with.
But the sides are nice and tight so a little quarter round to cover up the gap at the bottom and it should look just fine.

[sincere01]

Since it's limited to three pics per post, here is the last picture of the outside.

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I've mostly framed out the area for the skylight. Just need to cut the round corners before routing out the headliner in that area. I ran out of time so I'll have to build the framing for the fantastic fan and install it another day.

[KCStudly]

Hey, that's some good progress. She's looking nice.

The roof should be extra sturdy with 2x3 spars. You planning to haul kayaks up there or something?

[sincere01]

Thanks so much!!!!!


Those are actually 2"x2"s. The only 2"x3" is where the hurricane hinge will attach.

[KCStudly]

Got it, I see it now. Thanks for clarifying.

[sincere01]

I finished the framing for the stargazer window and fan the other night and let the glue dry. Today i had a few extra minutes so I went and routed out the openings for that and installed the tongue jack. I didn't take a pic of the tongue jack but here are the pics of the last stage of framing for the stargazer and the picture of the window and fan set in place from inside.

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Here the clamps are holding the pieces with the radius that match the curve on the corners of the window.

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