The hamdrop

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The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Fri May 21, 2021 8:35 pm

I've decided to call my build the hamdrop. I'm finally getting around to putting up some documentation on the build that I started last year. I'm nearing completion, but it's not perfect. With hindsight, I can say what I did wrong early on, and later on. I've taken a crapton of pictures, a bunch of videos, so there's a lot of youtube editing that I will need to do as well. So here goes. First, a current photo of the present day:

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This picture taken on the hamdrops maiden voyage, even though it wasn't 100% done, the exterior and interior that mattered were complete, minus a little trim work, and the galley. Construction is 2x4's cut down to 2x2's and 1x2s (1.5 or 1" x 1.5" final dimension), 1.5" pink foamular, and 1/8" utility plywood covered with fiberglass epoxy and a silver automotive paint job on top of a custom welded and built trailer. The current final weight is over what I was hoping at 950 lbs wet, including battery, water, and sleeping gear/etc.

The goal of the hamdrop is to serve twofold: One as a ham radio shack for myself to operate, so the goal is to have a small desk in the back that I can sit at with a low chair, and secondary to be a simple camper to get myself and my better half out into nature. I will try to update the build log semi-regularly as I parse through all the pictures I've taken, and as I finish up the build.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Fri May 21, 2021 11:08 pm

Okay, so one of the things I think I should start out with since I've got the majority of this project already complete is to give some lessons learned.

1) Building a trailer frame from scratch is not easy, though it can be done. You really need to get things exactly correct and have a big level surface. Also, when you heat steel, it warps. This turned up later on in that the back driver side corner of my trailer is roughly 1/4" warped downwards.
2) If you're building a trailer, have the axle on hand before you start, instead of finding out halfway through that the leadtime on the axle or some necessary part is 10 weeks.
3) Gloves, gloves, gloves. It's not that the glue is toxic really, but nobody is going to want you around them after you've gotten some polyurethane glue on your hands. That and it takes _forever_ to come off your hands.
3b) I don't want to ever see polyurethane / Gorilla glue ever again in my life.
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3c) Glues, epoxy, etc will all run and drip when you don't want them to.
4) Fiberglass sucks. No, it doesn't just suck, it *REALLY* sucks. I also don't want to ever see, smell, or use polyester fiberglass resin ever again in my life.
4a) On the same lines, applying resin to a vertical surface cleanly without having drips, runs, wrinkles, or other defects in your final appearance is nigh on impossible
4b) Finishing and smoothing fiberglass resin requires a wet sanding, and it is a lot of effort. And time. And sheets of sandpaper. And your sander isn't probably made to get wet. And then you get to do bondo work. You might as well just cover the entire thing in bondo to get a good smooth surface. Guh.
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4c) This is why RV makers do plywood -> Foam -> plywood -> Aluminum laminate with simple trim on the corners and glue it together. It is significantly less labor intensive.
5) Tools. Quality tools can make or break a part of a build. A good example, I had a harbor freight oscillating tool. It was loud, unruly, had a godawful method for changing out blades/etc. After needing it a few times, I ditched it and got a real rockwell oscillating tool, with variable speed, came with nice blades, etc. Another godawful tool was a harbor freight wire wheel that I used for cleaning up welds. By the time I was done, there were no wires left on the wheel, my hands hurt, and my jeans were perforated (literally) with steel wires that had been flung at high velocity at me.
6) Be wary of using strong chemicals to stain or varnish the interior of your teardrop. I've had to wait for 80 degree sunny days to boil off the vapors from the Polyurethane clearcoat stain that I used on the interior of the teardrop.
7) Respirator! Get a full face, and use it. At least a half face with organic / VOC filter. The difference my lungs felt between using it and not was worlds of difference when doing epoxy work.
7a) Your house probably doesn't have a respirator. I suggest doing epoxy resin work in an outbuilding not attached to a house. Because the smell *will* get into your house.
8 ) I found on my first outing that a major necessity is a doormat. They're cheap enough off Amazon, and give you a place in the pine needles to step.
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9) The project, or any specific task you think will be 'quick', will take you longer than you think.
9b) Corollary: The project is never finished.
10) Anything you design to have a perfect fit, won't.
11) Read tnttt for a long time before you go into a project. I thought I had read and lurked a bunch of threads, when I only scratched the surface. A good example, I would have done my hatch totally differently knowing what I know now.

Anyway, that's some of my thoughts on lessons learned during this build, so I'll call it that for the night and start editing some videos.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Fri May 21, 2021 11:43 pm

Ohboy... I just compiled all the videos I made... I have 29 hours of raw build footage to edit...
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby QueticoBill » Sat May 22, 2021 5:58 am

I'm looking forward to the movie! Great post.thank you.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby Bezoar » Sat May 22, 2021 7:54 pm

Looks good! Looking forward to seeing how it was built. And some interior photos!
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Sat May 22, 2021 10:43 pm

Okay, so lets start this build story off. I have probably 6 hours of video to go on this one post covering the trailer, but here goes.

I started out with buying the tools. I have welded before with a flux wire welder, but ended up spending many hours watching youtube videos on how to do a proper weld. I decided to drop the money on a reasonable MIG welder and the gas tank, which in the end ran me about $700. Between the saw and the welder, a harbor freight inside track membership was worth it, and has been for the last year.

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I started at the steel yard after having a rough idea of what I wanted to do, and how much total length I needed. I ended up using 0.095 steel, generally 2" thickness wherever necessary. The edges of the trailer are built out of angle, with a square tube down the centerline for support and the tongue.

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After cutting things down to size, I laid everything out roughly where I wanted it. In the picture below, you can't see my fundamental error, but my garage floor isn't flat. The corner of the garage next to the door is sloped for water drainage. When the garage door was replaced, they actually cut away a portion of the concrete. What this ended up doing is adding some warp to the trailer. It works, but I reccomend per my lessons learned post, if you're going to build a trailer, make sure and double sure your floor is fully flat, and know that steel warps (expands/contracts) as it heats/cools.

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Here is the frame in its initial glory. I decided to do leveling stands on all 4 corners of the trailer, so that I can have it be very stable when sleeping, with fewer chances of it rolling down a hill. These levelers turned out very, very handy later on, as I could easily adjust the height of the frame up and down. In addition, because of covid, I had a hard time finding an axle, and it didn't help that my local shop lost my order twice (and eventually my business).

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The welds in general turned out very well. I did my best to prep all the metal, and spent a good sum on flap disks and wire wheels, trying to remove as much mill scale and oxidation from where things were going to be welded. I'm not an experienced pro, but I was able to get minimal splatter (compared to a flux wire welder) with great bite and control with the HF MIG-140 welder. Very happy with the gas option. With a wire brush and wire wheel, the welds cleaned up very, very nicely. I should have gotten one of those aerosol cans of anti-spatter spray, ohwell.

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Anyway, that's the basics of the trailer. If you want to skip ahead in the album you can, but I need to edit and post some video before I go writing more build details here. The videos also say a lot that I don't have pictures on.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby tony.latham » Mon May 24, 2021 8:03 am

Quite the manifesto! :thumbsup:

4) Fiberglass sucks. No, it doesn't just suck, it *REALLY* sucks. I also don't want to ever see, smell, or use polyester fiberglass resin ever again in my life.


That's why I switched to epoxy a couple of decades ago.

Image

:thumbsup: It makes glassing about as complex as varnishing. :thumbsup:

And then you get to do bondo work.


Microspheres mixed with epoxy make for an easy-to-sand body filler over any low spots on a glass/epoxy matrix. :frightened:

:thinking:

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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Sun Aug 15, 2021 3:02 pm

I finally got the first Youtube video up. Slowly...

https://youtu.be/YZDLRBAwhr0
Last edited by cyborg on Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby saywhatthat » Sun Aug 15, 2021 3:55 pm

really like the way you did your frame. Not to heavy are to light.
According to Cal OSHA epoxy the hell of a lot more toxic than polyester just cuz you can't smell it don't mean that it's not bad for you
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby tony.latham » Sun Aug 15, 2021 8:19 pm

saywhatthat wrote:really like the way you did your frame. Not to heavy are to light.
According to Cal OSHA epoxy the hell of a lot more toxic than polyester just cuz you can't smell it don't mean that it's not bad for you
You may want to read the MSDS for Raka epoxy.

Tony


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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:25 pm

When I was doing the epoxy/resin work, I tried to make a point to wear a respirator, and generally did. I have a full face carbon filter/VOC setup, and a few times I was all "I'm just going to do some quick fiberglass, I don't need that" I came into the house with a headache.

I have a few shirts and pants now that are also basically stiff as a board because I dribbled enough epoxy onto myself :)
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby MickinOz » Tue Aug 17, 2021 5:36 am

4b) Finishing and smoothing fiberglass resin requires a wet sanding, and it is a lot of effort.
Granted this guy was using epoxy, but I found his approach to fairing glass very interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqiU8OXgTVA

You might as well just cover the entire thing in bondo to get a good smooth surface. Guh.

The old time boat builders did exactly that. They called it "fairing compound" and it was essentially polyester resin with a filler in it to make it more putty like.
Pretty much Bondo.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Sat Aug 21, 2021 12:46 pm

Video 2 is done, covering some more cutting and a different editing style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jH7JfeTcg0

Video #3 editing is complete covering the welding - I just need to upload it (takes about 8 hours on my crappy internet connection for a 20min video)
Last edited by cyborg on Sun Aug 22, 2021 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Sun Aug 22, 2021 2:17 pm

Video #3 is up for the welding...

Apparently I must be doing something wrong with the youtube link stuff here, so guess I'll just do a URL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_lC07TAmXc
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Re: The hamdrop

Postby cyborg » Tue Aug 31, 2021 7:09 pm

Video 4 is up, starting to do the frame base:

https://youtu.be/0MurASiktjE

I don't have many pictures at this stage, most of what I was doing was videos, but it's basically just one big sandwich of 1/8" plywood, 1" ripped 2x4's (3 per 2x4, ripped down 2 10'-long 2x4's for 6 total pieces, which got me the lumber I needed to do the frame), and then 1/2" good quality plywood.
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In the end, it looks pretty bland, there's the before picture with the frame:

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And the after picture with the floor built in. Note, the floor laminate isn't bolted to the frame yet, the whole thing gets bolted together from the underside with furniture screws, which will probably be video 6-ish.

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I've finished roughing out Video 5, which will be creation of templates for the curvy bits - just need to do the voiceover and detail work this week.
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