Now the fun starts

[featherliteCT1]

Good looking dog!

[MickinOz]

He's a beautiful boy. Turned 3 at the end of May.
Came off a sheep station in the middle of the Eyre Peninsula.
They say mum was a bully/kelpie cross and dad was a Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Ridge on his back actually stands up when he's evicting the neighbourhood cats from the chook yard, so maybe.

Lovely personality.
He made friends with the rooster. Used to dig under the chookyard fence, the rooster would come out and they would play chasey round the garden. They actually took turns doing the chasing.
Hilarious. The city made me get rid of the rooster after someone complained.
I managed to find a friend of a friend on acreage who was prepared to take him on, so I caught him one evening while he was sleepy, and put him in a cage on the verandah ready for collection. The dog refused to leave his side until he was collected, and pined for weeks after.
He can count to eight. His bed time treat is two scotch finger shortbread bikkies.
I break each one into 4 pieces. That dog knows if he hasn't had eight pieces.

[MickinOz]

Knock knock.
"Who's there?"
"Cochrane's Transport. Are you Mick?"
"Hi, yes I am, watcha got for me?"
"I'm not sure you're going to be happy, your item was bent when it arrived at our depot."
"What is it, let's have a look?"

Oops, there on the floor of the van is one stainless steel piano hinge 6 feet long, with about a 20 degree bend about 18 inches in from one end.

"Wasn't us, honest. It was bent when it got to us."
"I believe you luv. Don't stress. It's a piano hinge, they sometimes even ship 'em rolled up. I'll probably be able to straighten it out."
"Wow, Phil said you're a good bloke and you wouldn't blame me."

Delivery lady takes her leave, had to stop her stealing the mutt on her way out.

I take the hinge out of its pitiful excuse for a transport carton, lay it on my piece of 90lb rail, and apply some strategic percussive maintenance on certain high spots.
Straightens out OK, the only people who are ever going to know it was bent are me, the delivery chick and Phil.

So I ring Phil.
"Phil, its Mick. Tell your young lady it only took 6 taps with the hammer to get this thing straight and she should stop worrying."
"Great mate, I'll give her a call, She was a bit worried."

That's possibly the best thing about living all your life in the one district. If you didn't go to school with the manager of the local courier service, you most definitely were in the same class as his brother.

Makes for civilised discourse.

[MickinOz]

Finally made it to my neighbour's place up the street.
Never seen anything like it in a domestic shed in all me born days.
There was a couple of CNC plasma cutters, a CNC router, lazer engravers, lots of 3D printers, you name it.
If you can conceive of a machine that uses computer numerical control to move on three axes that hasn't been built yet, let me know. I'm sure Reg would rise to the challenge.

There was also a complete 9 x 5 chassis, just about ready to start screwing panels to.
6 stud off-road wheels, mounting tabs welded on, receiver at rear for bike racks or whatever.
I was coming back from an overnight jaunt, so Reg's wife got a look at my trailer.
He has now been ordered to buy pre-made doors like I have on Ol' #1.

No pictures. I thought that'd be a bit disrespectful of their privacy.
I did write down tnttt.com though. Maybe Reg will join up and share some pics.

[MickinOz]

Actual time spent on the new build is quite minimal.
Commitments last week included buying the missus a new lounge suite. Real leather, something I promised might happen after the kids/cats/dogs all left home.
Then there was a day spent helping my electrical contractor son, and another 2 spent baby sitting the grand kid. Plus a day spent showing the Harleys how quick a single cylinder jap bike can be after it's fitted with a big bore header pipe, free flowing but quiet muffler, the air box is cut open, and a taper is machined on the needle in the carb.
But I got into it today.
I now have two side wall panels with doorjambs/collars fitted. Just waiting for some glue to cure then I might be able to seal them with the mix and fit 'em.
The day saw advances, but also its little frustrations.
So the walls are 12mm marine plywood. I cut collars/door jambs from 12mm ply, and bought some 20mm screws to screw 'em on.
So, right at the end of fitting collar number two, there is the point of a screw sticking out through my $105 plus hours of labour sidewall.
WTF? Reverse the screw out and take a look. It' a f@cking 25mm screw, out of my brand new box of 20mm screws.
I didn't notice,
So, in the immortal words of Australia's own Isaac Butterfield, funniest Aussie since Paul Hogan - "Zenith screws, F@ck you to the moon." Bastards!

[MickinOz]

This build is supposed to be less stressful and easier than build #1. After all, I have encountered and solved all the problems first time around, eh?
But, it isn't the same as the last build. The Aussie Traveler doors, as sweet as they are, are now more than $700 plus freight, each.
So, a bit out of reach.
I'm going with very simple walls and doors.
12mm hardwood marine ply, with a collar/door jamb fitted made from the same material.
Happy with the way these turned out. Got 'em done in less than 3 days of messing about working at retired pace.

left side door opening.JPG (56 KiB) Viewed 790 times

The "door" will be the cutout piece.
I'm OK with these, cut freehand with my new Ryobi jigsaw.

External Butt Hinges.JPG (78.38 KiB) Viewed 789 times

[MickinOz]

But, now comes the hard bit.
I've got these nice 85mm black powder coated stainless steel butt hinges.
Now, in your house, you fit these between the door and the frame so only the pin bit is visible.
I can do that here, but it means screwing into the cut edges of the plywood. I'll glue blocks of 12mm ply to the existing door piece for the hinges to mount to, but still screwing into the edge of the ply. The holes would be really close to the edges. I can see veneers being split apart.
Tried to photograph what I mean by holding two 12mm offcuts together and sitting the hinge on the edge the way it would mount if I morticed then in properly.

hinge on edge.JPG (53.03 KiB) Viewed 788 times

I don't think this is very robust.

[MickinOz]

I think it will be stronger if I put the hinges on the outside and screw through the veneers into 24mm of plywood. (Supplied screws are just right for this.)
I have a line on some nice black L handles for the latches which should match.
Like this:

External Butt Hinges.JPG (78.38 KiB) Viewed 786 times

Pros:
Far stronger IMO, can even be through bolted should it turn out the screws won't hold.
Less work to fit.

Cons:
Looks like a bit of a short cut, but I do see many done this way.
A thief with a screw driver has easy access, unless I find some security screws.

The missus has advised me to make a test piece, which I shall.
But, interested in what people think.

[TheOtherSean]

I agree with your list of pros and cons. I considered some of those same points when working on my build. In the end, I went with external hinges for the door. Mounting the door with hinges went relatively smoothly and quickly. With two trips and about 3300 miles of travel, I have not run into problems with the hinges.

[edgeau]

Mine are done that way. Screws are fine. I think matching with the door handles makes for a good look. As for a determined thief, they can also find a saw... It is not a bank, only a place to sleep

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[MickinOz]

Rocking a serious hangover today.
You'd think a bloke'd know better by the time he hits his 60's, but some of us just never will learn, I guess.
Didn't get out of bed until lunch time, and then only to shower and go around my mate's place to get the ute.
I was so rat-arsed last night that even I realised that driving home wasn't an option.
The missus came to get me after my emergency text. Described in detail my walk from my mate's front verandah over to the ute to lock it, my walk back to the house to get the keys I'd left on his table, then staggering back to have another go at locking it. Like something out of a Billy Connolly skit she said.
When I got there this arvo, one door was locked, one wasn't.
Still scratching my head how I managed that with central locking. She reckons there was plenty of indicator lights flashing as I was pressing the buttons.
Only did an hour on the build today.
Mounted one door.
It's working beautifully.
Those stainless steel hinges have bugger all play, which helps a lot, I think.
Have to finish the other one tomorrow.
Had to run a little bevel on the door and the wall where the hinges sit, they don't lay dead flat when they are open.
Have ordered latches. They'll end up with about $35 worth of hardware per side.
Contemplating Wiley windows at the moment. But I'm still hopeful of tripping over some caravan windows so they can wait a little while.
Gunna treat my poor abused stomach to a plate of pasta, then it's an early night for me.

Door closed.JPG (41.45 KiB) Viewed 683 times

Door open.JPG (55.06 KiB) Viewed 683 times

Hinge closeup.JPG (59.98 KiB) Viewed 683 times

[MickinOz]

What the inside looks like with the door closed.

Inside view.JPG (49.72 KiB) Viewed 675 times

[MickinOz]

Pardon me for being a little OCD.
Need to discuss something.
My build is coming along. Return on actual work hours invested (maybe 1/2 day every couple of days) is OK.

I am building a Rimple. I increased the rear radius a bit and decreased the front, just to make it look slightly more Benroy.
Apart from the profile, the excellent Generic Benroy plans are my guide.

On my first build I had metric plywood, which is 20mm (~3/4 inch) narrower than 48 inches.
I went to some lengths to crib back the lost height, including using spars smaller than the plans called for.

On this build I have made a blue. I dunno what came over me at the shop, but I brought home 42 x 19mm and 42 x 42mm timbers for my spars.
I have three choices.
1) Go back and buy the 19 x 30mm and 30 x 30mm timber I meant to buy. That would cost quite a bit, not least in fuel, but I get back my lost 1/2 inch of ceiling height.
2) Find someone who owns a thicknesser and cut it all down to 30mm and get my 12mm back.
3) Carry on with the build.

I'm leaning toward option three.
By my calculations, I would end up with a floor to ceiling dimension of 1069mm. That's near enough to exactly 3 feet six inches.

I've been poring over the GB plans.
Step4 fig. 2 shows the surface of the floor at 4 and 3/8 inches from the bottom edge of the wall sheet.
The plans use 1 x 2 dimensional lumber for the spars, which the plans say is actually 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches.
The headliner is 1/8 inch.
So in total I get 6 inches. Subtract that from 4 feet and I get 3 feet 6 inches.

So, now my question.
Have I read those plans correctly? That is, If you built exactly to the Generic Benroy plans, would you end up with a floor to ceiling dimension of 3 feet 6 inches?

The missus reckons just carry on. I think she wants her carport and outdoor table back.

[edgeau]

Ouch. Frustrating predicament. Even with the 12mm that sounds cozy. Mine is 119cm floor to ceiling. Can you carry on and compensate with a thinner mattress?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[MickinOz]

Ol #1 is 1080 mm floor to ceiling, and I have a 150mm mattress. I don't find it claustrophobic at all. (Believe me, I was worried ).
But still, don't want to lose anymore than I have to

Did you build with the walls sitting on top of the floor?