The Mad Dash begins...

[capnTelescope]

Great progress, Mike!

Foamie noob questions:

Then I glued up the walls...

Glued what to what? Baseboard to the floor edges? Foam to floor surface? Both? Something else? No screws?

With what? TB2, GS, something else? BTW, I found that TB doesn't stick all that well to poly.

How'd you keep the walls upright while the glue set? Seems to me they'd fall over if you sneezed.

I'm learning as you go.

[Fred Trout]

Wow, that panel on the CNC looks complicated. Must have spent some serious time figuring it all out as well as cutting.

Making some quick progress.

[mikeschn]

Hi Fred,

Here's the panel for the window, still need to glue in a center section of 1/4" plywood, but you get the idea...



I glued in some framing for the roof vent. Still have to add the little pieces in the middle, so that I have 1 1/2" of framing to mount to.



Also tried gluing in the first roof panel without kerfing. It felt pretty stressed out, so I took a heat gun to it. I'll know tomorrow if that made a difference.
What you see on top is just some clamping boards, those will come off tomorrow.



That's all the excitement for one day!

Mike...

[mikeschn]

Here's an end view of the window panel that shows where the parting line is...



Mike...

[mikeschn]

Capn,

Check out this picture...



I've rabetted 1/2" plywood hard edges into the foam, with the plywood extending 2" past the foam. The reason is so that the foam can sit on the trailer in compression; but I drive screws through the plywood edges, into the floor and spars.

I also have gorilla glue on the foam to the floor, and on the hard edges to the floor. Screws, of course! And adding canvas will give me triple redundancy.

I was a little bit concerned about the wind too. The day we glued up the walls it was quite breezy. Surprisingly, the screws held the wall very securely. Of course we added a temporary spar across the top as soon as we could.

I've made one very big error though. The galley spar, the one that the hatch hinge mounts to is only glued to the foam, not the hardwood edges. When I glued the roof panel on this afternoon, the joint broke. I currently have it sitting in a pool of gorilla glue, with a pipe clamp on it. I'll know tomorrow if that's still going to be an issue. If so, I'll have to perform major surgery, and extend the hatch spar down to the hard edge.

Mike...

Great progress, Mike!

Foamie noob questions:

Then I glued up the walls...

Glued what to what? Baseboard to the floor edges? Foam to floor surface? Both? Something else? No screws?

With what? TB2, GS, something else? BTW, I found that TB doesn't stick all that well to poly.

How'd you keep the walls upright while the glue set? Seems to me they'd fall over if you sneezed.

I'm learning as you go.

[Wolfgang92025]

Mike, you are really making headway on this built. Keep it up......

[capnTelescope]

Mike, thanks for the explanation. Everything is much clearer now.

Onward!

[Fred Trout]

That window panel looks terrific. Should be strong too as a multilayer composite panel.

You planning on a cover for the window, assuming that goes on the leading edge of the TD like it appears ?

[capnTelescope]

Wow, that panel on the CNC looks complicated. Must have spent some serious time figuring it all out as well as cutting.

When Fred said this, I knew I'd missed something. Went back and looked again. Yeah, he's cutting stuff out on the CNC, nothing special to see here. Then I went back and looked again. 3D sculpting! Jaw-droppingly awesome!

WTG! I haven't had occasion to do that on my machine yet.

[mikeschn]

LOL Capn,

It's really not that fancy! Anyways, the foam is really soft now that I've whittled half of it away. I'm hoping the gluing it up to the plywood strengthens it up again. The first half is in the garage drying. I'll glue up the second half tomorrow, and then I'll try to get a picture.

It's time for you to try 3D scuplting!!!

Mike...

Wow, that panel on the CNC looks complicated. Must have spent some serious time figuring it all out as well as cutting.

When Fred said this, I knew I'd missed something. Went back and looked again. Yeah, he's cutting stuff out on the CNC, nothing special to see here. Then I went back and looked again. 3D sculpting! Jaw-droppingly awesome!

WTG! I haven't had occasion to do that on my machine yet.

[mikeschn]

No window cover planned as it's going to be on an angle. Of course, that could always change!!!

Mike...

That window panel looks terrific. Should be strong too as a multilayer composite panel.

You planning on a cover for the window, assuming that goes on the leading edge of the TD like it appears ?

Thanks Wolfgang!

Mike, you are really making headway on this built. Keep it up......

[mikeschn]

Thought you guys might like to see the high level plan for the Month of August...

Aug 1
Glue walls and spars Done!
Build Wheel Wells

Aug 8
Glue Roof
Build window panel

Aug 15
Canvas Body

Aug 23
Build Doors
Build Hatch

Aug 29
Canvas Doors and Hatch
Install Pet Cool
Build Galley?

It's not set in stone, some things are getting done ahead of time, like the doors, while other things are falling behind schedule, like the wheel wells. But overall the plan seems to be working so far.

And after that, I think the last big thing is to install the lights and the electrical. I'll probably do that in September.

What do you guys think? Do-able? or too much?

Mike...

[KCStudly]

You are getting all of this done on just one day a week? You are building much faster than it even appears!

[mikeschn]

KC,

No, those dates represent the weekend beginning Saturday. The plan is to build every Saturday and Sunday. I do allow myself an hour or two during the week after work if I need it to keep up with the plan!

This week, for example I am planning on putting in a dowel into my hatch hinge spar to keep it from pulling away from the foam. I am also gluing the window panel pieces to the plywood. But that'll be all until Saturday.

Mike...

[GPW]

Good Plan !!! Good to have a plan !!!