The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[Wobbly Wheels]

Haven't eaten parsnips since I was a kid when we always had them fried in butter to the point of being burnt. Going to have to try that one though
Thx KC...and mom !

[KCStudly]

I didn't get out on boxing day like I would have liked to. I needed a day of recovery.

Yesterday and today I continued on the cedar rim frame for the TB opening. After working my way around the rim, hand fitting the router cut half laps, I found that the two sides weren't symmetrical; should have laid it out and worked to plan dimensions instead of just winging it... I'm making work for myself and burning precious material. On the curb side the long piece was longer and the short piece was shorter, whereas on the street side the long piece was shorter and the short piece was longer, compared to the same mirror image part on the other side, respectively.

Since I have been using the last scraps of cedar that I have, I ended up having to stretch another piece with an extra half lap joint, and I will probably remake the curb side short piece because it isn't as flush on the outside as I want it to be... not a good spot to try and fill, but I suppose as an option I could cut it back and glue in a dutchman after it is assembled.

I don't know why I am working so hard at this. It is all going to get wrapped anyway, but I figured it was a good spot to learn and develop these techniques for that very reason.

Somehow on the first rabbet I cut after coming back I lost track of the zero point on the router, so the curb side end of the front rail got under cut. To fix this I glued an oversize piece of 5 mm ply scrap to the face of the rabbet and will flush it off and re cut the lap, rather than trying to glue a wafer thin shim on there. Again, probably could just glue with thickened epoxy, but then I wouldn't become a better wood worker, now "wood" I ?

No pics worth posting. I hope to get these parts sorted out tomorrow, and perhaps get the rim frame glued up on Wednesday.

[KCStudly]

Back tracking a little to get caught up on the few pics that were in the camera; I used blue tape to hold the rim pieces to the top of the tongue box while dry fitting the half laps.



To be honest with you, I don’t recall what this picture is supposed to be showing, but it is basically how I set up for routing the half laps. Since most of them were angled, it was easier to just clamp a piece of wood as a guide, and use some smaller pieces the same thickness as outriggers to help stabilize the router base.


Here’s that patch fix on the curb end of the front rim piece. I missed on the router setting and cut the rabbet too deep. I used a small block to help spread the clamp force while gluing an oversized piece of 5 mm ply scrap onto the step. Later, I rough cut the excess close on the bandsaw then trimmed it flush with the bearing bit in the router, and redid the rabbet shallower leaving just one 1 mm ply.


The longer piece on the street side came out shorter than the curb side. I could have made it fit the foam just fine, but when it came time to form the aluminum lid it would be much better if things were symmetrical. So I added an extra half lap to extend it with one of the few small pieces I have left. Here it is with the two halves clamped to the table for alignment, and the joint sandwiched with small pieces of ply wrapped in freezer paper under the clamp to prevent them from sticking.


Monday I ended up having to stay late at work, but last night I was able to rework the side pieces to get them symmetrical with a happy fit at the same time.


Here you can kind of see that added ply shim repair in the middle of the lap joint, just loosely dry fit here.


I made a minor adjustment to the long side piece on the curb side to improve the fit with the shorter piece, and avoided having to remake that part.


Today I only put in 2-3/4 hrs, made it over the hump on this rim frame. Started by gluing the side dog legs.


Then, while that was setting up, I ripped the front piece to match the angle of the edge to the front panel.


Used a tapered faux credit card to scrape the crappy spray foam out of the inside corner of the ledge. It offered no resistance and crumbled to dust readily.



I managed to whip up this baffle. The idea is that the louvered vent hole cover for the battery compartment vent won’t really keep road mist and spray out. By making a labyrinth of sorts, any mist or spray should condense onto the baffle plates and run out of the bottom louver. The baffle consists of a 3/4 inch long section of 3 inch x 0.065 wall sanitary SS tubing with two partial circle plates welded in. One plate is flush to the inside and will have the opening at the top, while the other plate is centered in the tube with the opening at the bottom.



The plan is to stuff some mesh pad material (like greenie abrasive pad without the abrasive) inside to keep bugs out and add surface area for moisture to condense on. I had thought that I would need to weld a couple of tabs on so that the baffle could be screwed to the panel hole blocking from the inside, but I had to sand the hole open just to get it to fit at all, so I think I may skip that and just glue the baffle in using PL.

Here the baffle is just sitting on the back of the louver checking fit.


With the TB rim dog legs now cured enough to handle, I went ahead and glued them to the front and rear pieces, checking the diagonals against what I had measured during the dry fits. The frame is sitting up on 2x3’s to make sure that the clamps don’t twist things out of shape.


Having picked up another can of the proper GS, I filled that false cut at the bottom of the front panel and a couple of other small holes. I learned that while GS makes a good filler material, it is not very good as a fairing compound.


I’ll have some trimming and sanding to do, and will still need to hit it with some spackle, but it is getting there (…slowly).

The plant is closed tomorrow so I have the day off. I hope to get the rim frame cleaned up, get the lap tails trimmed flush, and get the frame glued to the box.

[Wobbly Wheels]

The baffle is a great idea and is how dorade boxes allow ventilation in boat cabins but keep spray out. Spiders and wasps love to nest in them, but it sounds like you've got that handled.

I can't imagine how busy I'd be if I had the tooling and skills to "whip something up" in stainless

Good to see some of us aren't slacking off - nice work

[KCStudly]

Thanks WW. I used the cut off band saw to cut the tubing to length; the shear to rough out the plates; the 6 inch belt sander to trim the plates to final shape; the TIG welder to weld; and the wire wheel to buff the heat coloration off the good side. Incidentally, none of these tools are mine, I just am lucky enough to have access to them.

[GPW]

ScotchBrite spider filters .... Brilliant ... making some now ...

[Redneck Teepee]

The plan is to stuff some mesh pad material (like greenie abrasive pad without the abrasive) inside to keep bugs out and add surface area for moisture to condense on.

K.C. I had real good luck building some oil mist recovery vent's for a buddy's CNC milling unit one time, did a real similar type vent and used SS scrub pads to stuff it. They really worked well for that particular application.

http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-S ... bbing+pads

[KCStudly]

The idea came from that ridge vent material they sell as a roofing product. Designed to vent and keep bugs out.

RNT, I did consider SS wool, but decided to use something I already have on hand rather than something I would have to buy.

TB rim frame is glued on to the box; update to follow.

[dales133]

That tounge box is looking sharp KC, what's plans for skinning it?
Paint over canvas with aluminium over the top of that?

[KCStudly]

Thanks Dale. I didn't factor in the TB when I ordered my canvas, although I did round up on all of my dimensions (sides and over the top). I'm a little worried that I will have to use my margin for the doors, since after wrapping the jambs the cut outs from the door openings won't be big enough to cover and wrap the edges of the doors (a small oversight in my estimating). So the plan for the TB is to use one of the bed sheets that I bought at a yard sale to use for dust covers during the build.

I have some glass weave left over from the front radius that I will probably use with epoxy to line the inside of the battery compartment. That should be more resistant to battery acid. Right now the plan is to use a fixed aluminum cover over the battery compartment opening; maybe 1/4 turn fasteners, but more likely just some small bolts into thread inserts.

The lid will be aluminum sheet with a flange formed on the sides and front, a piano hinge at the back, and a couple of small lockable draw latches at the front.

If I start getting rock damage there will be enough overlap to the lid flange that I can clad the front of the box with aluminum later.

[dales133]

Sounds like a good plan.there are some nice aluminium inspection hatches designed for race cars I've been looking at that might suit your needs, I'll try to find a link

Here you go http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/270979635839

[KCStudly]

Thanks, that's pretty cool. A little small to get a battery thru, tho. I figure the box is already pretty complicated and adding a flange, hinge, and latches would just complicate things that much more, especially since the battery opening wraps around the side corner.

What I am not sure of is if there is any RV rule or reg. that requires the battery to be accessible to emergency service personnel (I doubt it based on the many people that put their batteries underneath their campers, or lock them in their galleys).

I figure just a simple "flat" sheet metal cover, bent to conform to the side of the box, bolted on with 6 or 8 small button head machine screws. Not too difficult to remove but maybe enough to deter a thief that might have easier targets.

[dales133]

Yes alot of commercial campers and rv have batteries pretty well tucked away so I'd imagine that would be fine.
And yes again to the theft thing probably best to make it to labor intensive and they'll find an easier target.
Should be working on mine but it's 43 Celsius so I'm hiding inside

[KCStudly]

Today I cleaned up the TB rim frame using the small paint scrapper, match box plane and small hand block. Faired up all the corners and matched the half lap tails of the sides to the bevels on the front and rear pieces.

Did a dry fit with the box and laid out locations of the biscuit slots. Had to be very careful to register the jointer shoe along the beveled edges of the foam, so with the box laid over on the table, I used another small block to help press the foam flat to the table while tilting the jointer up to match the slope of the edge. Probably didn’t need the added strength of the biscuits, but they sure did help hold the panels in alignment to the edges of the rim frame.

Here is the frame all prepped with slots.


And the box with biscuits ready for a final dry fit.


After a dry run to learn that I should use blue tape initially, to make flipping the assembly over easier, I went ahead and glued the frame to the box using PL. Once glued and taped I flipped the box over and weighted the bottom, plus a couple of pipe clamps on the ends, so that the frame would stay as flat as the table.



I had good squeeze out pretty much everywhere.


Then I spent a little time on the lantern box before ending up for the day after about 4 hrs.

[felixx]

wow!
this is amazing