The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[KCStudly]

Thank you, LFH.

[KCStudly]

Yesterday I jumped ahead of myself a little and started rounding over the street side profile edge. I had a nice chunk of maple that was a cut off from the axe head mount glue up, and I figured that would make a nice solid sanding block. I chucked it in the mill on end hanging out of the vise and bored thru using Karl’s big 1-1/2 inch core boring bit. Rather than bore tangent to both corners, I milled inward a little leaving a little flat to act like a guide surface. (If I had been starting from scratch I probably would have allowed for even more of a guide surface.)


I had used the 3M spray adhesive to hold the sandpaper on the big curved long board, but had some issues with grain pulling out when attempting to change the paper. That probably wouldn't have been an issue with the maple, but I decided to try a little something different and just smeared a miniscule amount of TB2 on the back of the paper and stuck that down. Initial testing indicated that the 100 grit paper would take quite a while to get it down, so I started using the 36 grit on the medium board (...with some technique reminders from Karl...) working in an ‘X’ diagonal pattern; starting short of flat to the side wall working up and forward in a rolling motion up to but not all the way onto the flat of the roof, like in this series of pics.




By staying away from the flats I avoided over sanding the areas that needed it the least.

Then it was back to the radius block for the last 1/8 inch or so. In this pic you can see a couple of things that I ended up having to adjust for. I had trimmed the paper right to the edges of the block, which allowed it to catch a little and bunch up some. Also, this meant that I was sanding on the little guide flat as well as the curve.



That and slight variations in the angle of how I was able to hold the block resulted in some undercutting gouges on the flats, but I was still pretty happy with the result so far.



Trying to make it a little better, I used the small oak sanding block to bevel the guide edges of the block slightly; rounded all of the edges a little; used a little more glue to stick a fresh piece of paper down; trimmed the paper back away from the edges; and nipped the corners off so they would be less likely to lift. Also, note how the segment of paper is less than 90 deg by about the same as the amount of rocking I was seeing.


I had a little more time so I started in on the front profile radius. No spars to guide off, so all sanding was done with the radius block. The changes to the block seemed to help a bunch. I didn’t get it all the way there this session, but it’s headed in the right direction.


The spackle blend seemed to hold up really well and had a lot more toughness than just plain spackle, so that seemed to be worth the extra effort, at least from what I can see here.

[Fred Trout]

Slick

[capnTelescope]

Your roof corners look good. Your technique looks like the right stuff.

[dales133]

Nice!
Those kurfs didnt come out to bad.
I was wondering what youd do as i doubteted youd leave them
Getting closer mate...

[GPW]

KC, looking GOOD !!!! But we knew you’d get it Perfect !!!

Turtle , one direction sanding works well on “beaded foam” ... Extruded foam too ...

[KCStudly]

Thanks all.

And yes, it does seem that the sand paper will "bite" from time to time on change of direction, resulting in tears (rhymes with bears) or chunks. Seems it will do this if you push too hard, too. It is hard to keep a consistent technique, as I tend to get more aggressive or sloppier once I get into it and am a little more comfortable, bored, rushed, and/or inattentive. Better to take this task on in small increments.

The coarser paper will chunk readily from pushing too hard, when banging into an edge, or if you let the edge of the paper catch, so you need to stop well short of fair and switch to the finer paper. Catching the edge of the paper is more of a problem with the small oak block where the paper is folded around it and overlaps itself... especially once it isn't as "crispy" as a fresh piece... or if I forget to trim it back from the ends. The little block is about 1/8 inch shy of a 1/4 sheet so it is better to trim off a little paper rather than let it hang past the ends of the block.

[GoTurtleGo]

KC,

Those rounded edges are very pretty. And I'm going to have to use that spackle mix one day. Great idea.

K

[GoTurtleGo]

And thank you, GPW, for the affirmation about one directional sanding. That's not in my notes from the Big Giant Thread. I must have missed it so I am glad to have that detail noted now!

Thanks, K

[lfhoward]

Clever technique, KC. Corners look good!

[GPW]

We expected no less of KC ... Perfectly rounded corners ... Now everyone will know how to do it !!! Thanks KC !!!

[KCStudly]

Nothing is perfect, but as long as all of the little warts are down at the level of the “background noise”, she might cast that impression at first inspection; that subtle level of perceived quality that I have been striving to maintain. (We all know where the big warts are, now don’t we?)

Last night I finished rounding off the street side front down to the floor. Remember that I had already rounded the two front corners of the floor during its construction.


In this second pic looking down along the front corner it sort of looks like there is a coke bottle shape at the rock guard sparette, but I think that is just the lighting since I didn’t notice anything like that in person or when running my hand along it. Amazing what you can feel that you cannot see! Also notice the sharpie guide lines. Without anything like the roof spars to reference to, it was a lot easier to work up to a reference line.


Pretty “tasty” if I do say so!



Here’s the marking gauge I whipped up. Very much like the pencil ones I used for setting the hatch to wall clearance. The maple scrap with the finish on it was a test piece from when I did the inside cabinets. The rounded corners and slick finish helped it glide over the foam nice and easy (shown marking out the street side hatch edge).




I started in sanding the edge, but then realized that I hadn’t finished fairing the foam seams of the hatch and still had some contouring to do. If I don’t do that first it will show as an uneven arc in the edge round over. So I switched tasks and did an initial spackling of the seams, and around the license plate recess.



Since I had the spackle out, and had just finished off a tub, I figured that was a great empty pot for mixing up a larger batch of the spackle blend. This time I used a bit more glue for a wetter mix, and spritzed it with a little water mist from time to time to help keep it workable, either on the spatula to lube it, or mixing it into the pot. Stuffed the curb side front kerfs.


It makes a bit of a crumbly mess, but given the nature of the filler, you can just pick the big pieces up off of the floor and keep using then. A little saw dust isn’t really going to hurt anything!


While I had it going I filled that gouged area from the DA incident. The foam and stray wood saw dust filler is coarser than straight spackle and the glue starts to get tacky fairly quick, so it is definitely not a finish coat application, but I feel a little better about using it for bigger jobs like this. Time will tell. I do have a slight concern that it may result in harder crumbly bits when I go to sand, and that these might roll and gouge the adjacent foam, rather than disintegrate; we shall see.


Still had some left in the pot so I chinked along the slight gap between the top of the locker bump out and the front wall foam (no pic) then slobbered the rest onto that low spar up on the roof, hopefully bringing it up above the foam enough to work back. Stuff was getting pretty hard to work with the spatula by this time; hope I haven’t created a bunch more work for myself. Straight spackle would have certainly gone down easier. In the foreground you can see where I tried to fill the sanding scuff from doing the roof edge radius, but “the blend” didn’t want to grab such a shallow area; too tacky and just pulled right back out.


Off to Mecca now.

[eaglesdare]

Wow, this camper is looking great! Your work is so impressive.

[S. Heisley]

Wow, this camper is looking great! Your work is so impressive.

+1

[KCStudly]

Thank you ladies! It is coming along slowly but surely.

Last night I went around hit it with a bunch of spackle, including the areas at the corners of the roof vent that needed fairing. I'm having second thoughts about not having used the blend there. Thinking about hitting critical areas with a sealer coat of TB2 before canvas.