THE Teardrop Explorer

[PubUltraStar]

Picked up the remaining parts yesterday from my CNC guy. Unfortunately, still no word on the delay in getting the custom trailer delivered. Apparently, I ordered my torsion axle with brakes, and they forgot that important piece of information. As you can see, I need to clean out my garage and get motivated. Weather is warming up, and I'm ready to roll on this build. Yes, I used a Harbor Freight trailer to transport my parts, but it won't be used in the build.

[Fyddler]

Now I need to get a bigger CNC router. I may be able to make a teardrop big enough for a hamster on mine

[DMcCam]

It was very exciting the day we got our CNC parts too Mike. Everything looks great. Sorry that you have to wait on your chassis. Hopefully you'll get it soon though.

All the Best,

Dave

[PubUltraStar]

I spent some time cleaning up my garage yesterday, and we got some decent weather finally where I was able to spend an entire afternoon outside. I finished building my DIY Steambox for bending wood, and was able to bend a test piece successfully. I have updated my build blog at http://www.diy-teardrop.com/2013/03/diy-steambox-for-bending-wood.html. I'm planning on posting many of the same pictures here as well. Lessons learned and things to try next time:

1. Soak the wood ahead of time. I wasn't expecting to finish the steam box today, so I forgot to start soaking my test piece. When I realized that I had plenty of time to try my first bend, I decided to put the test piece of dry red oak into the steamer for one hour. It was a thinner piece, so probably didn't need that much time, and don't expect to need that long in the future if I pre-soak. I plan on sending a few different woods through the steamer to see what bends the best, and I plan on trying White Oak, Ash, and Red Oak.
2. The test piece of red oak that I had was kiln dried. Green woods bend easier, and I have found a supplier that has some green oak. I'm not sure if soaking the wood will get some of it's elasticity back, but I have a feeling that Kiln dried wood loses some of that forever. I don't have too many extreme bends, but I'm sure that I'll discover what works best as I try different woods.











Success! A 90 degree bend using a 1/4" piece of red oak. This particular template is for the tongue box lid, if that makes any sense.




Next steps is to get a sheet of plywood that will serve as the backbone for my hatch template, and also front half template. The hatch template will have the next biggest curve, and uses the next smallest length of wood. Once I figure out what wood I'm going to use on the final skin, I should be able to have 3-4 templates at any one time. Looks like I'll need some more clamps.

[KCStudly]

Cool. Jumping into the deep end of the pool!

[danlott]

Looking very good. I really like Dave's design, so much so that I redid my profile on my trailer. Dave was very helpful in providing help rescaling his profile to fit the larger size of my trailer.

I really love the CNC machine. I would love to have one. Probably would be busy producing kits and profiles for other members here.

Dan

[PubUltraStar]

Got a text message from the trailer builder that my custom trailer will be ready on May 8th. I'm trying to be patient, but I'm ready to go! Spent some time in the garage today cleaning and organizing. I call it Organized Chaos, as I have too much stuff. Anyway, the garage is ready for the build, and the weather was beautiful today!



I took a trip to Menards tonight and picked up a sheet of 4'x8' particle board that serves as the backbone for all my template pieces. I will have 4 pieces of wood drying in their template molds at any one given time. I have extra mold pieces if I decide to make a second or third mold for the hatch bending, but for now I'm ready to start steaming. I'm going to test a few more types of wood before I finalize what I'm going to use, so I plan on steaming some wood tomorrow. I attached most of the clamps that I have to see if I have enough, but looks like I could use a few more. I'm finding that the $1.72 clamps from Harbor freight works just fine for holding the bent wood after the piece has been curved around the mold, so I'll probably get a few more of those. I have some really long clamps, but I'll only use those if I really am in a pinch. (Pun Intended).

[rmef27]

cool build,cant wait to see some progress when you get your trailer.

[_Ryan_]

Looking good! I'm excited to see what you have planned for this build. The woody teardrops are my favorite, and to see one with the Atma profile should be the best of both worlds!

Have you decided on the design for the interior space or any of the cabinetry?

[PubUltraStar]

Have you decided on the design for the interior space or any of the cabinetry?

I have the interior all figured out, but the galley cabinetry is still "under design." I'll need to go back through all the build journals that I've bookmarked and see what designs I like best. I still have a little time to decide.

[_Ryan_]

Have you decided on the design for the interior space or any of the cabinetry?

I have the interior all figured out, but the galley cabinetry is still "under design." I'll need to go back through all the build journals that I've bookmarked and see what designs I like best. I still have a little time to decide.

That's exactly how I did it. I had 95% of it planned beforehand but left the last 5% to be figured out later. If you see my design thread you will see I didn't know the exact plan for the front cabinets and just left a big void. The funny thing was that I ended up changing quite a few other things like spar spacing, door location, and I even added a roof skylight once I was into the build and learned more about what would and wouldn't work. Luckily they were details for later in the build and it didn't impact what I had already done.

I think that it is a common teardrop building experience that no matter how well you think you have it figured out, by the end you will have inevitably made some changes.

[PubUltraStar]

I think that it is a common teardrop building experience that no matter how well you think you have it figured out, by the end you will have inevitably made some changes.

My last 2 posts, didn't actually post. Weird. Anyway, here's some wood bending around the hatch template. It's one of my biggest curves, but looks like I'll be just fine. I did some tests with Cedar and it did not have the flexibility that I was looking for. I feel that I'll settle on white oak if I can get green lumber.


Red Oak Hatch Template Steam Bend

Since the beginning, I've know what I want the outside of my teardrop to look like. The inside will sort of be made up as I go along.

[aggie79]

Those CNC parts look sweet! And so does your steam bending box.

If you're sure everything is going to fit - and I would guess that's true given the nature of your build so far - have you thought about building the teardrop shell ahead of getting the frame?

I did this on my build and it worked out well (although admittedly it is easier to put it together on the frame.)

[PubUltraStar]

If you're sure everything is going to fit - and I would guess that's true given the nature of your build so far - have you thought about building the teardrop shell ahead of getting the frame?

I like the way that your tear was able to be attached to the frame after the fact. However, I am anticipating that even after the wood comes out of the mold templates, that there will be some bounce-back, or a bit of spring to the pieces. I think having the sides and cross-beams attached to the frame will prevent unnecessary warping of the tear. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that I might need to use some leverage to get the pieces attached within the shape I'm looking for. We'll see. I only have a week before I get the trailer.

[_Ryan_]

It's too bad about the cedar. I was contemplating using cedar myself after looking at some of those beautiful cedar strip canoes.