The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[KCStudly]

Randy (Wolffarmer), We gotta eat, right?

Thanks, GPW, Ryan and RandyG. I appreciate the kind words. Yes, the weather has been good. I just need to stop thinking of it as “good sleeping weather” and start thinking of it as “good building weather”! Need to get going sooner in the day.

We’ve all said it before, “I didn’t get as much done today as I thought I would”.

First, I slept in all morning. Wish I could do that every Monday!

I stopped at the Ho-de-po for a few small things, including some temporary bolts to attach the floor to the build cradle.

Next, I went and had an authentic Philly cheese steak sandwich from a small joint hidden in the back streets of Norwich that I had heard of thru word of mouth. I don’t think I have ever had an authentic PCS, at least not one that was soaked with Cheese-Whiz and falling apart as I bit into it, but that is what everyone says they are like, so I guess it was the real deal!

Then finally out to Mecca.

The first task should have been simple, quick and easy; bolting the floor to the build cradle. It didn’t go that way.

I spent several minutes measuring and positioning the floor over the cradle. Because the slats in the cradle are adjacent to the vertical blocking in the cradle, and because I had screwed the cradle down to the saw horses directly in alignment with the blocking (for load transfer/strength), I couldn’t just crawl under and look up to see if the holes were aligned. The horses were in the way, so I just measured and centered the floor up to the cradle.

Well, the bolts didn’t find the holes, so I had to shift the floor out of position to see what was up. Found that I had drilled the holes in the wrong locations in the cradle slats; 23 inches c/c in lieu of the required 19 inches c/c.

Karl was on the road working a job, otherwise this would have been simply a matter of moving the floor off of the cradle and drilling new holes, but I can’t safely move the floor by myself and using the hoist would have introduced a whole other set of logistics.

I had to shift the floor back and forth in order to fit the cordless drill in there to remove the screws holding the cradle to the horses (better to find that out now), so that I could shift the cradle back and forth on the saw horses, so that I could drill up thru the slats from the bottom. Also, had to space the floor up on foam scraps to prevent running the drill up into the floor (nearly tipped over one of the horses while I was under there moving things around). The whole time I’m up and down, moving around on the floor with a mover’s blanket, and a smaller fan trying to keep cool.

Laid out the new holes from the underside, drilled them, and repositioned the floor again so that it was all centered up. Now 3 out of 4 holes lined up.

The temporary bolts needed to be longer than the final ones (the slats are 3/4 thk whereas the trailer frame xmbrs are only 1/8 thk). I was able to buy 2 inch long and 2-1/2 inch long bolts, but needed 2-1/4 long; had to cut the bolts to length on the cut off saw and re-bevel on the Bader.

Once I had the 3 bolts in loose, I slipped a scrap shim of 5mm underlay in between the floor and cradle to act as a protective waster (so that I didn’t chisel up into the floor), and used the 3/8 chisel to slot the last hole in the slat to align with the hole in the floor.

Once the waster shim was out, and all of the bolts were in and tightened down, I repositioned the cradle and floor assembly back centered over the saw horses. This time I drilled and screwed up thru the bottoms of the boards (that are attached on tops of the folding steel horses) and into the bottoms of the main frame rails of the cradle. These screws are important to keep the whole deal from sliding off of the horses while I push and shove during the build.

Here is a shot looking up thru the cradle at the bolts holding the floor to it.


So installing four little bolts that should have been a slam dunk took a couple of hours.

Next I made these little temporary clamp blocks and screwed them to the side of the floor to help align and clamp the street side wall into position and hold it while installing the screws up thru the bottom of the floor.




The ones at the front and rear are close to the ends of the wall so that a std. quick clamp can reach. The one in the middle is strategically place towards the rear of the door opening, for the same reason.

A bit obsessive, I wrapped 3 more small blocks in rosin paper to go between the clamps and the finished inside of the wall.

I need to get an earlier start tomorrow!

[GPW]

Getting to the exciting part ...

Cheeze Whiz... Wonder who started that idea... Having developed a taste for Philly Cheesesteaks back in the late 60’s when I was stationed at Willow Grove NAS , we seem to prefer a good Mozzarella or mild cheddar ... Likely the Cheeze Whiz was “cheaper” to use , resulting in more profit ... certainly Not my favorite !!! ... Lots of oil and salt ... Being from the South and not a connoisseur of cheese steaks , I always liked a little sweet relish on mine too ... Just to balance the onions ...

Around here Whiz, has another connotation ... so just the name alone is somewhat unappetizing ...

[kudzu]

Poor KC! Hope things go more according to plan today.

[bonnie]

Love watching your build. It is the problem solving that always has my head nodding. Great work.

[KCStudly]

Bonnie, I have always tried to show all of the details, including the tribulations. I have always felt that it is more helpful to do this, and your comments reinforce that. Thank you.

Poor KC!

"Sarcasm?" - Dr. Sheldon Cooper. I don't know. I managed to take it easy most of the day and did work my way though it, so I guess I don't feel too pitiful. If anything, I feel guilty.

Geep, Yeah, I didn't say that I was a big fan of the Whiz, but I didn't want to offend anyone by saying that I think I like D'Angelo's No. 9 pocket or steak bomb better (sacrilege, I know). It was tasty, I must admit, but I prefer my steak to have a little crispy grill "golden brown and delicious" on it. The flavor was there, but this one was swamped with cheese, kind of the consistency of a sloppy Joe mix. Different strokes for different folks; the service was extremely friendly, tho.

[KCStudly]

Okay, this is starting to get serious now! Here we go.

First thing was to relocate two of the three temporary blocks that I attached yesterday. I had only worried about where the blocks were in relation to the wall, and had paid no attention to where the temporary screws landed. Well, on the ride home it occurred to me that they may have run thru the vertical screw holes that I had predrilled up thru the edges of the floor that will be used to attach the wall to the floor. Sure enough, two of the temp screws went right thru the other holes.

Then Karl helped me dry fitting the street side wall up into exact position. We clamped it to the temporary blocks and I pilot drilled the mounting screw holes, templating up thru the holes that I had previously countersunk into the underside of the floor.



The drill bit that was the correct size for piloting the screws was not long enough to reach the full length of the screws, so I will have to finish drilling these prior to gluing and final installation.

Next I knocked out this quick little temporary angle bracket from scraps (and sanded the edges over to take the “sharpness” off of them).



I clamped it up at the top front of the bulkhead dado to secure the bulkhead during test fitting and, later, during final glue up.



Note that it is wrapped in rosin paper under the clamp to help protect the finish. Also, in this pic it is flush with the dado; it ended up having to be repositioned to account for the rabbet on the front side of the bulkhead equal to the bulkhead front skin thickness.

And here is the bulkhead dry fit and clamped into position.


Also note that, with the wall and bulkhead in place I was able to determine the limits of the masking needed to put rosin paper down on the floor of the cabin and galley.

Next I made several measurements and carefully positioned this little temporary block to hold the bulkhead perpendicular to the wall; checked the distances from both front sides to the front of the floor, and again from both rear sides to the rear of the floor.


Then I sank a couple of drywall screws thru it down into the edge of the floor (where the holes will be hidden by the curb side wall).


A gratuitous profile shot.

(Note the horizontal lines of spackle fairing in the factory score lines in the foam.)

Some lessons learned handling the rosin paper:
It is easier to get a good clean tape edge by applying a border of tape on the thing to be masked first. Taping the paper to the taped edge goes much easier without having to worry as much about accuracy. However, the blue tape sticks to rosin paper well, but likes a good amount of contact with itself to stick down, so it is better not to overlap the rosin paper to the border tape by very much at all. Using "1 inch wide" tape, I shoot for about 1/4 inch on the paper and the rest on the border tape.

I don’t have my work scissors at Mecca, so I have been cutting the rosin paper either with the cheap little utility knife or the straight edged steak knife. It turns out to be much quicker than scissors.

To get a nice clean square edge I position the edge of the roll where I want it to begin, roll it out and make a pencil mark where I want to cut it. Then I fold the paper back on itself at the mark to get a square crease.


Next I run something hard along the crease to make it crisp; a little block of wood, or in this case a little scrap of aluminum angle stock.


Then I slit the paper using the long slender blade of the steak knife in a slicing action while holding both leaves of the paper firmly taught.


And here you go, all taped down ready for a piece of scrap plywood to lay on top so that I can walk all over it while building out the cabinets and doing the wiring.

[GPW]

Really looking SUPER KC!!!!!!!!!

[bonnie]

That is tremendous! Walls up. Nice size on the galley.

[KCStudly]

Thank you.

[kudzu]

Poor KC!

"Sarcasm?" - Dr. Sheldon Cooper.

No, an expression of genuine sympathy. - Dr Amy Farrah Fowler-ish That sounded like a really frustrating day to me. Looks like yesterday more than made up for it.

That looks totally awesome!

[KCStudly]

Thank you Kudzu. I appreciate your sincerity!

Okay, some of these pics are going to look the same, but that is a good thing and the whole purpose for the dry fit up!

Dave Z. had brought the powder coated aluminum angle rear floor edge trim into work with him and left it for me outside of my office. I had to run down that way later in the afternoon so it worked out good for me, despite having to “sneak” into work during my vacation after hours (closer for me than picking it up at his shop/house).

It looked pretty good, not show quality, with a big bulbous drip at one end (obviously hung from one end during curing), but I got what I paid for and the ends will be buried under the walls, so all is good. I just sanded the inside edge and end of the angle to smooth the bulge off and all was good.

I broke down the dry fit, laying the street side wall down to chisel this little notch to clear the slightly high wear edge.


Next I fit the rear wear edge (dry fit again), drilled and screwed it off. Then I masked it off, removed it, laid on the gutter sealant and reinstalled.


Cleanup is with mineral spirits and the powder coating was not phased by it; rubbed all of the extrusion away with a Scott rag damped with spirits.

Next I drilled the pilot holes in the bottom of the wall to full depth, then laid out and drilled thru the bulkhead dado for the screws that would come in thru the outside of the wall into the bulkhead.


Six inches from the bottom and then 8 inches on center.


The first one went thru the fender blocking and will take a 3 inch long coated deck screw; the others only went thru the inner bulkhead blocking and foam, and will get 2-1/2 inch long screws buried under some GS or spackle.

I had to chase all of the holes in the floor out again for the 3 inch deck screws that will hold the walls to the floor, and I scuffed the area between the masking tape and edge of the floor with the small sanding block to knock down any raised stuff from the drilling, and to rough up the areas where the poly and stain under lap the wall.

Then things started getting serious and I took less pictures.

Karl got a new (to him) p/u truck and I helped him install the draw bar hitch that he had ordered. Then he came up and helped me place the street side wall onto the two beads of PL that I had laid down.

I busied myself driving the 3 inch coated deck screws up thru the bottom as Karl handed them to me, then went around wiping the excess glue. Snugged up the screws again by hand just to make sure that they were driven well, but not stripping them out in the soft cedar.

Then there was a round of wiping excess glue and poking up thru the foot light wire passage to make sure that it did not get blocked with glue (I got some glue on the probe wire, so let's cross our fingers )

I asked Karl’s advice on how we could lay the glue for the bulkhead, still reach out to set it (with our bad backs) without getting glue all over our hands (and subsequently the nice parts) while leaning over the edge of the floor and still getting the bulkhead in the proper location. He suggested laying the glue on the floor for the bottom joint, turning the bulkhead street side up, and laying the glue along that edge for the wall joint. We discussed how the rosin paper is relatively thin (cheap big box store stuff), so it would not be okay to slide the bulkhead into position over that, but then we collaborated on the idea to place some slider pieces of wood that would help us place the bulkhead, slide and tip it onto the glue. Here they are taped into position so that they would not slide with the bulkhead under friction.

We set the bulkhead up on these close to position, which allowed us to concentrate on placement without fatigue, then we slide it off of the sliders and onto the glue line on the floor and against the temporary blocks, then it was just a nudge into the street side dado to seat it and the glue along that edge.

After setting the bulkhead and getting it clamped softly in place, I drove the screws thru the wall into the bulkhead, working up from the bottom first; then drove the three Kregg screws across the bottom of the bulkhead down into the cross member in the floor, working from the street side toward the curb side. This seemed to be the best order that would draw everything in to square. As usual, the Kregg screws seemed to pull out of line just as they pulled up tight; a side effect of the angled pocket and clearance between the screw and pilot hole.

After getting the bulkhead locked down I did another round of cleaning out the squeezed out glue while Karl took some pictures. Since I could not reach, I had to climb up onto the floor using the ladder (once the curb side wall is on we will lower the whole thing down onto the folded horses for easier access).




Man I am tired after all of this hard work and adrenaline!

(…and I look much fatter in the pics than I do in the mirror! )

After cleaning up my work area, putting all of the tools away in their proper places, and sitting down with a bottle of water, I found comfort in the work that we had done and beauty in the majesty of it all (if I may be so presumptuous ).




Even though the pics look similar to before, the feeling is way different. Milestone achieved!

Tomorrow is vacation time off, so on Friday I need to get the curb side doorway rounded over; get the wall dry fit; pilot drilled; pulled down; finish the pilot holes in the wall and bulkhead; and get that sucker glued and screwed in order to meet my short term goal prior to proper vacation.

[bonnie]

Oh man! That is super!

[KCStudly]

Thank you, Bonnie.

[RandyG]

This is getting exciting!
I'm sorry but I thought it would be funny (like a "all you can do is laugh at yourself" kind of funny) if there wasn't a door big enough in the loft to get the shell outside after you put it all together. Sounds like something I would do, I always miss that one critical part of the plan. I know you wouldn't miss any details.
Looking good, keep it up.

[KCStudly]

Thank you, RandyG . I appreciate your encouraging words!