CNC Build: The Bed and Breakfast at 4 years and 40,000 miles

[capnTelescope]

I posted pictures of my round-to-square fiberglass intake build...

Nice job!. I have an eddy at the outlet of my inlet. Dust wants to blow back out the inlet. I think it's because my round-to-rectangle transition is shorter than yours. I'll post something on that one day.

[capnTelescope]

I've been busy, and I'm about 4 posts behind. Sorry for keeping everyone on pins and needles. Today is catchup day.

Router Bit Dies in Collision
5/11/14
A popular Bosch downcut router bit was killed today in a collision with a clamping knob. The bit was travelling at a high rate of speed at was thought to be a safe altitude when it collided with the knob. The bit was pronounced dead at the scene. The clamping knob suffered debilitating injuries. It was treated at the scene of the accident and assigned to light duty. This same knob had been in a similar accident earlier this year, and may have contributed to the accident.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident. Sources close to the investigation said alcohol was not involved, but they suspect the knob is jinxed.

Another one bites the dust.

[capnTelescope]

5/11
Here's the real scoop on what happened:

You may remember this early attempt at a corner piece for the hatch rain gutter:


Now that I have an ample supply of 1/8 aluminum sheet and some experience in cutting it on the CNC, I wanted to build up a corner piece with some nice radius bends. Simple plan: cut out a base and side pieces, bend the radius, epoxy/weld/staple together, done.

To make the bend, I built this setup:


The tool collision happened while building the plywood bending dies. Bad clamp placement, period. (Keep in mind the new meaning of "period" in this context.)

The result looks pretty good to me:



Stay tuned, there's more!

[Starseeker]

Router Bit Dies in Collision
5/11/14
A popular Bosch downcut router bit was killed today in a collision with a clamping knob. The bit was travelling at a high rate of speed at was thought to be a safe altitude when it collided with the knob. The bit was pronounced dead at the scene. The clamping knob suffered debilitating injuries. It was treated at the scene of the accident and assigned to light duty. This same knob had been in a similar accident earlier this year, and may have contributed to the accident.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident. Sources close to the investigation said alcohol was not involved, but they suspect the knob is jinxed.

Another one bites the dust.

R.I.P. Mr. Bit
Mr. Knob we got our eyes on you

[capnTelescope]

Somewhere in all this excitement, my faithful Nikon Coolpix L14 started acting up, threatening to not work. It's 6-1/2 years old, spent many a weekend in the CA desert, and took well over 3000 pictures. Time to retire. I now have a Coolpix L620. The camera went from 7 to 18 megapixels, and 3x to 14x zoom, plus all the other numerous improvements that 6 years of techno-toy progress brings, for about the same price. Hooray for Moore's Law!

I'm going to work on putting the pix on PhotoBucket at full resolution, while keeping to the 640 x 480 pixel format for the bandwidth-challenged.

Speaking of pictures from the new camera, here's the front bulkhead/headboard that I got around to. It's HD 1/2" Sande-ply with knotty pine wainscoting applied. Thanks to OldRagBaggers for the idea.


It creates a space at the front for wiring, air conditioner ducting, and whatever else.



Still more to come! stay tuned.

[capnTelescope]

Saving the best for last, I devoted some of last week and Monday-Tuesday this week to construction of the trailer chassis. I took a few cues from everyone here, and things went relatively smoothly. Couldn't have done it without TnTTT-ers and Techshop's equipment.

Fit, clamp, tack, repeat, weld, weld, weld, repeat. First tack up:

I spent far more time fitting and clamping than I did welding. Each set of pieces presented a new clamping challenge. By the time I got it down for a part, the part would run out and on to the next clamping challenge.

It took 4 repositions: bottom side up, down, up again, and finally down on its own 2 feet. The first one was me by my lonesome (one piece at a time), second was a two-man job, and 3 & 4 took four of us. The first two included all the welding. The third position was mounting the suspension, brakes, tires, all the bolt-on stuff. The fourth to get the frame off the workbench, onto the floor and turn the chassis right side up. This puppy weighs around 4 hundred pounds.

Bottom side done:



Standing on its own two feet:


The tongue is most likely over long. Once I build the tongue box, add a spare tire and see how the tongue jack fits in, I'll probably hack a chunk off later.

Hooked up and ready to go home:

This is about 11PM. A long day.

Besides everything else to do, the tires need balancing. If it got much over 40, it started bouncing and shaking the truck. I was too tired to drive any faster.

Here's a couple of shots of the TechShop metal shop:


I wasn't off that workbench for ten minutes and it's already busy.

[KCStudly]

Looking good!

[capnTelescope]

Mr. Knob we got our eyes on you

So now that I have a trailer frame, I'm all excited to actually assemble this thing. Then I said to myself, "Self, you better paint it first. and there's that little matter of some welding left to do. I didn't feel like welding today, but I did feel like painting before rust starts setting in. So I went to the garage and drug out the Earlex, which I haven't used since the last time I used it. About 4-5 years ago. Fortunately I did a pretty good job of cleaning it up then, so it still worked. Just to make sure, I filled the cup with paint thinner and used it to clean the oils off the steel. Then off to HoDePo to get me some of them Rustoleum goodies. There was the good ol' red oxide primer, which recommended itself for badly rusted stuff, which my frame isn't. Then there was this white primer, which said it was good for clean unrusty metal. I was not aware of this product's existence. What the heck? Got it anyway.

Masked off a few spots, like where I need to weld later, and got with it. Before long, it looked like this:



I got my fenders out and did them too:

I wasn't real happy with the job on the underside of the frame. I didn't want to lay down on the ground and spray upward. And I didn't want to tempt fate and maybe lie down in a bunch of fire ants. So I propped up the front end so I could get partly under with out laying flat. Everything went fine, even though it looked like I was being a danger to myself and others.

I think I'll go get the welding finished tomorrow. It's a hitch receiver for bike racks, etc., and some mounting lugs for fenders.

EDIT:
(sour grapes)
As of Feb 18, 2018, I'm beginning to move my pictures from Photobucket to the Forum galleries. $400/year for 3rd party hosting at PB is not in the cards for me. It was nice while it lasted. The rest of the original post no longer applies (except the beer).

BTW, any complaints about the larger pix? Too much for your 56K modem? Too easy to see? I'm just wasting pixels and it'll destroy the planet?

Also, You're supposed to be able to click on the pic and go to PhotoBucket, where supposedly you can download the full resolution pic. Not that either of these pix would be worth the effort. Could one of you brave souls please try that and report back?
(/sour grapes)

Stay tuned!

[AlgoDan]

Looking good Brad, can smell the campfire from here.

[KCStudly]

Looking good.

Clicky on the images does take me to FB, and clicky on the "Upload" button took me to the sign up page. I'm not a FB user, so I did not sign up, but it seems to be working from my end.

I like the size of the pic's just fine.

[capnTelescope]

Looking good Brad, can smell the campfire from here.

and

Looking good.

Thanks, guys. I'm starting to get a whiff of it myself!

... and clicky on the "Upload" button took me to the sign up page.

Well no wonder! Try clicky on the DOWNload link and you might get better results. Don't feel bad, it took me a while to find it. It's off to the right of the picture. Thanks for trying.

(rant) I wisht the forum would go to a larger pic format. The days of 640 x 480 photos are long gone. It's an extra PITA to downsize pix for the forum, and I ain't setting my camera to low res. OTOH, it's certainly a cost of bandwidth thing, and I'm not in the loop on that subject.(/rant)

[KCStudly]

Try clicky on the DOWNload link and you might get better results.

Yeah, that works.

[capnTelescope]

Yeah, that works.

Nothing succeeds like success!

[aggie79]

With all of your recent progress it is time to sign up for the LCG IX gathering this October.

[capnTelescope]

...it is time to sign up for the LCG IX gathering this October.

Done. Space 39. RandyG is going, too.

I got a few smaller things done since the last post, but weather hasn't permitted any assembly.

I got the trailer back to TechShop for some more work. I missed a weld before, and took care of that. I also welded on some caps over open tubing ends and welded on some cleats for mounting the fenders later on. And did a bunch of grinding on welds.

While I was hooking up the trailer to take it over there, I had the opportunity to see things from the side:

I've been stressing all along that the trailer wouldn't be tall enough for the TV. My Tacoma TRD has more ground clearance than most, and it's 20" from ground to the top of the ball. I had this vision of needing a drop hitch with a lonnnng drop. As it turns out, I've got the opposite problem. The front is low when hooked up. As it sits, the tongue jack just reached the ground, and the Atwood levelers in back come up short, so things won't get level. I know the tires are over inflated, and there's some weight to be added in the back, but I might have to go from 15" to 14" wheels. I can turn the ball over on the hitch and get 2-1/2" of up at the front. That's free, and will probably get the trailer level when hooked up.

Anybody got any bright ideas on this one? Has anyone "extended" the Atwood leveler jacks?

You can't mount the floor on the trailer until you undercoat. I wanted to try the asphalt fence post paint for my undercoat. Unfortunately, they don't sell that at the big boxes here in the Big City. I'd never been to Tractor Supply, but the name suggests they'd have fencepost stuff. The nearest one is 2 towns over, which made for a pleasant Saturday afternoon drive. Score! $15 a gallon. Lots of other cool stuff you don't usually see in the store. The first question they ask you at checkout is "Are you tax exempt?" I told him "No, they tax me every which way they can." He didn't even blink. I wonder how many times he's heard that one? It was a fun trip. Maybe I'm just easily entertained.

Besides the undercoat, I didn't want to mount the floor before I got the trailer painted. So I threatened to paint the trailer. Soon as I did that, it threatened to rain. I called time out after it spit a few raindrops but before I actually sprayed anything. There was a little shower, just enough to cover the ground. I decided to watch the weather for a while and not paint. Later that afternoon, I decided the weather didn't look too bad, and got 'er done. Within an hour, it rained again, just like before. The wet paint got wet, but no harm done, I think. Total precip, according to the rain gage: 0.02" It's dry and we needed the rain, Is outdoor painting some kind of rain dance?

Yesterday, it really rained. I couldn't hardly wade out to the shop most of the day. I did get started on a mini project that I finished today. I'm going to install the A/C in front, with the unit mostly in the tongue box. The "indoor" part of the a/c will be in the space behind the front bulkhead/headboard. Cold air out at the top and return air in at the bottom. I have been on a futile search for a grille for the return air. Enough was enough, and I decided to build a pair. It's easy enough in theory. You just cut some thin slats, groove some side pieces for the slats, and put a frame around the whole thing.

A lovely pile of oak slats:

stained:

Two pairs of side pieces:

semi-assembled:

Assembled:


Here's how it'll look when installed:


I think I spent more time looking than I spent making these. All scrap material = $0.00 plus glue, stain & varnish.

Stay tuned!