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

[KCStudly]

I think siding brakes are much longer and typically will do thin material, such as yours. If the sign shop thing doesn't pan out, maybe try siding contractors.

[KCStudly]

Hey, check it out, Mike had grilled pizza and smoked pulled pork!!!

Sorry, couldn't help myself. A food porn endorsement by our (bow down and place forehead to ground) TNTTT founder has me feeling pretty righteous!

I'll stop now.

[capnTelescope]

KC, you are bad to the bone! (Pun not entirely unintended.)

[capnTelescope]

It's been a while since I posted. Life got in the way of fun, plus I caused myself some problems on the build that I had to work around. Then I gave my left index finger a mighty whack so it was unbearably painful to type. It's been so long since I posted, I had to go back and read my last post to find out where I was. I was getting ready to skin the roof and hatch, by the way.

While I was busy with the other so-called "important" stuff, I kept picking away at the build, but nothing spectacular. Until you look at the pile of pix and have to write it all up. So, here goes:

Last time, I was needing some nice bends in my roofing sheets. A company not far from the house named "Custom Sheet Metal" filled the bill perfectly. With a name like that, it had to work. Trading some bucks for some bends and shear cuts got me back on track.

The roof skin is three pieces. I like to call them the "front", "middle" and "back". The front goes in the front, and so on. Pretty cool system, isn't it? The front piece is the one I bent with the 2x4's. It got to go first:

Tuck the bend under the floor with plenty of sealant:


The rear piece has a bend that acts as flashing into the top gutter:

The middle piece connects the front and back with EHB (Extra High Bond) tape:

Word to the wise... If you're going to use EHB tape, clean the metal surfaces with acetone/lacquer thinner/mineral spirits to degrease before you tape.

Stick everyone together, strap 'em down...


Add cauls as required...

... and let everone get acquainted.

Why did I mention cleaning before taping? I didn't do it, and the front joint failed shortly after removing the straps.

I pondered that situation, cleaned up the mating surfaces, pre-bent the front piece a little and tried again. This worked better, but there was still a pretty large gap at the front of the middle piece that did not pass inspection.

Third time's the charm... I said to "heck" with the high tech adhesive tape, I'm gonna rivet the damn thing. So I did:

Note the tab in the foreground.

The other reason the second try failed inspection was that there was unacceptable slack in the front skin piece. I had to ponder the solution for this, and came up with the idea to EHB the tab to the front piece, hook onto the tab with a ratchet strap, and pull hard. This time, the EHB worked as expected of high tech stuff, and the riveting went swimmingly. A plastic chisel from Harbor Fright made short work of the three tabs, and I'm in high cotton. If this fails, I'll go find the 60" wide stuff on a roll and do over like I should have done it in the first place.

At this point, I wanted to put on the corner molding and be done so bad I could almost taste it.

But, like me, you'll have to wait until I finish the next step before that. It's coming right up. Don't go away, the next post is coming in a few minutes.

[capnTelescope]

OK, break's over, everyone back on their heads.

As I was saying, there was another step before I could take the final step to finish the roof skinning.

It seems that I have a problem following directions sometimes. After Tony.Latham took the time to 'splain skin floating to me, I went ahead anyway and stapled down the left side skin as if it were going to try to escape. I thought I was working close enough to the top edge that the corner molding would cover up. But nooooo, not even close. This wasn't going to look good at all, but I didn't want to get another $75 sheet of Al and start over. LCG IX is coming up in a month. It's crunch time.

Here's a typical staple divot. Multiply this by an embarassingly high number:

... and to my eye, they look that big and that ugly. Ewwwww! Oh, and I did it around the door too. As if this weren't enough ugly for one wall, there's about an inch at the aft end that isn't covered where I had to build up to match the hatch.

Remember that wall skin I messed up on the CNC? It's about to become useful. I cut a trim strip from it on the CNC, and whaddaya know? It fit the wall profile nicely! On the back end, I added an inch to trim by hand later. Goo and clamp.

From the other side:


Around the door, too:

It almost looks like it was planned that way.

I let the goo cure a while and took care of some minor Bravo Sierra. Came back later and trimmed the fantail and it's Molding Time. Woohoo!

It looks good from this angle. It doesn't show until you get up close.


So the cabin is officially skinned. The hatch gets it next.

Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned.

[jeporter25]

Turning mistakes into "design elements" is a sign of a true craftsman. Great solution!

[aggie79]

Excellent recovery Captain!

I don't here many folks saying it, but if you have an aluminum clad teardrop, I found installing the aluminum and trim to be the hardest and most time consuming phase of construction.

We'll touch base at LCG.

Take care,
Tom

[KCStudly]

Well played. It does look like you planned it, and adds a little "texture" or shadow line, making your build unique.

[capnTelescope]

Turning mistakes into "design elements" is a sign of a true craftsman. Great solution!

Thanks JE. Welcome to my humble thread. I was always told to do it perfectly or paint it red. (Why do I get the feeling that I've said that several times already? ) I used up the first quart of red and went back for a gallon.

BTW, no post on your build since July? You're losing momentum.

and...

Excellent recovery Captain!

and...

Well played. It does look like you planned it, and adds a little "texture" or shadow line, making your build unique.

Thanks, guys. Paint it red, etc.

I don't here many folks saying it, but if you have an aluminum clad teardrop, I found installing the aluminum and trim to be the hardest and most time consuming phase of construction.

Amen to that. This seemed to take forever. My hatch design added a lot of extra work to the process, too. If I build another one someday, I'll be able to simplify that considerably.

We'll touch base at LCG.

I'm really looking forward to meeting you & Linda, and getting to see the Silver Beatle.

Thanks again, all, for the kind words.

[jeporter25]

BTW, no post on your build since July? You're losing momentum

Nope I have just been too busy camping in it to post. I know bad me.

[capnTelescope]

I have just been too busy camping in it to post.

That's the best excuse there is. In that case, keep camping guilt-free.

[tony.latham]

Hey! Bro!

I LIKE the looks of your edge-job fix. You may be starting a fad.

Tony

[capnTelescope]

Hey! Bro!

I LIKE the looks of your edge-job fix. You may be starting a fad.

Tony

Hey back, Bro. Thank you. Thankyouverymuch. I always wanted to be a trendsetter.

[GuyllFyre]

Very nice progress!

[capnTelescope]

With the roof out of the way, I could move on to skinning the hatch. This was much more straightforward than the roof. The hatch skin is two pieces, an upper and a lower. Both pieces got bent at Custom Sheet Metal. The upper piece got a simple 90 bend along the top edge, and the lower piece got a hem, bend around the bottom hatch board and a transition angle to the hatch surface. Then I pre-bent a curve into both pieces.

Upper:

The 90 top bend is on the right. EHB tape goes along the bottom edge, shown here on the left.

Lower, drilled for screw holes and ready to goo:


The lower piece goes on first and gets screwed along the bottom edge:


The upper piece comes next. Gooed around the edges:


Top edge:


I couldn't contain myself... unclamped and peeled:


Now I can put the taillights back on and wire them up. Almost roadworthy.

While we're on the subject of hatches, I made (another) newbie design mistake. I have three hatch ribs, which means one is in the middle, right where I wanted to put my hatch latch-handle-turny thing. . I can move it off center, but still near the middle, or I can put it to one side nearer the edge. What does anyone think about any of this?