Milling wall edges

[carl9son]

First post here! I've been watching a build journal on YouTube (link below) and have a question about wall construction. The guy built his walls so they overhang the trailer frame. I like the way that looks, but I'm confused about his method. If you look at videos 9-11 in his build playlist, you'll see that he created full radius sandwich-style walls, then he milled out a portion around the edge to create the overlap. I'm wondering if there's an advantage to doing that instead of simply cutting the inner wall sections on a smaller radius than the outer wall from the start.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 3TiJ9CuETJ

[carl9son]

Also, I just checked his build blog for those days, which is written in Lithuanian. Google translate seems to imply he believes milling provides superior stability. I know literally nothing about this topic.

[KCStudly]

I didn't watch the video, but it is probably just a matter of ease and accuracy. Making two perfect cuts and then attempting to get them to line up perfectly during glue up is much harder than making one good cut, gluing up, then letting the router bearing or collar follow the good edge, or a straight edge or template.

Often it is more accurate to reference one piece off of the other once they are solidly attached to each other, than it is to marry them after.

[RAB64]

I am building my Teardrop using steve Frederick's plans and he hides his trailer with the side panels as well. Check out his page at http://www.campingclassics.com/

[daveesl77]

When I cut my plywood pieces for my side walls, interior and exterior, I made a cardboard template. I then transferred this to the plywood (5mm) for the basic shape. I set a few finishing nails and then took a couple of sticks of thin cedar I had stripped and created the curves that both fit the basic design I wanted and worked well for the cedar. I drew this out on the main boards, it takes 3 pieces to do mine as it is 5x10. I then clamped all 4 piece of each of the 3 sections together and cut all 4 at the same time. Thus, 3 cuts gave me the semi-finished cuts for all 4 sides of both walls.

Once I finished laminating my framing members and foam to the plywood all I had to do was take my trim router and bring the frame down to the actual size of the plywood that was cut. When all done (and this really surprised me) there was not one area of either wall that was off by a 1/16 inch over the opposite wall. I use everything I do to one wall and mirror it for the other wall. It is how I just did my cedar strips for the exterior finish.

So, in a nutshell, if you create 1 template you can fairly easily copy this to both sides by cutting them both at the same time. Whatever that template is, that is what you get and having identical sides will make the finishing part easier.

And by the way, I am a complete and total rookie at building tiny travel trailers, but I just look at them as little sailboats.
dave