my truck camper

[Philip]

Today I was back on the frame work.





I still need to add a little more cross bracing.

That old project might be gone on Wednesday. If it does then I'll be working every day on this project.

[alchemist77]

This is really coming along nicely. I like the model, it gives a great sense of perspective and physicality. Thank you for the pictures! It is much easier to comprehend what happens in each discussion. Any idea how much weight the holes save?

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[Philip]

Any idea how much weight the holes save?

I didn't save as much as you would think. About 1/2 pound a board so 2.5 lbs total. The cross bracing will bring the weight back up. So it was small trade off.

[Philip]

The old project is gone now. I did some cleaning and rearranged. A few days ago I threw in the cross bracing. Tomorrow I am heading down to the local lumber yard and pickup a bunch of plywood. That's going to hurt.

[Philip]

I picked up 10 sheets of 1/4" cabinet grade plywood and 2 sheets of 3/8" A/C ply.

I threw the 3/8" onto the frame. I used GG and 3/4" brads from my trim nailer to fasten it down. Then I grabbed the trim router and a flush cutting bit to remove the excess plywood.



Then when my son showed up we flipped it over for tomorrows follies.

[KCStudly]

Looking good!

[Philip]

Today I added some oak blocking to the inside of the frame work at the mounting points. Then I started to do some glass work. I am only running all the corners. Then I'll go back and fill in the fields after the corners are done.

[Philip]

Did more glass work today not quite half way done.

[Philip]

Started on more glass work. Ran out of 2" glass tape. I thought I had ordered two 15 yard rolls. Come to find out I had only ordered one. So had to reorder more. So it might be Monday before it shows up. Coming out of RI won't be fast I bet.

What work I did get done wasn't worth pic's today. Tomorrow guess I go to plan B once I figure out what that is going to be.

[Philip]

Plan B went into high gear. I started out with a run to the lumber yard to pick up some type of slick surface 4x8 sheet. Ended up with a 4x8 sheet of bath room masonite. This I will use as a cutting board for glass cloth. Here is a pic about half way threw getting the fields filled in on the glassed side.



Here the fields are filled ready for glass.



This is where I knocked off this evening. I'll finish off those small blocks tomorrow.

[Philip]

Back to glass work today. I finished off that half of the frame work.



I was surprised today. My order for the 2" glass tape showed up. I also had 10 yards of 50" glass with it.

Need to order more epoxy next week. Went threw about 1/2 gallon so far.

[KCStudly]

You're doing good work there, but I am wondering about the logic of glassing the inside of the panel. Wouldn't it make more sense to just seal and/or skin the outside?

[noseoil]

What KC said...

[Philip]

You're doing good work there, but I am wondering about the logic of glassing the inside of the panel. Wouldn't it make more sense to just seal and/or skin the outside?

What little glass work I have done over the years puts me into the rank ameture class. So I am using the inside of that frame as a practice section. There I can try different techniques to see which give me the best finish. There are going to be some big areas to glass on the outside. I don't want to spend weeks trying to sand out and patch up rough/bad glass work.

If my camera was good enough to take close up pic's I could show you the difference between the first panel and the last one I have done. There is a night and day difference between them. By the time I get that frame done. I will feel better about doing the outer walls.

[Philip]

I had my son come out with his camera and try some pic's.

This is the first panel I did. Its kind of hard to make out. Has to much epoxy. That panel would require a bunch of sanding before any more coats could be put down if it was an exterior panel.



This panel was about #7 or so. This panel would take about 1 minute or less with a D/A sander and its ready for another coat.



My first exterior panel is going to be 48x96 lay up. I would have been very depressed with the results of the first panel I did.

I do need the practice.