the jelly belly build

[Mary K]

Del,
I can not wait to see the Jelly Belly Finished. The construction part is confusing as hell but, it looks like you know what you are doing.

Keep us posted.

Mk

[del]

MK
The part of me that does know what he is doing, left today. Should we say today was challenging. Or did I ever know what I was doing (chances are not). I only hope mine turns out half as nice as yours.

Fridays progress;
Longer tongue.


Todays progress;
Put up the right nose piece.

If one looks at the line it creates at the front, one would see it makes a wavy line (the trailer is tilted, so the door is a poor reference). Any ideas how to make a strait line that I can trim to?

del

[Miriam C.]

Well I tried to take your picture and put an arrow in it. Failed miserably.

Would it work to use a curved piece like your framing? Thats all I can think of.

[Duane King]

It looks to me in your photograph that what you need is a horizontal and vertical axis to measure from. This would be the best way to establish the line you are interested in.

How about if you use the centerline of the trailer frame for your horizontal axis. You could attach a board temporarily down the center of the trailer and draw a line in the exact center. Then you have to measure from this line to check if everything is where it needs to be.

Now for the vertical axis you can make a giant 90 degree triangle as tall as the inside of your trailer. Make it out of 1 x 4. If you set this triangle along the horizontal axis and stand it up in the bow of the trailer, this will give you the vertical axis you need to solve the problem you are having. Brace this giant triangle so that it is firmly fixed and dependable as a measuring point.

With the vertical axis as a reference, you should be able to lay out both the right and left side so that they match. It appears you are building those front two bow walls in place. So just take whatever you have done on the right and copy it on the left. You should be able to transfer the centerline of the trailer onto the front walls with string. Mark a series of dots and then cut along the dots.

Hope this helps. And more importantly, I hope I have not misunderstood your question. That is exactly the kind of thing I am famous for. Good luck, If this explanation is too vague, I can try and draw a picture of what I am suggesting.

[asianflava]

You can shoot a laser on it and trace out the line it makes.

[glassice]

If you have a over head projector you can trace the out line that how we do air bushing

[del]

Todays progress;

Fixing the wavy line requires working with a piece that is secure, so I am slowly fiberglassing it in. Then I will trim the nose skin. An overhead would work, only I have no idea where to borrow one. A laser sounds promising, I think my aunt has one. If not I will have to find a picture of what Duane was talking about.

While waiting for the fiberglass to set up (right up there with watching paint dry) I surgically added a cross member to hold up the front of the now narrower springs (where their mounted, I did not cut the spring).

The cross member is 2 x 3 x 3/16. The harbor freight springs are wider than dexter intended, so the solution was use the h.f. top plates.

del

[angib]

How about:

Take something flat (eg, a door) and set it up on the centreline of the trailer/tongue, with all its width on the other side from your existing front panel.

If the tongue is a bit wobbly (shouldn't be), you might need to brace it temporarily (and permanently, afterwards!).

You may get the base of the door to fit on the tongue but you won't be able to get it vertical because it's hitting the edge of that front panel - where it hits, trim the panel away. When it sits against the edge of the front panel all the way up, you're done.

You might want to set up a stop running forward from the roof that makes sure you can't swing that door further in than the centreline.

This would take some time to do, and you might have to keep going back to trim the bottom, but the set-up time is only minutes.

Andrew

[del]

Andrew
The tongue is wobbly, and I will fix that. But my problem was the nose panel was only hooked in two places (top and bottom) and I wanted it hooked better than that when I marked and cut it. Your idea worked, c-clamped two strait boards down the center, and used another strait board (no door) to mark the skin. It now appears to be strait, thanks.


Progress;
trimmed the nose piece. and added the third spar. Waiting till I have jacks to fix the rear cross member, want to make the spring mounts and the jacks work on it (it should be fine pushing around the yard). A note from a past post when I lowered the fenders, the new axle has spring perches and is larger (same width at hubs) raising the trailer one inch. should not bottom out on my fenders.

del

[del]

slow progress;

Been side tracked lately.

Cut most of this (censured) tree down two weeks ago. The clean up is taking longer than I hoped. The roots at the bottom belong to an ivy plant that went twenty feet up the tree.
Spent ten minutes here and there, usually gaining one board, on the build. Today I put on some fiberglass in the nose area, getting ready to put the other skin on.

so long for now
del

[del]

Progress;
Put the other nose skin on. That became a challenge, the trailer fell off the jack stand while I was under it, no problem though, only thing was the jack stand hit my head (good thing, where theres no sense theres no feeling). Glued and stapled the skin on, then I got out the cutter and my R.P.G.s (B.C.s).

Safety first. I then trimmed and started to fiberglass the piece in (look in gallery).

del

[toypusher]

................Glued and stapled the skin on, then I got out the cutter and my R.P.G.s (B.C.s)...........................l

I first thought that you were talking about your head!!! Seems to be shaping up real nice, Del.

[del]

Progress;

Added diagonal braces to the tongue, need to work on it further. The tongue twists when you put the jack down, the brace improved it, just not enough. Also trimmed the second nose skin.

del

[Mary K]

COOL!!!! Now its starting to make sense to me!!

I think you deserve a little Dance!!



Mk

[del]

Progress;

Worked on the tongue, could twist it an eighth of a turn by using the jack. A note I put a three foot extension on it. I added "A" braces earlier, which helped, but not enough. Added a cross member, that helped a lot.

Is this where I start to measure for tongue strength? Because the tongue is now so long I added another brace (have no idea what it is called, just seen them on other trailers).


If I understand this right when the weight of the trailer pushes down, it tries to stretch the steel, in affect strengthening the tongue without putting a heavier tongue on it.
Now an engineer can step in and laugh at my work.
Mary K I will let you dance, two years ago I broke my leg playing eight ball (pool), so if you do not mind I will sit this one out.
del