Wall weight

[mikeschn]

Well if anyone is wondering what that stick built wall really weighs, wonder no longer. I set it on the scale today. It weighs in at 36 lbs.

For comparison purposes, a 4x8 sheet of plywood, 3/4" thick weighs 75 lbs...

So I did the right thing!!!



Mike...

P.S. Oh, in case you are wondering, the door hasn't been trimed out yet, so that wood will get much thinner there. And that big wide piece in the back? Just because!!!

[mikeschn]

And for good measure I went out and weighed the floor assembly. I knew it would be the heaviest part of the teardrop body... sure is... it checks in at 93 lbs.

I also played around a little bit with the router, trying to learn from what Steve Fredrick did... I routed out the door...



Mike...

[beverlyt]

Mike,
Which trailer would be lighter? The one you have talked about that is welded, or a HF?

Bev

[mikeschn]

That's a real good question. The one I laid out using angle iron was 137 pounds, before adding the axle, wheels and coupler.

If I design a trailer out of 1/8" by 2" square tubing I would expect it to be in the ballpark of 200 pounds or so, before adding axle, wheels and coupler. But don't quote me on that, I have to lay it out first.

How much did the HF trailer weigh? All the weights above are for a 4x8. I haven't laid out the 5x8 trailer yet...

Mike...

[beverlyt]

Mike,
My HF trailer, 4'x8', 1800 pound capacity weighs 240 pounds.

Bev

[RC]

Hey Mike,
Isn't that wall going to weigh considerably more when you complete it? After all, aren't you going to be adding insulation and an inside skin? How much will it weigh then do you think? :

[asianflava]

Now take that side and glue insulation in the cavities then glue a top sheet to it. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Probably don't need to vacuum bag it weights and clamps will work well enough.

[tdthinker]

IT will add some weight but not much, insulation is really light people. The inner skin should add the most but not where it is going to hurt anything.

[mikeschn]

I haven't decided if I am going to do it DANL's way, and leave the interior skins off so that I can do some experimenting. The down side to that is that I won't be able to get the skins on in 1 piece.

As for the weight, I figure 8 ounces of insulation, and 9 1/2 lbs for the interior skin. Total estimated weight 46 lbs.

Mike...

[robert]

What if you cut the frameing out of 1/2 plywood instead of 3/4 wood. Rip the plywood to 2" you can get 184 lin ft. of strips at a cost of about
$ 18.00 You could build the walls with 1/8 ply, 1/2' plywood ribs & foam,1/8 paneling. It would lower cost and weight but add time.
Robert

[mikeschn]

I tried to stay away from plywood for the framing because I wanted to use polystyrene insulation. Plywood, as you know, is about 1/32" smaller than the stated size. Polystyrene insulation is not. And I don't have a 20 ton press to press the polystyrene 1/32" smaller to fit into plywood framing.

That's why I used pine, and labored, and labored and labored...

Mike...

P.S. I could have tried to compress beadboard insulation into the 1/2" plywood sides, like I did on my first teardrop, but I wanted the higher R values of polystyrene

[R Keller]

Mike,

You could vacuum bag it!

Or if you're using extruded (not expanded or "beadboard") polystyrene like Dow Styrofoam or Owens-Corning Foamular you could sand the insulation. That's what I did to give more "tooth" to the epoxy adhesive. But sometimes I had to sand a little more if the lumber I bought wasn't quite right on measurement...

I made a long board sander by glue-gunning a sanding belt onto a board and then went at it. Makes some dust but goes pretty quickly... You could start with a random orbital sander (80 grit works well) and then finish with the long board.

You should see the sanding/shaping that people are doing to their Styrofoam for homebuilt hovercraft! Now that's some dust.

Rik

[Larry Messaros]

I haven't decided if I am going to do it DANL's way, and leave the interior skins off so that I can do some experimenting. The down side to that is that I won't be able to get the skins on in 1 piece.

Mike...

Mike, I take it that from this comment that the plywood that you have on your side wall is the exterior. Why don't you start with the interior plywood first, then assemble the pieces, wire it, insulate it, then put on the exterior plywood?