Building The Atma Travelear Teardrop

[DMcCam]

The wall interior skins are all glued up now. We used Titebond 2 on the passenger side wall and had to work fast to clamp it all down. On the driver's side we changed over to Titebond 3 which is supposed to have more working time. For some reason it was even worse! What a struggle!


Here's the detritus left over from the battle.


We decided to quickly clamp the walls into place to see how she's shaping up.


My brother the master cabinet maker and I are doing most of the work. Here he's getting an idea of the cabinet area. I think we'll be building all the cabinets outside the trailer then assembling most of the cabin at one time.


A view from the rear.

More to come soon.

Cheers,

Dave

[aggie79]

Dave,

Y'all (Texan for the plural form of "you") are really moving along on your build. The precision is amazing!

Regarding your glue comments, I used TB3 and was having trouble with it "flash setting" due to the dryness of the wood and plywood coupled with the summer heat. I found a technique somewhere on a woodworking site that worked well for me. It uses a two-stage glue-up. In the first step, both pieces are lightly coated with TB3 diluted approximately 10% with water. Then you come back with a fairly heavy coat of full strength TB3 on both pieces. You will get a lot of squeeze out and it can be messy. But on the structural portions of the build, the squeeze out is not that critical.

Take care,
Tom

[DMcCam]

Hi Tom, thanks for the kudo's and the TB3 tips, I wish we knew that before we tackled the inside skins. By the time we got to the last little 1/8" panel we had to use a wet rag to remove the glue as it had already set up. The moisture made the panel much easier to glue up after that. Our weather is getting hotter so your technique will come in very handy for sure.

We have a ton of sub assembly work now then we'll hopefully be able to make huge leaps.

Thanks again,

Dave

[DMcCam]

I've been worried about proceeding until we sealed the wood deck. Friday we sprayed on a two part urethane bed-liner.


First we turned the chassis on its edge.


Here we are almost finished.


We sprayed a nice heavy coat to make sure that the exposed wood is well protected.

Yesterday we put her back on the stands and are working on the cabinets.

Cheers,

Dave

[Rudyjr]

WOW! Go away for a week on vacation and you miss alot on this build. Looks great, Jim

[Rudyjr]

Anxiously awaiting more pictures and an update on this build!!

[DMcCam]

Sorry for the late updates, been sidetracked with work this week. We did get the bending form ready for the aft cabinet drawer faces last weekend though.


We started with 4 sheets of 1 1/8" plywood. Right after this shot I ran out of battery power. (I'll shoot more as soon as I can of the form and insert them)


Here's the form covered in clamps with our first go of bending the 4 sheets of 1/8" birch.


It looks like the top layer may have failed so we'll add a couple of extra sheets on top next time. We'll see once the clamps are removed.

Yesterday we finally put together the forward cabinet shelves. The 4 vertical curved supports were routed from the cnc pattern.


Here's the completed assembly face up ready for the face frame to come.




A couple of shots of the back side.


Here are a few shots where we test fit the frame. The walls and frame are being held in place with just 2 hand clamps.




A couple of shots looking from the outside in.

Once we have the face frame and cabinet doors done, we'll move on to the aft cabinet work.

Thanks for following the build,

Dave

[Dusty82]

I love it! Can't wait to see the face frame and doors. It's really coming together nicely!

[Rudyjr]

Nice! Amazing how perfectly everything fits up and aligns so precisely.

[DMcCam]

Thanks Dusty and Rudy! More to come soon.

Cheers,

Dave

[DMcCam]

Here are a few images of the bending form for my aft cabinets. My camera ran out of battery right before I cut the shapes on the band-saw then smoothed them using the vertical sander. My brother constructed the form with mostly plywood and my side shapes.


Here's the completed form standing on end.


This is what the underside looks like.


The first attempt was successful! We did have to soak the 4 sheets of 1/8" ply in hot water for 45 minutes then bent them around the form for a couple of days to dry before gluing them up.


Here's a side view; 2 more to go.

All the best,

Dave

[Cliffmeister2000]

Wow! That's a pretty radical bend! I can't wait to see it in action!

[Rudyjr]

Those cabinet doors will really be retro looking. This is a really cool build to follow. Keep up the good work, Jim

[DMcCam]

Wow! That's a pretty radical bend! I can't wait to see it in action!

Hi Cliff, yeah it's pretty tight, about 5". The first dry attempt snapped before it got even halfway around the form. I think the next bend will need about an hour in the hot water before pre-bending. Thanks for the enthusiasm my friend!

Those cabinet doors will really be retro looking. This is a really cool build to follow. Keep up the good work, Jim

Thanks Jim, we're going for a flush fit for the doors and drawers. I hope it works as designed.

Thanks again,

Dave

[aggie79]

Very nice Dave,

I'm not sure how, but I missed your last two updates. Your headboard cabinets look great! And thank you for the tutorial on the bending form and radiused panels.

Take care,
Tom