Bob's caboose build

[bobhenry]

Yeah what he said , thanks Cat !

[bobhenry]

Tiny house design thoughts.....

Wandering the house last night taking inventory of what to take with me on my next adventure in life, tiny house living.

I spied my collection of old blue/green Ball canning jars. They have been doing little but holding down a couple of shelves and drawing dust. I picked up one and measured it. The Quarts are just a fuzz under 4" in diameter. So I got out the ruler and drew a 2x8 ( 1 1/2 x 7 1/4 ) studded wall full scale from stud to stud 24" on center.

It works out to 5 jars fitting in the 22 1/2" between face of stud to face of stud. So if the wall studs immediatly behind the kitchen counter were increased to 2x8's from the 2x3's I planned on using I will have just created a hugh shallow pantry. The 4.5 added inches of wall depth for 8 feet is about 3 sq ft of floor space lost but it was traded for 16 cubic feet ( 4' tall by 8' wide by 6" +/- deep ) of usable storage in the wall. I am allowing for a 3/4 layer of blue foam insulation being added in the back of each cavity. Possibly not the most effecient "R" rating but now by adding cabinet doors it might be a good trade off. What do you need 20 jars for you ask !

Well I tried to think....

Maybe a couple types of dried beans 2 or 3 styles of pastas. Sugar, flour, corn starch, coffee, corn meal, Hot cocoa mix Well there is not quite a dozen of them filled without any real creative thought.

I might just lean towards a simple galley rail to keep them in place at first and some 12 volt LED strip lighting to back light them and they might just be a real nice decorating touch with an old timey flair.

[bobhenry]

This picture just triggered another design idea.

The pitcher pump in this picture really works. It draws from a 12 gallon tank under the counter that is refilled with city water and controlled by a cattle float shut off valve. ( Kinda like the guts in an old style toilet )

Well I think it will get a new life in the caboose. No electricity required no need for city water pressure. These things just have a way of finding me !

[bobhenry]

Mocked up the wood block floor tiles. Here are a few pics





Raw block on block verses running bond look ?? What do you think?






After I added the color I was really liking the block on block.

A couple coats of some old poly I had lying around and it is soooo shiney.

[bobhenry]

OH GOODIE

It worked !

[bobhenry]

[droid_ca]

I don't know why it's not showing up but I looked in your album and Wow it is looking really good. I like the checkered pattern as well as the thriftiness the fact that your recycling and lowering your carbon-foot print for this trailer is an added bonus. You are a very good craftsman with a very creative mind. Thanks for being such an inspiration to all of us

[mikeschn]

The secret is to paste the Image-URL, and put img tags around that!

see here:



Mike...

[mezmo]

Hi Bob,

When you go to install the floor, try laying it out on the diagonal to see if
you like it. That is supposed to make a narrow space look/appear wider
and I think that's true. But it's all in the look you want for personal
satisfaction.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[bobhenry]

Well I had that one bass akwards.....

A stacked pattern can accentuate the linear qualities of the room. Stacked tile can draw the eye from wall-to-wall, A diagonal pattern can open things up a bit. Diagonal can fool the eye into thinking a narrow room is less narrow, for example, by drawing the eye from corner-to-corner, which is a longer distance than wall-to-wall

I was thinking the long straight lines would fool the eye into thinking things would appear larger and longer than they actually were.

Thanks Norm

[bobhenry]

Was wandering around on the internet and tripped over this........



A simple loft mounted gravity feed water tank.

and this nifty little stealth kitchen

[bobhenry]

Got serious this weekend and cut 26 roof truss patterns. These will be doubled up in pairs with 2x2 fillers inside to give the caboose that rounded roof. I also cut a barrell vault on the underside to give a little interest and a bit more headroom. Here are a few shots of the work......



birds eye view of the radius cutting system



here is a finished end truss without the barrell vault



My giant flyswatter



here is a barrell vault truss



There were 20 pieces of these as scrap. I thought, what a neat rounded roof truss for a teardrop. They happened to be 5'3" wide



Here is my free trash picked door. Will go on the platform end of the caboose for an entry door



They were even kind enough to leave me the dead bolt key



Exterior side is a bit sun burnt but a little lovin' with sandpaper and varnish and it will be lookin' good again.

[bobhenry]

Here is a rough drawing of the nonstandard framing of the caboose roof and wall connection............



My fear was incorporating a hinge point at a standard top plate by just setting the truss on the sidewalls.

With only one cross wall at the bathroom end this could have become a wiggley little shack. To eliminate the hinge point and relying on just the nails for attachment I chose to glue and screw the roof trusses to the wall studs as both are on 2 foot centers. With 8 inches of the stud attached in the center of the pair of plywood trusses the hinge point is now eliminated. The little blue block under the truss is a 1x4 with the top edge at
7'6" . I will later use this as a nailer for a trough style indirect lighting valance. (Think rain gutter).

The cupalo will be framed exactly the same by simply using taller studs for those 4 trusses making a 6 foot long cupalo 24 to 36 inches tall.

I am in hopes this unusual framing method will add a great deal of strength but remain an extremely lightweight roof framing system. It will be covered with with 1/2 plywood and a padded rubber roof.

[mezmo]

Hi Bob,

Looks like you have a great solution for your concern of any
lack of rigidity in the structure. You're in essence making small
individual 'bents' [like the big ones they make in large timber
framing, that are installed to make 8ft wide "bays", here you'll
be doing it on 24in "bays"] that in essence become one unit
with the gluing and screwing of the sidewall studs at [and as]
the ends of the foam filled small box beams you're making for
the roof trusses/cross-members. I'm guessing you'll be using
a plywood for the exterior wall surface that'll give you all the
shear strength for that as well as tie the sidewalls to the floor
structure.

Also - if you do the retrofitting of a sliding glass door [as
Catherine suggested] frame with the wooden 'baggage' door,
instead of only doing one door thickness, why not do a double
thickness [for more insulation] that will just use both of the tracks
simultaneously as a single track for the 'baggage door'? - don't
know what you were finally thinking on that...

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[bobhenry]

Norm:

The baggage door will slide between "Two walls". I will have an outer 2x2 wall for the exterior and to transfer the shear and an internal wall of 2x2 as well. The space inside will be wide enough for the door assembly and 2 layers of thin plywood to guide the door into the pocket. Both walls will be filled with 2 ply of 3/4 blue foam. Gasketing to keep the weather out is still a question but I am confident I can come up with a combination that works. This door while operational will be mostly for show. The only reason to incorporate it was for ease of construction and installing larger pieces of furniture. ( The only large furniture I can think of is the mattress) but larger sheetgoods would be much easier to wrestle inside. I am chomping at the bit but will have to wait for the April showers to move out. Then there will be some serious strides made in demolition and then the rebuild. Right now the crumpeled shell is offering some weather protection to the floor and some inside features I hope to salvage so removing the sagging roof now is an invitation to water damage that I am hoping to avoid.