building Plan B....

[fromeo]

Had some water damage to the cherry face frames for the cabin cabinet that I left laid out on the work bench before driving down to SF on Thursday-- looks like I might have to cut a couple of pieces over again. There was a framing square laying on top of part of the face frame assembly that we had apparently used as a straight edge, and remnants of marker along the edge got wet and bled all over the cherry rails. Black magic marker. Makes me want to cry.

Mike,

Alcohol is pretty good about removing magic marker. If it looks like they're scrap anyway it might be worth a shot..

- Frank

[mike_c]

Had some water damage to the cherry face frames for the cabin cabinet that I left laid out on the work bench before driving down to SF on Thursday-- looks like I might have to cut a couple of pieces over again. There was a framing square laying on top of part of the face frame assembly that we had apparently used as a straight edge, and remnants of marker along the edge got wet and bled all over the cherry rails. Black magic marker. Makes me want to cry.

Mike,

Alcohol is pretty good about removing magic marker. If it looks like they're scrap anyway it might be worth a shot..

- Frank

Thanks, Frank. You're right-- what's to lose? Still raining though. The forecast looks good this weekend, so I'm hoping for some good shop time. It's an addiction.

--Mike C.

[Facemeltingly Epic]

It's an addiction.

--Mike C.

Yup. And there's no rehab program for it...

When I was building my trailer last year, part of what drove me was the fact that I set a deadline (which I missed, btw) for having it at least "camp-worthy". I got most of the major work done a couple hours at a time after I came home from work, along with as many as I could stand on my weekends when I was home.

And even before I had this one even close to finished (it's probably about 95% done at this point), I was already planning the next build. It is an addiction indeed, but at least here you're among fellow addicts.

[mike_c]

Finally had a couple of semi-sunny norcal days so I got the shop dried out and mounted the cabin shelves. Glued and screwed, so now I'm committed to the layout. The shelves are WAY deeper than I envisioned, which means I could have made a little more cabin room if I'd moved the backing in the walls for the shelf cleats a bit further back, making the shelves shorter, but that's not what I did so there's no going back now.

Maybe on the next build.

Cleaned up the water and ink damage to the cherry face frames-- unfortunately, alcohol didn't take it out but some 80 grit attention did the trick. Mortised the outer stiles for the lower apron and cut the tenons in the apron. Then I clamped up the face frames for the first time and they're dead-on square-- less than 1/32 inch deviation in the diagonals over nearly 60 inches! The interior wall skins deviate more than that, what with the minor ripples and such.

Sometime this week I hope to do some fidgety routing on the face frames before assembling and finish sanding them. I want to bead the edges of the rails and stiles with a 1/16" roundover bit, but stopped wherever the rails and stiles intersect for smooth joins. I'm gonna use a trim router to do it, I think-- it just seems like it'll be easier to balance that small motor on the narrow face frames, though I'll probably make a box jig to make it easier.

I know, I keep promising pics, but I'd rather use my limited time in the shop instead of messing with images, so they're building up on the camera's memory card. I really will post some soon, for SURE once I get the cabin cabinets finished!

--Mike C.

[mike_c]

Face frames for the cabin cabinets are completed and the flush cabinet doors are roughed out, but I'm waiting for the hinges to be delivered before I finish trim the doors and mount the face frames. Cherry frames and maple doors-- it looks nice. I started building the front closet base frame yesterday, spent the entire afternoon cutting-- and recutting-- six pieces of cherry. Good lord. I bought a reversible ogee rail and stile cutter to make the frames. I mean, it's HALF the price of the matched bit sets. Still, I don't recommend this for anyone else-- getting the profiles to match involves LOTS of trial and error, mostly error, with fiddley little spacer/washers that never seem to reassemble in the logical order you think they should. I threw a fair amount of expensive S4S cherry into the firewood pile trying to get it right. I got it, in the end, but DAMN, next time I'll spring for the matched pair of bits and just adjust the depth of cut without having to fiddle with getting the internal spacing of the cutters right.

We also checked all our wiring for shorts-- it was sheer luck that I didn't shoot a nail into my wire chases, LOL-- and finding none, began closing the top (rewiring in the ceiling was my last resort). Kathy insulated it yesterday, and we'll skin the top with luan next weekend. She also got a sealer coat of shellack on the cabin interior. It's a little splotchy, but I'm hoping that a sanding and second coat will even the color out. We went with orange shellack over the birch interior skins because I like the warm color. It'll all get poly'd with semi-gloss later, after another coat of shellack and some 320 grit love.

Picked up a 120 Ah deep cycle battery and smart charger from Wally World. It's got a maintenance charge going now. And we bought a fire engine red Camp Chef two burner stove with an oven-- the cheap sheet metal magnetic catch on the top cover broke off the FIRST time we opened it. The thin sheet metal tabs unbent just from the force of the magnet holding it closed. That's pretty pathetic. Not sure whether I'll fix it or just use a bungee to keep the lid down-- obviously fixing it without improving it won't be of much use. I sure hope the rest of the stove is built better than that magnetic catch!

Building the interior cabinets is detail work-- I feel like I've been working on them forever-- so it's nice to see some tangible progress in other areas!

--Mike (I really will post more pics soon!) C.

[mike_c]

OK, I've been promising pics and here are a few. I'll upload more in a day or two, when we make some more substantial progress.

Remember that cabin cabinet case? Here it is with some pieces of cherry laid out for face frames:




Making an apron for the cabinet bottom:




Laminating the side posts:




Cutting the apron tenons:




More-or-less completed face frames:




Just about the same time:




I was really jazzed to see the assembled face frames in place for the first time, although this is just dry fit-- nothing is glued up yet:




Another view. It's really hard to photograph inside the trailer with our camera:




Yes, we have a cat problem, but in fairness these are all gathered on top of the table because of the dog problem! And they're only PART of the cat problem, at that....




Here are the solid wood, flush maple doors rough cut and dry fitted, no hinges or pulls yet, and of course no finish on anything yet. I still have several tasks to do on these doors, including evening out the spacing around the face frames. I'm thinking about covering the end grain along each side as well. Just because. Eww, it's end grain. Haven't decided about beading yet. The top door will likely be divided into halves that open sideways.




The next step is making the base frame for the front cabin closet, which will also function as a headboard (with doors). This is the base frame that clears the mattress, again in cherry and maple:






Like I've said, this bit seems interminable. I've never built cabinets this nice before, so I'm going slow and carefully! But Kathy and I were talking about this, and we decided that we're not building the teardrop for production, and we're gonna be looking at those cabinets for years, so why not make them the way we like them? Besides, everyone needs a hobby!

--Mike C.

[mike_c]

More sawdust. We've had a spectacular winter for working on the teardrop here in coastal northern California. Unfortunately, my work schedule hasn't been as amenable as the weather, but we're making progress, slowly but surely. Our original plan, to have the teardrop "campable" by spring break is totally out the window now, as spring break begins in a week or so. That means that I'll be working on the teardrop instead of camping in the Mojave this spring.

Bummer, but at least I'm keeping busy! Still, it's not as fun as camping.

So, on to some progress pics. Some more work on the base frame for the cabin closet (hint: for cope and stick cabinetry, don't bother with reversible router bits-- get the matched set! It's twice as expensive, but WAY easier to set up and use.):




The cabin cabinets are finally installed. The insides still need one coat of polyurathane, and there's still some interior wiring and lighting to do, but this is a milestone, folks. I've been working on these bloody cabinets for WEEKS. Other than the little chores, they're done.




From the other side:




Cabin insulation, probably photographed before, but this is the last time it'll ever be visible...




...because we skinned that sucker with luan plywood.






And work continues on the cabin closet. Face frames and center panel under construction:




Time to leave it behind and go do some other chores!




Thanks for watching!

--Mike C.

[Elizabeth C.]

Kudos...Your cabinets are beautiful even without any fiinsh. You are quite the craftsman.

Can't wait to see what comes next.
Cheers,
Dr. C-Dawg

[mike_c]

Kudos...Your cabinets are beautiful even without any fiinsh. You are quite the craftsman.

Can't wait to see what comes next.
Cheers,
Dr. C-Dawg

Thanks, Elizabeth. The cabinets actually have two coats of satin finish polyurathane on them-- I thin it with mineral spirits before applying so it absorbs into the wood well and leaves a thin finish without that poly buildup that can be so obvious when it's laid on thickly. It's slow as the dickens-- takes a full day for each coat, front and back-- but I like the simple finish it provides. You can sort of see the difference in that last pic. The face frames on the bottom have no finish, and the base piece laying on top, with the blue tape, is back-side up and has one coat of finish on, with one more to go.

I'm learning a lot as I build this thing!

--Mike C.

[mike_c]

GAWD I'm sitting in my office, the sun is out.

YES! I'm gonna bag it early today and go work on the trailer!

--Mike C.

[iDave]

What a fantastic journal of your build Mike! You've made substantial progress since I was out there in September . Reading this thread is addictive. Looking forward to future installments .

Dave

[mike_c]

What a fantastic journal of your build Mike! You've made substantial progress since I was out there in September . Reading this thread is addictive. Looking forward to future installments .

Dave

Enjoy the show! I'm having a blast building the trailer, although it's taking a frustratingly long time to finish. Guess I underestimated the time to completion somewhat, LOL. When I started building last July we were talking about having it ready just about the time when you were here. Oops!

[mike_c]

More progress this weekend, plus I'm on spring break so I can work on the trailer a couple more days this week. Yay!

OK, for some reason we seem locked into doing lots of small, piddly tasks that eat up days of time, but don't give much of a feeling of accomplishment. Still, progress is progress and I'll take whatever I can get.

I built a frame and began roughing out the cabin headboard/closet. We're going to put most of the cabin electronics inside that closet. Here is the base piece you've seen before, laying on the work bench-- this is to clear the mattress. There's one coat of satin finish poly on here, just enough to bring some of the grain out. It'll get another couple of thin coats over the next few days.




Here's the face frames and center panel. The doors will be maple, like the center panel, and we're putting most of the electronics in that center panel. Also a drop down lap table.




From the other side.




Kathy pulled the screws, filled the holes, and smoothed it all out.




We ran into a problem fitting both the battery box and a propane tank on the short tongue, so I roughed up a base to bridge the tongue jack and make as much room as possible.




See what I mean? Gonna be a tight fit.




And finally, I've had these laying around for a few years, left over from another project. Battery monitor and shunt, and a solar charge controller. They're brand new, even if nearly ten years old. Got a folding PV panel, too, opens to about 18 x 24 inches. It works, I measured 18.4 v with the winter sun low and mixed clouds, but of course the current is too low to do much more than slow the rate of descent. But, it's better than a poke in the eye and I'll have the charge controller and battery monitor installed so I'll already be prepped for adding more PV acreage later. Until then, we'll either plug into shore power or run the generator when the battery needs charging.




More to come....

--Mike C.

[KCStudly]

Nice! You are doing some really fine quality work, especially considering that you are virtually working outside.

Keep up the fine effort. You will acheive your vision and enjoy camping all the more when you are able to say, "Yeah, I built it myself."

Oog, oog, oog ("Tool Time" Tim Allen thumping chest like a Gee-O-rilla).

[mike_c]

...especially considering that you are virtually working outside.

Yeah, that's the truth-- the wind took the awning off the deck this morning, but those two "carports" have been rock solid, although the sides billow like CRAZY on a day like today! Rain leaks in between the conjoined carports, even though I have a gutter there, and of course blows in wherever there are gaps. Moisture also drips from the ceiling, both from condensation, and from thousands of tiny holes made by one of the cats who loves to play up there.

--Mike C.