Yesterday we mounted the speaker enclosures on the underside of the hatch. The enclosures were constructed to match the under-hatch aesthetic.
I also applied another coat of pigmented polyurethane to the water cabinet and the counter.
Today I fit the cooler fill panel and doors to the lower galley cabinet area. Final adjustments to the doors, drawers and panel will be made when all finishes are applied and final mounting is undertaken.
The panel on the right is a door that opens 90 degrees under the stove drawer for access to the propane tanks and other storage.
Both stove drawer and right door open.
Right door closed, stove drawer open.
The left cabinet (water cabinet) has a door that opens 170 degrees. This door has a panel that matches the drawer/door on the right, with an oak panel and rosewood inlay strips. This cabinet will contain the water tank, the sink and faucet, and more.
Finally, the cooler drawer has a removable panel that can be stowed when parked for convenience.
The panel will be removable, and will store in a position as shown below. The cooler cabinet will also contain the on-demand water pump and screen.
The new door panels fail to match the drawer fronts in color in the photos because they have not yet been finished. That is the next step for these components.
Additionally today, Sean worked to secure wiring chases, and another coat of white polyurethane was added to the countertop.
The next steps are to add another coat to the counter top, put an initial coat of lacquer on the counter rail, and put finish on the doors/panels to match the existing fronts. Once that finish work is complete, the closure hardware for these openings can be mounted.
Relatively speaking, we've been seeing a lot of visual progress lately. Now, pulling wires isn't real visual progress, and I have to give props to Sean for completing the pulls today. The last pull was probably the most difficult- two 90 degree turns through 1-1/4" pipe followed by a reverse 45 degree (aka 315 degrees) and another 45. In the end, Sean simplified the pathway to a pair of 90s followed by another 90. It worked.
All the wires are pulled.
Meanwhile, I've been working on the doors/panels to enclose the lower hatch. To review, the lower hatch is divided into three sections - the left contains the water tank, sink and appurtenances, the center contains the cooler on a slide-out tray, and the right contains the stove on a drawer plus the propane tanks.
Today I mounted the two drawers. Here is the cooler tray:
Inside the cooler bay are the water pump and upstream screen:
Also mounted today is the stove drawer.
Another of the day's tasks was to place a first coat of marine polyurethane on the cavity that will hold the water tank (to guard against damage from sweat) and the counter top. Eventually I'd like to cover the counter with stainless steel, but for now it will be water-resistant polyurethane, seen best here:
Note: the area below the stove drawer, above the cooler tray and the entire left cavity will be filled with doors/panels that match those done inside the cabin. The left cavity - the "water cavity" - will be made up of a panel and a faux front that matches the stove drawer, complete with rosewood inlays. The counter will receive an oak front piece to cover the plywood and build up an edge above the counter.
I've been remiss lately in posting - both on the topic of the teardrop (yesterday caught us up) and bird photos.
Today is all about birds.
While it is the "slow season" for birds hereabouts, there are still some to be seen and photographed.
First up is a catbird.
While the catbird derives its name from its ability to sound like a cat in distress, it has a varied song that belies its name.
Next is a goldfinch. Normally these guys can only be found in the bushes. This fella presented himself against the sky for a nice shot.
Next up is a house finch, a close relative of the goldfinch. The red on him really pops!
While it is tempting to see this bird as a purple finch, the purple has much more red. We'll settle for the "house" variety.
The "hybrid little blue x tricolor" was at play in the rock pond, seeking out food.
In the May, 27 blog titled "Peeps Galore and More" I noted a female killdeer who was sheltering her young from bad weather. This same female, having nested in the exact same place, recently hatched her second clutch of three young.
Mom, then the offspring:
I have been keeping an eye on a local Great Blue Heron rookery, and the chicks have definitely hatched. This rookery has eight or nine nests, all of which have been productive. This particular nest brought to mind the phrase "crowded house." Three chicks, one adult attempting to feed them. The overriding concern seems to be "don't push me off the nest!"
A brown thrasher was sitting in the top of a pine tree today, singing his head off. I've always known them to be very shy ground-dwellers, so this behavior was odd to me. Still, he provided considerable photo ops!
A cedar waxwing was also presenting himself against the clear blue sky.
This goldfinch was particularly cute in his environment.
While mockingbirds are relatively plentiful, they do make for nice photos.
Finally, this Willow Flycatcher offered a couple of poses.
All things considered, the past few days, while slow for bird photography, have offered a considerable variety of opportunities.
I apologize for taking so long to get some progress pictures of the teardrop, but, here they are.
First, Sean completed the sink cutout and faucet mount.
Beneath the sink are several items:
In the far back is a 9 gallon fresh water tank. To the middle and right is the fill - a cap will unscrew permitting either hose fill (loose) or poured fill with a funnel. The sink drain is in the center, with a flexible joint that permits draining into a one-gallon pail as shown. The flexible pipe on the left is an extension of the drain. To the far left is a Moen filter which will be inline to the water supply at the sink and will actually mount front and high on the left. A pump will mount to the right of the partition (in the cooler bay) that is pressure-activated. Behind the pail will be a drain permitting removal of almost all water from the tank for inactive periods. Sean has spent considerable effort in making all this fit while still allowing for removal of the water tank, if necessary, without needing to remove major items or unscrew components from mounts. In the end, while it may not be necessary to remove the tank at all, it will be relatively easy if required thanks to his efforts.
This under-counter tank area will be enclosed with a door.
Above left is the cooler tray that will fit low in the middle bay and carry the Coleman cooler. On the right is the stove drawer which will mount high in the right bay and contain the two-burner gas stove.
Ultimately the stove tray will have a stainless steel top, while the cooler tray will be coated with a water-resistant polyurethane. Note the two rosewood strip inlays on the fronts.
The left bay, under the sink, will have a part that repeats the stove front. All three bays will be filled in with panels similar to those that enclose the electrical cavity inside the cabin. The door under the stove will swing open to the right; the center panel over the cooler tray will lift out and store at the rear of the cooler tray. The left door will swing open to the right 180 degrees. The repeat of the stove drawer will be permanently joined to the panel beneath as one door.
Above you see the detail of the rosewood inlay.
I have also constructed two speaker boxes to mount under the hatch. These speakers will connect to the AM/FM/CD/MP3 device that mounts inside the cabin in the right electrical cavity door. Here they are shown with one coat of polyurethane. The "beadboard" is actual cutoffs from the inside of the hatch, and will run parallel to those boards.
Today I began the milling for the doors to fit under the galley counter, as well as the edge for the galley counter. I also urethaned the mahogany rod that will mount under the hatch and carry the work lights for the galley.
Later this week the beefier struts will ship; upon receipt the new stainless steel brackets and ball mounts will be ready, in addition to the oak spacer blocks that mount to the body.
Also, the Filon covering has been ordered. This white plastic around .055 thickness will cover the entire top and sides. I anticipate taking the covered trailer to an auto body shop for painting once the Filon covering is complete.
Yesterday was the Solstice in both hemispheres. For us in the Northern Hemisphere it marks the beginning of summer. Today, the days are getting shorter already. It is a slippery slope toward winter.
Sigh.
Progress:
1) We have the stainless steel brackets from the local welder and the stainless steel studs with ball heads for the struts. Tomorrow I will begin fabrication of the mounting blocks.
2) The two drawers - the cooler tray and the stove drawer - are complete and the faces lacquered.
3) I fabricated and glued up the speaker boxes that will mount under the hatch. The radio/CD/MP3 unit that will mount inside the cabin will have two sets of speakers - one inside the cabin, one under the hatch - with switches to control which set of speakers is live. Tomorrow these will be sanded and finished.
4) Wiring. There is a lot of wiring, and Sean has been steadily progressing.
5) Counter top. I want a stainless steel counter, but we decided that the local welding shop / fabricator we had make the hatch brackets probably isn't up to the job, so for the time being we will make the cutout for the sink and the hole for the faucet, and I will apply finish urethane to the counter, enabling finished plumbing and wiring in the area.
6) Under the cabinets inside the cabin will be two strips of LED lights. The idea is that one or both strips can be on, providing indirect lighting. I have fabricated and finished a strip of wood to which the adhesive-backed strips will mount. This piece of wood will then be attached under the cabinets and the lights wired.
More, including pics, to come as appropriate.
This post is way overdue, and to prevent it from being even later, it is being done without photos.
We have been making consistent progress, but as with most things, it seems we take two steps forward and one back. None of our recent projects are complete, which explains the lack of photos.
First issue: The gas struts and mounting brackets arrived last week. We proceeded to mount them. I was pleased that the dual 150-lb. struts appeared to be a correct choice for the load the hatch presents. Even though the hatch weighs only about 80 pounds, the force applied at the strut attachment point is far greater.
As I was closing the hatch for the first time under "strut power" the resistance felt good. However, when the hatch was within 10 degrees of full closure I failed to provide resistance to slamming, and slam it did. With all struts - think of the hatch on your car, if you have one - the last bit of closure enjoys little to no resistance from the struts.
When we opened the hatch, we found that three of the four mounting brackets had deformed. It is unclear whether this was from the slam or from the fact that we may have mounted them too close together. The selected strut has a compressed length of 14.8 inches. We may have pushed this boundary.
In any case, we determined that the manufacturer-supplied mounting brackets are inadequate for the forces at play. So, I designed two types of mounting brackets, ordered up some stainless steel studs with 5/16" x 18 thread mounts and the correct 10mm ball heads, and went down to a local welding shop with the drawings and asked them to fabricate plates from 1/4" stainless steel with holes for mounting and holes for the ball studs. We should see these soon.
The new plates were designed to have the closed position slightly farther apart than the original mounts, hopefully avoiding over-compression. One of the struts tends to deform sideways when we start to close the hatch. I have already located a substitute strut with a larger diameter rod - aka, beefier construction, should it be required.
Second matter: Sean has been working diligently on the wiring. We have located several fixtures/lights/etc. so that he can bring the wires to the correct points. We've done some work in the battery box to "locate" the batteries so they do not move around while in-transit.
Of course, there are a raft of dependencies. For instance, today he was looking to run the wires to the water pump which will automatically turn on when you open the faucet. Well, where does the pump mount? That depends on several things: sink placement, water tank placement, and the placement of the faucet and filter cartridge. So we spent some time locating all of these items to determine where the pump could mount so no water lines will be kinked so Sean could bring the wires to the correct location.
The location of the faucet also fed into another issue: I want to have a stainless steel countertop. I have created a drawing and a template for the piece, including the cutout for the sink. But, I needed to locate the faucet to have that hole drilled by the fabricator.
Third matter: Recently I constructed the tray for the cooler (middle bay under the counter) and the drawer for the gas stove (right bay). I purchased the full-extension heavy duty drawer slides for these two "drawers" and proceeded with fabrication. I wanted to detail the faces with rosewood inlays in oak, so I proceeded to find leftover pieces of rosewood to determine what I could do. I decided on two thin pieces horizontally 3/4" up from the bottom edge with a space between them.
A nice detail, but when I set the saw to make the second groove in the drawer faces I neglected to allow for the width of the saw cut and ended up making the second cut leaving little to no oak remaining between the cuts. Well, at Sean's prompting, this bug was turned into a feature. The two very close cuts were turned into one inlay, and another cut made an appropriate distance away, resulting in one thin and one wide inlay.
In the end, I think this result will be visually more appealing. The rosewood has been glued in and sanded flush. Finish sanding is required on the faces, after which I will take photos.
Last matter: When we assembled the wall structure and added the inside layer of 1/4" birch plywood we needed to cut the openings for the doors and windows. The doors and windows have radiused corners. Rather than try to cut these curves with a sabre saw I purchased a 6" hole saw (just the right diameter). We mounted the hole saw on a right-angle drill and proceeded to cut out the corners of the openings, then use a circular saw for the straight cuts.
Well, controlling the hole saw, even with a heavy-duty right angle drill and the wall lying flat on a table so that the hole was being drilled vertically, was very challenging and imprecise. I was ruminating on this experience and contemplating how to cut the openings once the outer 1/4" birch plywood is applied, and again once the skin is on. I knew the 6" hole saw was not the solution, especially given that it would be a horizontal drilling on a vertical wall.
The idea arose to build up 1.5" thick pieces of poplar 6"+ on a side, drill the 6" hole on the drill press, then cut the outer part into four 90-degree arcs. These pieces would then be installed at the corners of the openings inside the wall. Once the 1/4" birch is applied, a router can be used with a trim bit to cut the opening. Same for the skin.
Yesterday I glued up the four blocks required. Today we set up the drill press and started drilling. Well, only for a short while. The main issue was that the resistance to the 18"+ long cut (6 inch diameter times PI) with even the lightest pressure on the drill press was enough to jar the chuck free of the drill press shaft. This chuck is a tapered fit onto the shaft, where friction keeps it in place.
So, Sean to the rescue with the suggestion to use the band saw. I replied that the hole saw could be used to score the surface of the block and thereby create the circle to be sawn.
Sean, sawn. Whatever.
It worked quite nicely. Any casual observer would have thought that we were creating some 6" by 1.5" wheels from poplar, but in fact I was interested in the "leftover" parts. I cut each leftover (a square with a round hole in the middle almost as large as the square) into the four "corners" I needed. Using the stationary belt/disc sander, I custom fit each corner using the appropriate trim ring, glued and nailed each into place.
In so many ways and in any number of instances, we have attacked a problem, been set back by unexpected or unanticipated issues, regrouped, designed a solution, and implemented the solution.
In other words, much of our journey has been creative problem solving. And that is one of our strengths.
Next steps:
- Obtain the custom-fabricated stainless steel brackets for the gas struts, fabricate the wood support blocks, install and test.
- Finish sand the cooler tray and the stove drawer, mount.
- Obtain the stainless steel counter top and stove drawer top, install.
- Mount the sink and faucet.
- Once the wiring is in place, connect the pump, tank, filter and faucet.
- Create the oak facing for the lower part of the galley, design and fabricate the closure (door?) for the sink/tank compartment.
- Create the system to hold the two propane tanks in place, connect tanks to stove (having mounted the stove).
- Mount the mahogany dowel under the hatch that will hold the two LED worklights for the hatch.
- Once the wiring is complete and tested, reinstall the insulation on the sides, insulate the top, install the 1/4" skin on the sides and the two layers of 1/8" skin on the top.
- Install the filon skin over all surfaces.
- Create the cabinet closures (probably tambour) under the hatch.
- Create the cabinet closures (probably tambour) in the cabin.
- Finish sand and urethane/lacquer all wood surfaces.
- Get the exterior painted professionally at an automobile body shop.
Well, we have a lot more to do!
Over the past three days Sean and I have built the cabinets that sit under the hatch. We needed to wait until the hatch was mounted (and hatch mechanical assists were resolved) before we could be sure the cabinet limits were not going to interfere with anything else.
First we cut and dry-fit the components, then assembled them as a unit, then installed the plywood shelves as a unit. Today, I faced them with oak and applied the first coat of polyurethane.
Here are the cabinets before then after polyurethane:
The lower left cabinet section is only 9" deep to allow space for the sink to mount in the counter and not interfere with the cabinets. This entire unit is removable should I decide upon a completely different approach in the future. The cabinet spaces will be individually configured, and may have lift doors, tambour doors, or simply bungee-type retainers for the contents. One space will likely have several vertical drawers to hold spices, plates and other utensils.
Clearly there is more to come here!
There is no good reason for this bird to be here at this time of year. According to the references, we are in the bird's winter range, it being a more northerly bird in the summer.
Yet, this one pair persists locally. Climate change? We cannot know, but will observe in the future. The female is seen far more infrequently than the male, suggesting that there may be a nest.
Again, we shall see.
This is momentous! At long last, we have mounted the hatch, even if only temporarily. It needed to be in place so we could finalize the wiring routing, device placement and other considerations. It is only temporary since we will have to remove it when we "skin" the exterior of the trailer.
But, for now, it is mounted and it is revealing.
Above, it is in place but not yet fastened.
First opening:
Open full height, side supports (temporary!):
Perspective:
This was a momentous occasion. Thank you to Norman Brody for lending a hand.
Now, we can move forward with final electrical routings and the cabinets under the hatch. The next challenge is finding either gas struts or a spring hinge to assist in the hatch lifting - it is quite heavy! Until it was mounted we had no concept of how difficult it might be to open. It is not a cakewalk to open the hatch. Another problem to solve!
Today in Connecticut was a beautiful day. High temperatures were in the mid-70's. The sky was clear. In the early hours, the wind was still.
It was a perfect opportunity to capture the waders. Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Herons, and an occasional Great Egret.
Finally, a Great Egret.
