Teardrop Update 9/14

As I mentioned in a prior post, there were some rosewood strips to be installed around the vent fan curb, and that has been accomplished.  See below:

Next, we wanted to remove the spare tire mount for the primary reason that it will make it possible for the wrap to be made properly.  I cut through the welds and used a 3# sledge to knock the mount off, then ground everything flat.

We will decide where, how and if to remount the spare later.

Sean has been working on the stove installation since I permanently mounted the drawer.  It isn't as simple as it may seem.  The stove has to mount into the drawer, but the gas feed from the propane cylinder must also be connected.  It turns out that if one wants to have the stove drawer extended and the door beneath closed, a conflict exists with the gas feed.  

The resolution is to assume the door beneath the stove will be open while the stove is in use.  Two matters suggest this principle:  

1. One must open the door to get at the gas valve on top of the propane cylinder in order to turn the gas on or off.
2. Since the door beneath is open, it provides excellent support for the extended stove drawer if the door is open to 90 degrees.

 

The next step in the cabinetry department was to create some hardware pulls.  The drawer fronts require something one can grasp to pull the drawer out from its resting place.

I took a slab of rosewood, cut it to thickness and width, carved off some edges with the table saw, then shaped the blank with the upright belt sander.  After the original shaping I cut the blank to a thickness designed to produce multiple knob blanks.  This produced eight knob blanks.  Using both the upright sander and an orbital sander clamped to a table I sanded the blanks into form.

The knobs are designed to exploit half the front ellipse and half the rear ellipse.  To review, these geometric forms share axes - the primary axis of the rear ellipse is the secondary axis of the front ellipse, while the primary axis of the front ellipse is the secondary axis of the rear ellipse. 

The teardrop's form intersects these ellipses with the platform of the trailer.  With the knobs I wasn't so constrained.  Therefore, each knob represents the intersection of 50% of the front ellipse along the vertical axis with 50% of the rear ellipse along the horizontal axis.

Well, the knobs are relatively small, and their sides are cut back at an angle, but you get the idea:

 
With lacquer-based sanding sealer, the profiles are clearer:

 
The intent is to use these knobs as pulls for the drawers in the galley, as well as cosmetic equivalents.