The Tear Jerk Journal - Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It

Well, jig-saw-y with it anyways. I am pleased to announce that after getting the right scrolling blade and taking it one sheet at a time, that the sides turned out rather nice. Apparently Iron Chef's experience with sewing machines made her better than me at working the jig saw.

We just couldn't resist putting a fully cut side up on the trailer to see what it looked like.

The Tear Jerk Journal - The Bad Side Of Teardrop Campers

My wife has all these plans for the teardrop. Plans like what colors it will be, what cabinets will be in the galley hatch, what spaces will be available for everything to have it's own place, and what kind of bed will be in the sleeping compartment. Where as I just have one goal in mind; keep the thing from looking like a turd on wheels. Lately, it seems as if everything is completely working against me.

Bad Side #1

Lumber (good lumber I mean) is clearly a rarity in the Cincinnati area. There is of course the low quality stuff at the big box stores, but after minimal thought I decided I should go with a higher grade (or at least stain grade) of material that won't look like crap when it's done. So I stepped up to what used to be a good lumber yard, 84 Lumber, because I can actually get there before they close without leaving work early. Everything else closes at like 4pm and is only open week days which is retarded because that cuts out all the home builders with serious projects. After 2 visits to 84 Lumber, I discovered why they have been on the verge of bankruptcy; off an on for the last 20 years. They try (and succeeded the 2nd time) to slip inferior grade plywood past you. So anyways, it looks like will have to take a half day from work after all just to go to another lumber yard. I think I will check out Paxton this time.

Bad Side #2

I started cutting out the door opening in 2 sheets of good plywood when I discovered that the jigsaw, despite being a bad-a** Dewalt jigsaw, can't hack cutting through 2 sheets of 3/4 inch birch plywood. The blade uncontrollable skips out of the guide wheel and flex's to the side of the saw.

Thereby causing it to veer off course and then refuse to go in any other direction except that one.

If that was the outer edge instead of the door opening, I could have just left it and sanded to the line, but because the there was more than what's acceptable for the door gap between front and back side of each sheet, I gotta start all over again. So let that be a lesson to you kids. Don't attempt to cut 2 sheets of plywood at once or you'll end ruining 2 sheets of plywood at once. Now you know. And remember, "knowing is half battle".

The Tear Jerk Journal - Totally Floored

Hey kids! I just thought I would update you on the building of the teardrop. We finally got some more money scraped together in order to resume construction. We spent a few of the nicer days last week getting a finished floor assembled to the tar baby subfloor, which by the, is still mildly tacky.

Here is the floor that we got cut to the right width with the help of our friend America. For some reason, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to cut a full size sheet of 3/4 inch thick hardwood plywood on a little portable table saw. The stain turned out better than I thought. I am glad I went with the expensive stuff.

It will be good to have this foam insulation between me and the cold ground next time we go camping. You wouldn't believe how much a cold ground can ruin a good nights sleep. You also wouldn't believe what a pain in the butt those Styrofoam "crumbs" were after we cut the strips.

I gotta say I am totally floored at how well the floor came together.

No Comment Please

Have you ever read the comments after news stories on the internet? I am always dumbfounded by how stupid some of these comments can be. You would think these people would have friends who would tell them how stupid they appear by the comments they leave.

I am going to write this post at a risk. I say that because I don’t get many comments at my blog despite the fact that there are still readers here every day. So it probably won’t help any if I write this post that makes fun of the bad comments left at other sites. Even though it might deter people from commenting, I can’t let this comedic opportunity pass.

Let’s start with a story from one of my local news outlets. To paraphrase, the police caught a sex offender who had been throwing cinder blocks at the cars of women. To which this reader had the following opinion.



They then decided to follow it up with this comment.


Is that one typographical correction the only problem they found?

And then if that weren’t enough, the same person felt it necessary to display their clear writing style in the comment for another story about 12 year old thieves.



But you have to give mantan a little credit because they just have trouble writing clearly. This next person can’t even comprehend the story they just read which is about a girl’s soccer coach that raped some of the players because this is their comment.



This next person may have comprehended the story about the soccer coach, but who the heck is gonna know since nobody is going to read a comment this extensive.



I mean seriously, if you were supposed to write that much then the news website would put at the end of the story “leave dissertation” instead of “leave comment”.

I think this next commenter makes a great point about the posting of a DUI checkpoint location.



I think this second person was just as drunk as the first when they wrote this comment.



And lastly there is this comment which sparked the idea for this post. I could tell you what story they are commenting on, but it wouldn’t even matter.


maybe it's a secret code. Is there anyone out there that can decode this for me?

Well anyways. At least there aren't any people this stupid commenting on my blog.

The Tear Jerk Journal - The Little Guy and the Tar Baby

A couple of posts back I mentioned that we got a kit off the internet which contained a lot of the necessary parts like windows and door handles. Well, one of the things that also came with this kit was a template for cutting the side walls of your teardrop. Since I will be using a jig attached to my saber saw for cutting the radii of the sidewalls, this thing is essentially useless to me as template. So, I get the idea to tape it up on a wall in the garage next to the trailer and make it useful as a way to get a better idea of the size and shape of what we are going to build. As the wife and I stood back and looked at things, there was a feeling of shock, then horror as we suddenly realized exactly how small a teardrop camper really is.

We immediately changed our plans for that Saturday as it was now necessary for us to track down an actual teardrop and see a finished one in person. (Yes, I know it was mildly stupid to start building one without ever seeing one in person) Thus we made the last second decision to drive an hour and a half to Indianapolis.

Good Timin’ Hot Rods was relatively easy to find. We could see the last two teardrops they had for sale as we turned into the parking lot.





They are called Little Guy’s and they looked freakishly small from a distance. We climbed into one of these Little Guy campers, and were relieved to find that they are not as claustrophobic inside as one might think. In probably the same way that the Keebler Elves can fit a whole cookie factory inside the knot of a tree, the makers of the Little Guy Camper were able to use that elfin magic to fit an amazing amount of room inside this little dinky camper. It is unbelievable.

By the way kids, if you are ever in Indianapolis, you should check out Good Timin’ Hot Rods. And then go around the corner to Edwards Drive-in for the absolute best hand battered onion rings and homemade root beer.

So anyways, we got back and were so confident that a teardrop camper is the right camper for us that we finished building the undercarriage.




And then we went as far as to coat the whole thing with roofing tar to protect it from water and salt on the roads.




I was hoping to bolt the undercarriage to the trailer frame this week, but so far, the tar baby is still tacky and will have to remain hovering over the trailer atop the saw horses for another week while I am away on vacation.



Well kids, till next time. See Ya!