Friday, October 30, 2009

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".

Monday, October 19, 2009

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.

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