Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bending the Bows: Part II

The picture above shows the stanchions set in place and waiting for the wood to be bent around them. They are mounted on a pattern board made from two 4' x 8' sheets of plywood upon which a cross section of the wagon is drawn. I then screwed down the stanchions following the curve drawn upon the pattern board.

Learning Curve Note: When I assembled the stanchions I just eyeballed the angle. Prior to bending the boards I had a conversation with Ash and Jeff, two fellow wagon builders, they said that it turned out to be very important that the stanchions be at a true right angle. After I bent my first set of bows I also found this to be true. As you stack the bows up the stanchions any deviation from the vertical becomes very noticeable and harder to deal with the higher you go.
So, make sure they are built at an exact 90 degree angle.

Continued in part III.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Bending the Bows Part I

The long white object laying along the sidewalk in the above photo is my soaking container. It is composed of two 10 foot lengths of 6" diameter PVC drain pipe joined in the middle and closed with a fixed cap at one end and a removable threaded plug at the other. It is filled with water, and four 16' x 2" x 3/8" lengths of Douglas Fir that are destined to be some of the bows for the wagon roof.
One way to bend the bows is to steam them for about an hour and then bend them around your stanchions. The other is soaking them and then bending. Since I didn't have a twenty foot long steam box or the propane tank, burner, and container to make the steam and didn't want the added expense of purchasing all those things, I decided on soaking.
I figured two weeks was a good round soaking time, so I put in some water and wood and let it sit. I rolled it back and forth once a day just to agitate the wood and make sure it was evenly wet.

Learning Curve Note: I soaked the wood in batches, it would have been easier and less time consuming to use larger diameter PVC and soak all the wood at once. Also I experienced some algae growth on two of the boards in the first batch, after that I added about a 1/4 cup of bleach to the soaking water and did not have any further problems.

Continued in next post.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

18 Inches of Quality

The first 18 inches are done, five and a half feet to go. Well not quite completely done. I have to paint over the bolt heads, cut some more notches in the upper bench, and cover the whole thing with several coats of polyurethane varnish. Also I need to cap the interior bolts and put the last six inches of the interior sheeting over the gap at the ends once I bolt the end walls on. But other than that, the sides are finished.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Complexity of Torsion Boxes

This is a view of the test fitting of the side walls showing the construction detail of the torsion boxes. The instructors in the course were very much in favor of torsion boxes. Basically they are a ladder-like framework sandwiched between plywood sheets. The image shows the framework and outer sheet before the inner sheet is attached. The grey objects are steel brackets that will stabilize the walls and anchor them to the wagon bed.

In a traditionally built wagon the walls would have been constructed of one or two large (12") wooden planks, edge joined, and then anchored in the same way, with a series of large C-shaped brackets.

After using the torsion box method which involved having to square up and align, many, many parts, and repeated test fittings and removals from the wagon chassis, I would opt for the traditional method, cut your wood to size and attach it. Ever so much simpler

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Subflooring

Not really anything to say about this, subflooring is down. The edges under the cabinets and bed will stay plywood, the central area that will be exposed I plan to cover with some hardwood later.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Planks and Rails

The choc rails are now attached and set with bedding compound. I would probably use some sort of caulking in the future as the bedding compound never quite cured. I used epoxy on the corner joints to fill in the gaps and to seal the end grain against seepage. Finally I went around the entire rail with caulking. You may notice that I also caulked between all the planks in the floor. I was originally only going to lay down tarpaper between the planking and the subflooring but the more I looked at the gaps between the planking, and the more I thought about the amount of spray that was going to be coming through those gaps, I figured more caulking was probably a very good idea.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

To Be Square

This is the trailer, it is nice and shiny and new. That is soon to change. I knew the overall dimensions of the trailer so I began by measuring the trailer and then cut the segments of my choc rail to match. This was wrong. I had made an assumption and we all know what that means.

LEARNING CURVE NOTE: Do not assume that your trailer is actually square. Check this before fitting pieces to the trailer.

After much futile adjusting I resorted to trimming, adding, and patching. From here onwards I'll cut and fit pieces to my plan dimensions and realize they are not going to sit quite right on the trailer base.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Blueprint Blues

As preparation for the wagon course we were instructed to come with a set of rough plans. So the first set of plans were drawn up.
During the week of the course we worked on refining our concepts and so composed a more detailed and improved set of plans. Plans version 2.0 drawn up.
Although I had decided on the trailer that I was going to construct the wagon upon prior to attending the workshop, I did not get it delivered until a few weeks later as I needed to add a trailer hitch to my car to be able to tow it home. When I got the trailer home and measured it, it turned out to be four inches longer than it was supposed to be (I had called the manufacturer to check the dimensions prior to ordering). This was not really a problem since it meant I gained some interior space, but it meant that my current plans were now four inches off. Plans redrawn, version the third.

LEARNING CURVE NOTE: Obtain your trailer before beginning to draw up any sort of construction designs.

Since beginning the construction process I have found the plans to be more of a point of departure than an actual architectural design that I can dimension lumber from.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Preconstruction Background

In May of 2009 I attended a workshop on Gypsy Wagon construction at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. The following posts are my chronicle of the construction process of the gypsy caravan that I am attempting to build.