What the Winter Brings

Waiting for the weather to improve.
In the meantime I've been working on the interior of the wagon. I just have to make sure I don't attach anything that will be taller than garage door height. As you can see, I've added the interior walls, and built in some cabinets, a sink, the benches and the sleeping area. When everything else is finished (after the wagon has moved outside and has a top) I'll add some nicer flooring.

End Walls

This is the window end wall, fully assembled with shutter tracks, shutters, and carved headboard. I am starting to primer it in the photo. Because my garage is not tall enough to fully assemble the wagon and then be able to get it out, I am having to assemble the end walls as seperate units and then attach them after the wagon is out of the garage.
They probably weigh in at well over 300 lbs and have been on and off the wagon more times than I really like to think about. I suppose that I could have used thinner wood for the beadboard but I wanted it to really hold up well to the wind hitting it at highway speed, so it's way overbuilt.

Learning Curve Note:
I used a jigsaw to cut out the shape of the end walls. Because of the curve and the thickness of the wood there was a lot of deviation in the vertical tracking of the blade. Because of this there will be a lot of fairing compound between the bows and the end wall to even it out. I should have used a plunge router mounted on a beam compass instead.

Bending the Bows : Part III

After soaking the wood for the bows for two weeks I drained the soaking tube and poured in about five gallons of boiling water. Then after agitating the wood to make sure it all got hit with the hot water I pulled out one of the pieces, laid it on the ground, and poured another three gallons of boiling water over it, turning it over, and working up and down its entire length.

Then moving quickly I took it over to my turning stanchions and bent it around, clamping as I went. Thanks to my lovely clamp girl, pictured above, for her assistance. I repeated this procedure with each of the pieces.

I let the bent bows stay on the stanchions for two weeks, covering them up at night to avoid the dew and fog. When I unclamped them they stayed pretty true to shape, but I tied the ends together to hold them in their curve until I was ready to use them on the wagon.



Learning Curve Note: I used thin PVC and it didn't hold up well to the boiling water. By the time I had done the last batch of bows it was severely deformed and had assumed a C-shape and an elliptical cross section. I would probably use the heavy, black, schedule-40 sewer pipe. It would be less effected by the boiling water. I would also use a larger diameter, that way I could soak more pieces at a time.