Building the Galley Hatch

    In this post, I'll be going through the process of building the galley hatch.  I'll start by shaping and fitting the parts for the hatch frame and end with the application of a sub-skin similar to the process explained in the last post for closing up the roof.  The hatch is the last major exterior component that remains to be built before I can start the process of finishing it off with aluminum.  You may remember that the interior of the sleeping cabin is a combination of sapele and maple.  I have decided to go with white oak and sapele in the galley.  In keeping with this scheme, the hatch frame will be made of sapele and the skin of 1/4" oak plywood.
    If you have read the post about making the camper sides or the one about the building the trims, then you are familiar with the process of making parts from a master template.  The same process and the same template were used to shape the curved rails for the hatch frame.  Next the ends were cut so that they butt into the spar running across the top of the galley opening, sit on the galley floor, and follow the curve of the side wall.   Satisfied with the fit, I marked them for the placement of the cross braces, and screwed them together without glue so I could check the fit and work out the size of the skin before making anything irreversible.

On the left are the hatch side rails, on the right the cross braces, and in the middle are the oak dowels that will be used to make pegs for the joinery and plugs for the screw holes.

A marking stick helps to figure out the spacing of the cross pieces.

Once the spacing is marked on one, the two sides are matched up and the marks transferred. The marks on the broad side of the pieces indicate the placement of the screws and pegs. 

Once it is screwed together, I stuck it in the opening to check the fit... pretty good.

Here you can see the frame butting against the hinge spar at the edge of the roof.

     Now that I know that everything is copacetic, it's time to take it all apart, but there are a couple of things I need to do first.  I need pegs, plugs, and holes to put them in.  You always want to do everything you can before you get the glue out.

The plugs on the left have beveled ends so that they will easily tap into  the countersunk screw holes.  The pegs on the right have tapered ends and flats sanded on their sides to about 3/4" from the end that will be exposed.   The Flats are necessary to give the glue somewhere to go.   Without them, the hydraulic pressure created  by driving the peg in can split the wood apart along it's grain.

Here you can see the 2 1/2" peg and screw.  The blue tape flag on the drill is my depth gauge.

All the holes are drilled.

Here the frame is disassembled and ready for glue.

     In that last picture you can see how the joint works.  The screw driven into the bottom hole acts just as a clamp would to draw the joint together while the peg glued into the top hole prevents rotation of the cross piece while the glue sets and permanently bonds the two pieces.  Because the screw is a mechanical fastener, there is the possibility that it could eventually loosen with the seasonal movement of the wood and road vibration.  The glued peg is what will give this joint it's real strength.  Once that peg is driven, there is no separating those two pieces.  Looking at that picture I realize something else;  It bears a striking resemblance to something you might find in a set of IKEA instructions, and as such I feel a little conflicted about my seemingly excessive wordiness.  I should be able to explain this whole thing with a few line drawings of a grinning chubby dude wielding a drill and hammer.  I guess thats not going to happen, but I feel I should do something to honor the inherent IKEA-ness of this particular bit of joinery.  I hereby dub this joint, the SCROOPEG joint.

I removed one side of the frame, applied glue to both sides of all 5 joints, and using the screw heads to register the parts, pulled it all together by driving the screws.

I squeezed the top of each joint with a clamp, painted up the inside of the hole with glue, and drove in the peg until it bottomed out.

All of the holes are pegged or plugged.

Using a piece of plastic laminate to protect the wood, the plugs and pegs are cut off close to flush.  I'll grind them flush with a sander.

     Now that the hatch frame is assembled, it's time to work with the skin.  First, I cut my sheet of 1/4" oak plywood a couple of inches longer than what I will need.  I'm going to have to rabbet the edge that will receive the hinge (make it thinner) so that it will be flush to the masonite sub-skin on the roof.  The extra length will give me a second chance if I screw it up.  

The top edge is made flush and screwed down.  Then each cross member gets a screw in the center and at each end.  You can see the rabbeted edge where the hinge will be attached.

At this point, the hatch is put back into the opening and the bottom is marked where it will be cut.

Here you can see the line drawn across the bottom where that extra length will be cut off.  

The pilot holes have been made for the remaining screws about every 3" along the frame sides and cross braces.

     The next step is to remove the skin and cut it to length.   I had Kat help me with the glue up because a helper is always good when you are racing against the glue.  We got the glue, a big pile of screws and some clamps all ready to go and we were ready.

So this is sort of a nutty angle, but what you are looking at is the bottom end of the skin being held away from the frame while the top edge is being aligned and fastened.  Notice the glue spread on both surfaces to be bonded.

Fastening down the top edge.

Because the first row of screws needs to be 1" back from the edge to be out of the way of the hinge, the leading edge needs to be clamped tight to insure a sound bond that conforms to the curve of the frame.

All glued.  When the glue has dried I will replace the screws with staples. this will make it easier to get a nice smooth finished surface.

    

   

Her's what the inside of the finished hatch looks like.

It's a hatchback.

   

Teardroppy.

     Now I have to put a finish on it.... ugh.  Once that dreaded task is done, it will be time to do some aluminum work, hopefully.  I  sent a quote request to a local metal shop for all the aluminum parts I'll need to skin the exterior.  Based on their website, I thought it was a good prospect, but I haven't heard back.  They may be a strictly wholesale company.  At this point, I don't know where I'm getting my metal.  I'll figure something out.
     In the last post I introduced "Kinsey's Korner".  This is the feature of the blog that will be authored by my younger daughter Kinsey as she shares her thoughts about our travels.  This time we will have the first installment of Zoe's portion of the blog.  With that, I give you... Well, Zoe hasn't yet settled on a satisfactory title for her segment, so for now we're going with this:

Zoe Says...

This SummerI'm going on a cross country trip.I am looking forward to seeing all of the different states, cultures,and wildlife.  My one worry is that we are going to be riding in dad's truck, and so far he's done an extremely impressive job of keeping it clean.  Dad is planning on having two children living in that vehicle for seven weeks... I wonder what it will look like at the end of the Summer?

                       It's good to know that Zoe and I share some of the same concerns.

Raise The Roof, Popov's in Da house!

    This time, I'll be talking about closing up the roof on the little trailer.  This was a particularly fun step because not only does it make the trailer seem that much more substantial, but it also feels a bit like closing a chapter.  The wiring, the ceiling, the trim installation;  all were contingent on access through the open roof.  Closing in the roof means (unless I really screwed up) that all of those things are in the rear view mirror.  It was also fun because Dan and Martha, my in laws, were up this weekend and as always, made getting things done just a little easier.  The kids are always glad to be kept occupied by GrandMar and as long as Kat has been my wife we have been keeping Popov busy with our projects.  For the uninitiated, GrandMar and Popov are Dan and Martha's grandparent names. As they have been a part of all of our family projects, it is fitting that they should be a part of the "Little Trailer Project".  The pictures below show the open roof ready to be closed in.

This picture shows the back of the forward cabinet with the wiring for the electrical outlets and reading light.

The blue box on the left contains the wiring for the fan / vent.  The one on the right contains the wiring for the interior dome light.  Further back are the wires splitting left and right for the exterior porch lights.

    The next step is cutting insulation to fit in each of the cavities between the framing.  I used two layers of 3/4" thick styrofoam sheets.  The two layers made it pretty easy to cut out for the wiring.  It was a fairly simple cut and fit process; matching angles and cutting around the obstacles.  The irritating part was all the tiny bits of styrofoam flying around and sticking to everything including me; I literally had to vacuum myself.

The insulation is installed and the wiring is marked where it goes through the spars.  Although the wires should be low enough that the staples will not reach them, I'll avoid those spots just in case.

     After The insulating is done, it's time to test the fit of the 1/8" masonite hardboard sub-skin.  I call it a sub-skin because eventually, it will be covered with an aluminum skin.  It must fit flush to the last spar (the hinge spar) and follow the seem of the camper sides and trim all the way forward.  To check the fit, I clamped it flush to the last spar, weighted the top, and pressed the front down.  After clamping the whole thing into place, I marked out the locations of the spars on the skin and drew lines indicating where all the framing will be.  

Here the masonite is clamped flush to the hinge spar.

You can see how the skin will need to be forced into shape.

With the top weighted and the front clamped down, I can mark the locations of the centers of the framing members (marked out on the blue tape).

     The next part requires some assistance and that is where Dan comes in.  We positioned the skin on the camper and made some reference marks so that we could place it without smearing the glue all over.  After a dry run placing the skin we were ready for glue.  A generous bead of glue was applied to the tops of all the framing members and we set the skin in place.  Once I was satisfied that we had it lined up just right, I stapled it down to the last spar, working out from the center stapling about every 3".  From there, we worked forward, one spar at a time; working out from the center line smoothing and compressing the skin as we went.  The 4'x8' sheet is about 5" shy of covering the whole top, so a piece was cut to fill in the remainder after we got the whole thing stapled down.

Glue.

More Glue.

Here she is with her sub- skin all stapled down, lookin' smooth.

Finally, the fan/vent hole is flush trimmed to the framed opening.

   This step makes the camper look more finished, but it also goes a long way to reinforcing its structure.  Tying all of the individual parts together with one seamless sheet means that they will all share stresses and that they all work together to make the whole assembly rigid.  This is now one very solid box.  

    Overnight, we got about 5" of new snow, and true to form, Martha took care of the catastrophe that was our post-breakfast kitchen, installed a gunk catching mat in the toaster oven and mended the puff ball on Kinsey's hat while Dan helped with the snow clean up.  As always, thank you D & M for all your help.  The snow brought with it something we haven't seen around here in quite some time: temperatures climbing into the 30's and it felt nearly tropical.  I mention this because it brings me to my final topic of discussion.  

     When we set out on our journey this summer, the little trailer will be pulled by my truck.  I love my truck and I really do not love child induced car filth. If you have children, you know what I mean.  In anticipation of a solid summer's worth of the girls trying to destroy my truck's interior, I got myself a Christmas gift: seat covers.  Until now, the weather has not permitted me to install them.  One look at the weather forecast confirmed that my window was narrow; the high tomorrow is a windy 12.  It was an absolutely beautiful day; sunny, calm , and 40 degrees.  It was really nice to just be outside comfortably.

Front before

Rear before

Front after

Rear after

    While we are on the subject of the kids, I have one last thought to leave you with.  One of our goals for this trip is to have the girls participate wherever possible, and a part of that will be putting their thoughts into the blog.   By way of introduction to that idea I have suggested that they write a little something about their expectations of the upcoming trip and the trailer project.  Without further ado, I give you the first installment of "Kinsey's Korner"...

                                                    Kinsey's Korner

      I guarantee that we will have a great time on our cross country trip. I just know it. I say that we will have a good time because we will be all together as a whole family. Dad's not at work. Mom's not at work. Zoe's not all the way down the hall in Tatham School, and me, I am not all the way in the first classroom doing Math work. I'm very excited about it. Maybe we'll see elephants, maybe we'll see red tailed hawks, maybe we'll see scary legends or ones as sweet as a heart full of love.

But my, oh my, am I not surprised that my dad can build a trailer with just a little help. If you ask my opinion I would say that my dad is very, very talented. 

Finishing up the Trim... Finally

     Due to a ridiculously relentless onslaught of winter weather, the need to make progress on some other side projects, the usual things like work and bedtime stories, and the fact that I generally dislike the finishing parts of any project, the most recent step in "The Little Trailer Project" has taken what seems like forever to come to fruition.  The good news is that it is finally done; glued and screwed.  In "Trimming up the Trim" we discussed building the trims and left off at the point of putting a stain and finish on them.  After doing a final sanding and addressing any defects, I applied two coats of oil based black stain.  The black will give a sharp contrast to the natural wood color and match the other exterior components and trailer frame.

  

     This is how the finishing process began.  I cleaned up the shop, laid the trims out and stained them.  Next I brushed on the first coat of polyurethane...  I thought I could get away with doing it all in my shop with a brush.  I'm certain that some people can, but I am equally certain that I can't.  On that first coat I had drips and sags all over the place, so I decided to turn  them over and do all the back sealing coats with a brush and take them to work to spray the final coats on the fronts.  After some tedious scraping and sanding, I got the drips and sags smoothed out.  The finish coats went on uneventfully enough, but I did manage to get a few four letter words in there before it was over with.  The finish room is pretty cold this time of year, thus polyurethane takes longer than usual to dry.  Knowing this, I carefully touched one of the trims the day after I had sprayed on the final coat and found it dry.  Immediately thereafter, I walked across the room (to where air circulation was a little less) to the other piece and dragged my fingers across the surface leaving two nice hazy streaks right at what will be eye level on the camper.  Insert your favorite foul language here.  The shakers built furniture that was deliberately flawed because only God made things that were perfect and to try to do the same was above their station.  I have yet to build something that required the deliberate introduction of a flaw.  Hopefully, I'll be able to buff it out a bit.  In any case, The flawed trim belongs to the passenger side, so I have decided that that will be Kat's side of the bed.  

    Flawed or not, the trim is ready to install.  Before finishing, the trims were fit and biscuit slots were cut in the forward section to join them to the camper where I would be unable to get a screw in.  I had Kat help me with the actual installation as there is a fair amount to juggle and it's always good to have a hand when glue is involved.  After the trims were clamped in place and pilot holes were made, we took it all apart and started gluing.  

The first step was to fill the gutter between the camper side and the trailer frame with black silicone.

Next, a bead of glue is laid along the camper side about the height of the center of the trim piece.  

The same process is repeated for the rear trim.

Screws are driven through the inside of the camper wall, just above the floor, into the lower trims.

The lower trims are installed and a bead of glue has been laid for the curved upper trim.

Here you can see the biscuits in the lower trim and camper side.  The blue tape is just a guide for the glue placement.

Screws behind the forward cabinet

In the galley opening, I nailed the trim from the inside, and will fill the holes with color putty.  The tape allows me to mark where I want to shoot the nails.

I look pretty serious here, don't I?

Remember all those screw holes along the floor of the cabin?  A molding runs around the bottom edge of the wall to cover them.

Me and my lovely assistant sitting in our newly trimmed trailer.

   Cute couple, huh?  I think the trailer is looking pretty snappy, too.  Although it is has a long way to go, the trims definitely give it a cleaner and more finished off look.  Now that the trims are on, I can get to work on insulating and closing in the roof.  It seems like an awfully short post for something that was so long in coming.