After the years of research, planning, sketching etc. we had a REAL good idea of what we wanted the trailer to look like. Of course there will and has been changes along the way. A good example of that is the 4' wide x 9' long x 12" deep storage area under the floor of the entire camper. It just seemed like a good idea and turned out better than I had hoped. WE now refer to this area as the basement. In the next post the basement will make more sense. Trust me.
I have a pretty large shop in the basement of our home, but it really was not set up for building a Mini-Camp Trailer. I had to rearrange things to make this work and give me the maximum amount of working space and still be able to use my table saw, miter saw, drill press as well as other hand and power tools. This was not a monumental issue but it did take more thinking and work than I anticipated.
The big area down the middle will be the construction area. It seems big enough to build build a 9' long x 5' wide x 5' high camper. Doesn't it? I will say that it has been challenging.
So here here we go. . . the photo above is actually the very "First Cut" I made on the mini-camper build. You may be wondering why I cut a one inch wide and eight foot long to the 3/4" plywood base. There is good reason and you will just have to bare with me as we go, cuz I been think'n bout this for a LONG time. It has to do with the very end of the build. When the camper gets its final covering. I will be using Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic or FRP. It happens that FRP comes in 4' x 8' sheets unless I order it special. "Special"always translates to, COSTS MORE $$$. If my base materials, walls floors, bulkheads are 4' x 8' and I add one piece of material to another piece of material, like a wall to the floor for example, this will change the finished width, length or height. This would be a BIG problem when it comes time to skin the exterior toward the end of the build. If anything, I want to skin the exterior and have to use an edge/trim router to cut tight flush edges that will not allow moisture in. More on this subject later.
Please note the 1" x 12" primed white lumber and side rail framing materials. I will talk more about this in another post called "What Materials I Used and Why."
The photos above are the beginning of the basement. The top of these two photos is the front of the mini camper (the end closest to the tow vehicle) and the bottom photo is the rear of the mini.
This photo above is the detail of the rear bottom of the mini. That is a 45 degree cut just shy of the 8' length of the 3/4"plywood base. (Remember the FRP. I want everything to cover with not gaps). I cut the 45 into the plywood freehand with a skill-saw and the 45 onto the 2"x4" on a small table saw. The two pieces are then glued and screwed.
Every joint that is made between two pieces of wood is glued and screwed. The adhesive I am using is Liquid Nail and the screws are "coated" deck screws. Every screw hole is pilot drilled and counter sunk. All of that being said, remember, I am building this in my basement. I have to always be thinking about what gets glued and what gets screwed now and what get glued and what gets screwed later. Remember, what gets built in the basement, has to come back out of the basement. . . in pieces! Sheeeesh! This is proving to be most challenging for sure.
On the night of the first cut and the other photos above, I stayed down in the shop WAY TO LONG. As a matter of fact until just about 3:00am. I don't know about you, but when you are in your shop and the temperature is right, the music is right and then you combined all that with the smell of cut lumber, liquid nail and the sound of a cordless torque driver, its hard to walk away.
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