VAL Digest V1 #147

VAL Digest          Tuesday, February 3 2004          Volume 01 : Number 147




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Topics in Today's Digest:

[VAL] Re: a progress report
[VAL] Gaucho envy
Re: [VAL] Gaucho envy
Re: [VAL] Gaucho envy
Re: [VAL] Sandwiched Flooring

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Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 01:41:13 EST
From: RESORARCHITECT@xxxxxxxxxx.com
Subject: [VAL] Re: a progress report

Hello!
The blackwater tank is back in the original underside compartment with some 
minor alterations to allign the waste intake directly under the new toilet. If 
you look down the opened toilet valve in the open mode...you can see straight 
down to the tank. Home depot was a big help in getting all the plumbing peices 
needed to almost totally replace the original drain lines. I'll get to the 
hot and cold lines later. I was able to fill in all the gaps and holes and 
recover the floor with some self adhesive backed vinyl tiles in a parque pattern. 
It was quite easy to carefully cut each tile and over several hours...one by 
one...the tiles went down on the cleaned original plywood floor. Looking into 
the rear compartment is now as clean as a kitchen counter. 
I'm still uncertain about where to mount the water pump. I'm inclined to 
mount it in the front of the rig perhaps behind the oven. Will that get too hot if 
someone is using the oven? Is anyone out there removing the cabinets on a 
'60's unit? We need some of the thumb latches unique to the '60 thru '65 cabinet 
doors. Thanks Stuart.

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Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 06:31:17 -0800
From: Glyn Judson <glynjudson@xxxxxxxxxx.net>
Subject: [VAL] Gaucho envy

All, 

   I just responded to a fellow on airstreamforums.com from Mesa AZ last
night who's offering, among other things, a Gaucho from his 1969 Overlander.
I contacted him in hopes that he'll respond and help me end my vintage parts
search, at least as far as filling the empty space in the front of my
Caravel is concerned.  My hope is that I can obtain his and modify it or
simply use it as a pattern to remake my own.

    Update:  He and I did connect last night and I think it's going to work
to get his old Gaucho minus the foam cushions that I'll have to pick others'
brains about. 

   While here on the keyboard I thought of several other things to discuss.

   Is there a method of straightening bowed doors?  I have several like
that, the worst being the main hanging locker.  On that same subject and
timely in light of mention of the above Gaucho that does not have the
storage doors, I experimented making my own doors several weeks ago with
great success.  

    I made a small sample door 10 1/8" X 10 1/8" from some scrap 1/8" birch
plywood and some 3/16" strips I ripped from the edge of a 1" X 2".  I made a
rectangular pattern of the strips that fit flush up to the outside edge of
the plywood and added a vertical down the center for added strength.  Once I
saw that everything was going to fit, I glued the strips on one side with
Titebond and laid them down on the ply.  I then applied glue to the other
side of the strips and laid the other ply on them.  After carefully clamping
all four sides with a bunch of Stanley Utility clamps and letting it sit
over night, it emerged the next morning a cool looking door that's as strong
as can be.  I then trimmed the edges with the vertical disc sander on my old
Shopsmith (remember those?) so that it's now 10" square with beautiful
finished edges.  

       I might attempt to make my own real doors using this same method for
the Gaucho frame.  The only thing I might change would be to use West System
105 epoxy with thickener instead of the Titebond.

   Has anyone tried this before with what results?  What was done
differently?  Am I overlooking something important?

   Thanks,

   Glyn Judson
   1969 Airstream #508
   Santa Monica CA 

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Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 14:46:20 -0700
From: "Stan Truitt" <stan.truitt@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
Subject: Re: [VAL] Gaucho envy

>Is there a method of straightening bowed doors?<

hello glyn
bowed and warped doors are a problem with old trailers. typically, the doors
in our trailers are made of a rabited soft wood frame covered by thin
plywood veneers. this leaves the interior of the door mostly hollow. the
shrinkage of the different type of woods as well as the relatively weak
inter-stucture of the frame can result in the bowing problem.  moisture and
heat also effect them. warped doors are almost imposible to straighten out
as are small (say 12" x 16") bowed doors but the longer doors can sometimes
be made straight or at least usable. bowed, meaning to me concaved or
convexed are sometimes restored by placing the center of the bow on a 4x4
and applying presure on each end in an opposite direction. given time, i
have used this method with some success.  making new doors is fine but
rarely can you get the same grain structure and color match is a challenge
as well. i have also removed the original thin plywood veneers and reglued
to a new core made of mdf. the mdf is very stable but very heavy. i usually
cut out the center section of the mdf and apply a thin laminate on the
backside. that way you have created a interior framework similar to the
structure of the original but more stable to temp and humidity changes. its
a big job but what is not in airstream restoration?
good luck
harry
66 safari
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glyn Judson" <glynjudson@xxxxxxxxxx.net>
To: <valist@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 7:31 AM
Subject: [VAL] Gaucho envy


> All,
>
>    I just responded to a fellow on airstreamforums.com from Mesa AZ last
> night who's offering, among other things, a Gaucho from his 1969
Overlander.
> I contacted him in hopes that he'll respond and help me end my vintage
parts
> search, at least as far as filling the empty space in the front of my
> Caravel is concerned.  My hope is that I can obtain his and modify it or
> simply use it as a pattern to remake my own.
>
>     Update:  He and I did connect last night and I think it's going to
work
> to get his old Gaucho minus the foam cushions that I'll have to pick
others'
> brains about.
>
>    While here on the keyboard I thought of several other things to
discuss.
>
>    Is there a method of straightening bowed doors?  I have several like
> that, the worst being the main hanging locker.  On that same subject and
> timely in light of mention of the above Gaucho that does not have the
> storage doors, I experimented making my own doors several weeks ago with
> great success.
>
>     I made a small sample door 10 1/8" X 10 1/8" from some scrap 1/8"
birch
> plywood and some 3/16" strips I ripped from the edge of a 1" X 2".  I made
a
> rectangular pattern of the strips that fit flush up to the outside edge of
> the plywood and added a vertical down the center for added strength.  Once
I
> saw that everything was going to fit, I glued the strips on one side with
> Titebond and laid them down on the ply.  I then applied glue to the other
> side of the strips and laid the other ply on them.  After carefully
clamping
> all four sides with a bunch of Stanley Utility clamps and letting it sit
> over night, it emerged the next morning a cool looking door that's as
strong
> as can be.  I then trimmed the edges with the vertical disc sander on my
old
> Shopsmith (remember those?) so that it's now 10" square with beautiful
> finished edges.
>
>        I might attempt to make my own real doors using this same method
for
> the Gaucho frame.  The only thing I might change would be to use West
System
> 105 epoxy with thickener instead of the Titebond.
>
>    Has anyone tried this before with what results?  What was done
> differently?  Am I overlooking something important?
>
>    Thanks,
>
>    Glyn Judson
>    1969 Airstream #508
>    Santa Monica CA
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> When replying to a message. please delete all unnecessary original text
>
> To unsubscribe or change to a digest format, please go to
> http://www.tompatterson.com/VAC/VAList/listoffice.html

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 16:38:14 -0600
From: "Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <geraldj@xxxxxxxxxx.net>
Subject: Re: [VAL] Gaucho envy

A grid of relatively thin wood strips between two thin skins can make a
very light weight door (shelf or table top) that is very stiff. Works
best with a honeycomb, but maybe 1/4" thick strips (on edge) an inch
wide on about 4" centers works well. Its good to notch each of the
strips half way where they cross so there's full length strips in both
directions (glued of course). There was an article on this in Fine
Homebuilding probably 12 or 14 years ago. I have it here somewhere but
doubt I could come up with it. Hollow core doors for houses use
cardboard rings and honeycomb for that spacing. Sometime after that
article I made a conductor's podium about 42" square but since I had
1/2" plywood for the top surface I used 3/4" x 1-1/2 strips on 8"
centers without a bottom to the grid, which still kept the podium light
and easy to move about and its withstood over 500 pounds (two people)
without breaking. So its not yet WELL engineered. Could be lighter yet.

The key is to make the assembly thickness as great as possible, an inch
or two is good. Two inches is 8 times stronger in bending than 1 inch.
1.5" is over 3 times as strong as 1 inch. A door needs a thicker edge at
hinges and latches, but the edge can be thin for lightness everywhere
else.

Also TV type woodworker Norm Abrams now says that breadboard ends on a
breadboard have to be only glued and solidly pined at the middle, else
the cross grain motion of the middle of the breadboard which is great
from humidity changes will be restrained by the straight grain's smaller
growth and shrinkage in the breadboard end and cause the middle of the
breadboard table top to split. That's why the panels in a rail, style,
and panel door are not glued in place. Though at least on in this old
house has been glued by layers of paint and has split with a bigger gap
in the winter. This would also apply to the cross pieces in a door. I
suppose one could make the cross pieces out of cutoffs from the END of a
wide plank to keep all the grain in the same direction. Though if the
skins are plywood, instead of a single veneer that would be less of a
problem, though really thin plywood is very expensive stuff.

As deep as the boxed magazine piles are upstairs, it may take days to
find that Fine Homebuilding article, or maybe even months. They may have
an index on line, every once in a while they do print an index of all
published issues.

Gerald J.
- -- 
Entire content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer.
Reproduction by permission only.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 15:12:13 +0900
From: Jeffrey Fryckman <fryckman@xxxxxxxxxx.att.ne.jp>
Subject: Re: [VAL] Sandwiched Flooring

Thanks!  See opinions are very valuable.

JF

On Thursday, January 29, 2004, at 10:47 PM, Louis Joyner wrote:

> Oh Jeffrey, you should know better than to ask people for their 
> opinions.
> Especially in this context.
>
> But here's mine:  Aluminum plate could make a great floor, but 
> substituting
> a new material for the plywood will open a can of worms you may prefer 
> not
> to deal with.  Leaving aside the weight question, you have issues of
> thickness of material, galvanic corrosion where aluminum meets steel,
> fasteners, relative strenght of aluminum vs. pywood ....A potentially 
> much
> longer list.  Much of it has to do with how the AS was assembled, and 
> how
> parts depend on one another structurally.
>
> Sort through your intentions, then see if the exercise will meet them.
>
> Louis Joyner

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End of VAL Digest V1 #147
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