Projects

Nothing stays the same until it’s actually built.  More changes in the works.

(date unknown)

No pic here because there isn’t really anything visual to show.  I have changed the wall heights and widths to match a change in construction.  Rather than building the walls onto the floor, which would decrease the inner space width by a couple of inches, the walls are now to be built on the outside of the floor, resting on metal support brackets supplied with the trailer then anchored into the side of the floor structure’s 2×2 frame. This will add a couple of inches to the height of the wall, since it will sit lower.

I increased the length of the entire unit to match the bolt holes already in the trailer frame.

Gotta start the actual framing – the 1x2s, 1x3s, 1x4s, & 1x6s that is the structure.  Can’t create a materials list without organizing my wood.

The trailer I downloaded from a BIM website was inaccurate.  The trailer must be 17.5 inches high.

I wanted to see how things would fit if I went with a 4×10 trailer instead of a 5×10.  It all fits.  I had to go with a smaller microwave.  This saved me two inches that I could use to include the sink I have.  Hmm.  Spend $80 on a new (smaller) microwave or $150 on a new (smaller) sink.  I went with smaller money – that is, smaller microwave and larger sink.

The trailer weights are similar.  Comparison:

• 4×8 – FoldingTrailers.ca – trailer 260 lbs – load 920 lbs – $650
• 4×8 – Muddy Waters – trailer 260 lbs – load 1720 lbs – $675
• 5×8 – Inflatable Boat Warehouse and Folding Trailer – trailer 295 lbs – load 1695 lbs – $950

All can be expanded to 10 feet by not using the hinge feature.  Not sure who will win out.  I did purchase the 5×8 last night from Inflatable’s website, but they won’t get shipment in from their suppliers until the end of Nov. 2018, so I had to cancel the order.  (Place Sad Face Here.)

Furthermore, I think the additional cost in materials – plywood, mainly – will necessitate going with a 4×8.

Plus, the Excel spreadsheet I have to calculate costs, weights, moments (weight distribution across the tires), and such is now geared for a 4×8 (that is, 4×10) trailer.

Here’s the latest.

I tried rotating the stove (cooker, stove top, hob, whatever you want to call it) to sit horizontal to the counter top.  I thought that it would offer better cooking ability to have the burners side-by-side.  But a) it doesn’t give enough clearance for the microwave shelf wall, and b) I think it takes up too much counter space.

I turned it back.

later

I created an antenna mount yesterday and put an antenna on it today.  Pretty time consuming making Families for Revit.  But I think it looks good.  I also put this on my blog.  See radio transceiver antenna mount.

Things change. In this version, the walls are corrected. The arc was wrong on a couple of walls. Just cleaning up the drawing and correcting mistakes that I knew were there. The roof is on. Now I’m playing with the best way to represent wall and roof 1×4 and 1x6s in Revit. Expensive framing add-on to Revit? Manually sticking lumber wherever I need it? Is there something in the Structural menu that I can use? Still fiddling, still learning. Once these are accomplished in a satisfactory way, I can begin working on the actual drawings, with dimensions and such. From there, a bill of materials.

In this design I tried to create, in Revit talk, a mass.  It’s a volume of space (3-dimensional) that is not meant to be seen in any drawings but gives the designer a shape to work something else around, like a roof.  I failed because of either a shortcoming in Revit or me, one that disallows masses to be extruded sideways (i.e. from one wall to the other).

As it happens, I didn’t really need this.  I could have just put a roof on an already existent structure – the walls – and offset the roof line by 1/4″ inch (so, in essence, drawing the ceiling line to make the roof).  Why 1/4″?  It’s the inner skin of the roof sandwich.

The inner 1/4″ ceiling plywood will be lain perpendicular to the walls, on the 1/4″ inner wall and 1×2 wall structure.  This will give it enough roof surface area to firmly attach to the walls.  1×2 spars will follow atop the 1/4″ inner ceiling plywood and give the force necessary to keep the ceiling plywood curved around the walls, starting at the front wall, around the front curve, and over top the actual roof, to terminate at the galley – all colour-coded here for your convenience.  Rigid polystyrene insulation will fill up the gaps between spars.  (Spars not included in this drawing.)

I know what you’re going to say.  “There seems to be a gap between the ceiling and the floor, in the second picture.”  Yes. I have to fix my walls.