Weekend Update

 This was supposed to be a post about the first wall was standing and here's the video.  Didn't quite get there for a number of reasons, but I did:

• 
  Get the right side wall (left has been ready for a week) pocket drilled, grooves cleaned out, and a couple of little annoyances fixed.  Rounded corners cleaned up too!
• Varnished back wall, ceiling panels
• Accumulated a little more hardware in prep for final assembly. 

Fridge and stove shelves going together.  It took a little more time and a couple of false starts to get the clearance right so that things fit together properly.  

Hint: 40 thousandths seems about right.  Teeth are 1.98 and notches are 2.02 inches.  

Glued together with Titebond II.  They seem to be plenty strong.  

I got this task out of the way mostly on timing, and to ensure I could size the back partitions correctly. 

Roof spars bundled up to cut wireways.  Yes, I certainly could've done it on the table saw with a sled and a dado blade, but it would take me longer to set that up than it took to draw it in CAD and cut it with CNC.

These started out as an 11' plank of basswood that was pretty straight, dry and pretty good grain structure.  A few passes on the table saw and we have 1 1/4x 2¨ spars.  And I still have a nice bit of basswood in reserve (probably for the hatch!)

The sides came home.   You can see the cladding aluminum standing behind them waiting its turn.  The right side (shown here) will probably get bolted to the floor on Wednesday.

   

Last but not least, the trailer chassis finally got out of the garage, and the floor got checked for fit.  I always assumed it would fit properly - and it did.  

Varnish - step one

 Step one is really sand the heck out of everything, but we'll pretend that's step 0.8 and 0.9...

A bit of a hairy dog story, but Friday, on what was a brutally cold and windy day, I made my last big 'wood run'.  Not having a pickup or van, I hooked up the trusty utility trailer to the Volvo, and headed off to Forest Products for a stack of plywood.  Several dollars later, and I was on my way to the shop to rack and stack everything, and make a couple of re-cuts that were necessary due to my screwups in properly placing panels on the CNC - (which really stands for 'create new compostables'...)

On my way home, the trailer got hit by someone trying to drop in right behind me on the cloverleaf!  The trailer lost a clearance light, their car didn't fare so well.   They were nice about it, the young guy in the Smokey Bear was nice about it, so I just headed home.  I can replace a clearance light.

When I got back home, I had a great UPS 'present' waiting for me.  As I'd mentioned in the last post, I have become increasingly nervous about delivery times on components. So as I have finalized my choices, I'm ordering 'stuff'.  The ICECo VL45 cooler seems like a solid choice.  I knew I wanted a plug-in cooler, and after a fair amount of research, I decided on the VL45.  It'll be plenty big for a weekend's beverages and a steak or two :)

Tonight was spent laying down the first coat of varnish on the interior walls.  Mostly because of past experience with the vendor, I chose to go with TotalBoat light amber gloss varnish for the interior.  It's a couple of bucks more than some of the other products, but the quality is excellent, plus Jamestown and Totalboat stand behind their product.  

I chose to roll on the base coat with a 1/4¨ nap 6" roller, and then tip it with a 3¨ polyester/nylon brush.  I can still feel a little roughness in the surface, which will get knocked down by the next sanding pass (320/400) and we'll see whether it needs 3 or 4 coats!

Panels drying in the finish room