March 29, 2012

Framing the walls

After we cut out the shape we started assembling the framing for the walls.  We decided to go with a 'sandwich' style wall so that we would be able to have insulation.  There are other examples we found online where people just used only a single thickness of plywood, but we felt that since we will be camping is possibly inclement weather it would be nice to have more of a barrier to the elements.  So in the end, the 'sandwich' will consist of the ½” exterior Okoume plywood, ¾” x 1 ½” Pine framing, and then ¼” Birch plywood at the interior. This allows us a ¾” space for insulation!


We made the framing process much easier by designing the whole layout in CAD first.  This way we could just bring the laptop out the the garage, throw on some dimensions and cut everything out.  The layout of the framing was determined by first figuring out a rough cabinetry layout.  Each of the verticals will be where a cabinet face will roughly be and the horizontal will be where the counter is... but more on that later.


The framing was secured by first running a bead of glue and then screwing into the ½” plywood.  We used standard ¾” screws which were embedded into the framing ¼”.  We also secured the framing to one another in key spots through the use of pocket screws. This gives us some added structural rigidity and gives us some nice points to secure the cabinetry into.

Rebecca measuring up some framing

Once one side was done, the other was copied.

Darrell sketching out the second side
We then did a dry fit on the ground just to get some idea of how things look - and they look amazing!



Next up, setting the walls on the trailer and the structural framing spars.  It's beginning to look like something now!

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