A couple of improvements.

Another trip to Idaho, with lots of compliments on the road. No rain on this trip so I didn't get to check the new cover. 

I added a small sink made from a copper kitchen bowl and a lantern storage box (replacing the small battery box and combustion air vent). 

The sink is very convenient. The water is delivered via a foot pump from a 3 gallon container under the seat, leaving both hands free for the abolutions. 

Two English vardos.

Just happened upon this charming scene while driving along a back road near Crewkerne, in Somerset County, England. 

Wintercount Gathering 2014

The Wintercount gathering is always a welcomed relief from the rain for us Northwesterners.  A long drive, for sure, but well worth it. George was there with the newly sided "Snail" so we formed a linear version of a circle of wagons. It was good to visit with old friends.

 

This was the first trip with the new kitchen box. A humble attempt at organization, it stows under the ledge for travel, and hooks onto the side of the wagon for use. The door folds down for a table. The primus stove (of which I'm a huge fan) sits on its own table away from the wagon for safety reasons. We always had a Primus stove camping when I was growing up. Even when we went on a car trip the folks would pull off along the side of the road, fire up the primus, and make a cup of tea somewhere around the half-way point. We were not unique in this regard.

I made a folding wind shield for the stove out of copper left over from the wagon bay window roof. These stoves don't like to start if there's even a slight breeze. The kitchen is fairly minimal as I don't do a lot of cooking as such while camping. I'll usually bake some biscuits in the Dutch oven to serve with soups and chili, etc., prepared ahead of time and canned.

Early morning.

The gizmo in front of the wagon in this picture is the new and latest obsession, a foot powered lathe. There is a new blog in the works for this project.

 

 George playing one of his hand made banjos.

The interior is starting to shape up.

Ron Myhre's Vardo

Back over Thanksgiving I spent a weekend with my family at Port Townsend, center of wood boat building and vardos, among other things, here in the Northwest. This is where Jim Tolpin lives. After visiting the wooden boat center we went for a browse around the town and stumbled upon the eclectic Curator's Eye, a tiny store down in the basement of the Bishop Hotel. Here I met  Ron Myhre, a very warm and outgoing person. He had some beautiful ornate wood carving in progress that caught my eye which, he explained, was to eventually go over the doorway of the vardo that he was building. Wow! An energetic conversation quickly erupted culminating in an invitation to his workshop.

The next day he called, right on time, and we followed him over to his shop. When he opened the door there stood the truly most spectacular piece of craftsmanship I have ever come across. The attention to detail and the care of its execution will stay with me always. Every angle and corner, every piece of hardware, the stained glass, the  mollycroft roof with its ceiling mural, the copper and iron work, and the carvings, were done, either by him, or his artist friends, to the highest standard of craftsmanship. Many of the details and doo-dads were chosen to reflect his Nordic origins (dragons and the like).

We spent two hours at his shop discussing all things wagon, tools, sharpening, and even Primus stoves, of which I'm a huge fan. We finished the morning following him to the Blue Moose restaurant, a local favorite down on the wharf.

Ron Myhre

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Putting a blog of the construction and details together is on Ron's to-do list. I felt reluctant to take too many pictures (don't want to steal any thunder here, that's for sure). What a great trip. Thanks Ron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wagons I have known, Part 2

I came upon this beat up old carcass of a sheepherders wagon back in 2008 while on a trip to Southeast Utah. This was one of the encounters that got me to thinking about building. I liked the simplicity of it and the fact that it was made almost entirely of backyard junk. Although Basque sheepherders were once commonly employed in this region, my guess is that this wagon come to its final resting place at a cattle ranch line camp. The metal roofing was attached using drywall corner bead and the end walls were made of plywood. The interior is sparsely furnished with makeshift cabinet and bed, now home to packrats and no-doubt rattlesnakes; hence the absence of interior photos.

The Big Road Test

I've just completed a 1500 mile round trip to Rexburg, Idaho, for the 2013 Rabbitstick Gathering. Gusty cross and head winds, along with heavy rain at times put the wagon through some serious stresses on the highway. With the exception of some leaking around the bay widow, everything held up fine. Rabbitstick was a hoot, as always, and the wagon was received with much appreciated enthusiasm. There will be more builds there in the coming year or two.

Sunrise at the Rabbitstick gathering, 2013.

A few changes since the last post. I've cut the porch poles to a more practical length and sealed them. The poles are of lodge pole pine finished with Super Deck sealer. I've added a storage box on the back deck which houses a small 12v deep cycle battery for charging the phone. I will eventually run a reading lamp from that battery. The box also houses the combustion air vent for the stove. Note the smoke rising from the chimney. This was the first run with the stove and it worked great, quickly warming my 25 square feet of living space with just a few pieces of wood.

Catching the morning sun after a light frost.



The wagon made a fine gathering place for some old time porch music
with Ray and Shirley Jacobs.

A welcomed break in the heavy rain and high winds early in the week .

View of the Snake River valley (Farewell Bend).

On the return trip I camped at a State Park. First time in a "normal" camp ground. I had no visitors, just a quiet morning and time to enjoy a cup of coffee brewed on the old Svea 123 primus stove. I love these stoves. I also have a Primus No.45 for the main cooking stove which I refurbished from eBay parts. After three years in the shop its moments like these (including all of the above) that make it worthwhile.

On the Road at Last

A quick post here with more details and pictures to follow (since this has been a hectic summer). The wagon is finally roadworthy! The interior is far from finished but the structural stuff is done. We took it to Echoes in Time last week for its maiden voyage, following a road and stress test earlier. We had a really great time and had many visitors and many great discussions. I was quite surprised at the number of people who knew of other builds. 

Having the sun come up one morning and light the interior was a moment that made all the hard work worth it; that and my daughter's delight at sleeping in the lower cozy bunk-bed.

Towing was far easier than expected even in a fairly strong wind, with the total lack of aerodynamics not appearing to present much of a problem. I kept the speed at 65mph.

A Handy Cheap Forge

The marine rail and latch for the stove were fashioned from 1/4th inch mild steel using this simple tin-can forge. I was introduced to this handy tool by Kiko Denzer at Echoes last summer. All that's required is a large tin can, a pair of holes, some kaowool, a turbo torch, and some firebricks. The forge is very useful for making small pieces of hardware, and unlike the rivet forge, is very quick to set up and very cheap to run.

Stove is Installed

This has been a fairly major project for the last month. The stove itself is a customized version of the Scout made by cylinder stoves. The owner was kind enough to sell me an un-assembled stove as well as fabricate a shortened barrel, allowing me to reduce the stove from its original 16" length to 12". I took the stove to a local welder for assembly, and I welded the legs and hinges myself. I modified the door hinge slightly to accommodate a fiberglass door gasket, and added the marine rail for aesthetics.

The heat shield is made from 1/4" tile backer to which has been glued 24 gauge steel, although I have used 16 gauge steel for the left side and base. The base is attached to a frame of 1"x1" steel tubing, and is 2" off the floor. The front edge of the base has a lip to help catch any embers that may fall.

I used stove gasket cement to bond the steel to the mineral tile backer. The shield is attached using carriage bolts and spacers to leave a 1" space between the shield and sides of the wagon. In the lower right of the right hand heat shield is a 5" x 2.5" combustion air vent.

When I am able to move the wagon out of the shop I will fire the stove up and use a laser/infra-red thermometer to check the effectiveness of the heat shield. I only intend to use the stove lightly to take the chill off the morning air, but would still like it to be far more safer than it needs to be.

Porch is Done

The porch and steps are almost finished, and I've installed the fascia trim. Its starting to look like a wagon now.


Following some questions posted earlier by Keith, below is a pic of the compass jig that I used to make the curved pieces. The jig has preset holes at the far left, and is attached to the bench with 1/4 carriage bolt through a bronze bushing. There is an adjustable plate near the router end that allows for fine tuning. As I mentioned already, the key here is to use a non-plunging router, as this will give a nice clean cut using four passes.

As requested, here is a larger image of the interior.

Progress on the Interior

The master bedroom is coming along. The bed platform is almost complete, as is the storage below. Borrowing heavily from George's work (see the link above) I've installed eastern aromatic cedar around the bed area and along the sides. I've also put fiberglass insulation in, which was covered with plastic sheeting prior to being enclosed with cedar. The bed platform houses a pull-out table made from scrap wood and an old mahogany table leg I found at an antique shop. The leg folds up under the table for storage.

The bay window is in, along with some nice brass English hardware. This window was quite difficult to make, there being lots of angles and mortise joints. I followed the constructions method outlined in this great article from Woodworkers Journal (the same method I used for the door). The router bits were expensive, but will worth the investment. I will eventually install plexiglass, and make a wood cover for traveling. This project took me about two weeks to complete, and still has to be varnished and roofed.

Door is coming along nicely

I've been working on the door for a couple of weeks and its almost ready to sand and varnish. Its made from 5/4 fir, reclaimed spruce, and and an old closet shelf that I found at a yard sale for $2.00. I used this latter piece for the raised panels. I used spruce for the window--it is much more friendlier on the router that fir, which tends to splinter. I plan to put plexi-glass in the window. The door measures 28 by 72 inches.

Very cool chuck wagon

    I chanced upon this beautiful authentic chuck wagon while on a recent trip through central Oregon this summer.

 

Roof is almost finished

Back at it after a long summer break.  The roof is now fiber-glassed and covered with canvas. Thanks to Brian for help with this, and to the folks at Fiberlay, Portland for their time and great instructions on how to do this. This part of the project was a big and very expensive risk, but I'm really pleased with the way it came out. It has the traditional canvas look, it is watertight, lightweight, and you could park an elephant on the roof.I feel confident that it will pass the highway test.

Roof Core is Finished

The roof has a core of 1/4th by 5/4th western red cedar lathes that have been beaded and coved using the same technique as wood-strip canoe construction. It will eventually be fiber-glassed, providing a watertight and lightweight roof ideal for our climate here. The inside will be insulated, so none of the cedar will be visible. Shame, but I just wanted the wood for its excellent strength-to-weight properties. I could have used thin plywood to achieve the same results, but the cove-and-bead method is free of tension (which is always preferred). The eaves are lined with 5/8th cedar, most of which was left over from when I repaired the hot tub.

 

After the repetitive work on the roof core I needed a break, so I've started some of the fancy work on the back end. The door is of 5/4 Douglass fir. The rails and stiles are made from old door stiles that I picked up at a yard sale ($2.00!). I may eventually carve a Celtic knot into the panel, but right now I need to focus on getting thing thing roadworthy.

Bowtop Ribs in Place

Finally, the ribs and braces are installed for the roof support. This proved difficult and demanding. After failing to make them by steaming oak, and then failing to make them by laminating strips of hemlock, I settled on joining sections cut with a router/compass jig. This method, although wasteful (to some degree) and very time-consuming, produced very accurate results once all the bugs were worked out. I used clear Douglass fir for its strength and beautiful grain even though that effectively wiped out any karma I built up using using salvage wood for the floor and walls. Two of the ribs don't go all the way down to the ledge. The rib behind the seat is shortened to allow for the possible installation of side windows later on. Shortening the rib at the upper bunk saved four valuable inches of sleeping space. There are certainly unique challenges to making a small space work.

The ribs also incorporate a side cabinet. This cabinet is fitted with a roll-top door--a necessary space-saving device as there just isn't room for doors that swing out. I have also begun finishing the seats and lower bunk since the work space is going to get pretty tight once the roof goes on.


  

The Walls are Up (almost)

I started this project just over a year ago. Finally the front and back wall are up and cut to shape. I had about six strips of wood left over.  I mentioned earlier that this wood was Douglas fir, but it is spruce. The curve was cut using a plunge router mounted to a pivot, simple in theory, but tricky. Key to making this device work well was using bronze bushings and drilling the pivot hole absolutely dead on perpendicular.

Long Summer Hiatus and Revisions

 
After a long break, and time to think, I have decided to abandon the idea of the fold-down design. Its just too complicated and I have many concerns about how watertight it will be. So I tore down the back wall and have begun rebuilding it on a rigid frame. I'm also roughing in some of the interior features and figuring out how the potbelly stove will fit..

This shows one of the benches. It is wide enough for two people of modest girth and the bench doubles as storage. The curved back is made from African mahogany. The square hole to the left of the bench will house a cabinet with drawers.