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.