Insulation and the Smell of Cedar

A successful, but shortened weekend.  I wasn't feeling great this weekend, but I did manage to get a couple of things mostly finished.  I installed the insulation on the ceiling.  I used the PL 300 adhesive, which is especially formulated for foam board.  It seemed to work well, but it did not have as high an initial tack as I wished it had.  I ended up needing to brace the ceiling panels.  I suppose I could have been more methodical about it and cut specific pieces of wood to brace the ceiling, but I just used whatever I had in the workshop.

 

I let the insulation cure overnight; actually I ended up taking two evenings to get the whole ceiling done.  I did the front one night and then the back the next.  I would have liked to have done it all in one session, but the bracing that was needed slowed me down and made it kind of difficult to maneuver inside the cabin.

I had some help from my amazing daughter.  She helped me cut the material to cover the door insulation.  This was partly experimental and partly finesse work; she is much better at this than I am.  Plus, I loved that she was taking part in the process.  She'll really appreciate the doors a lot more now!  We'll use the spray adhesive to hold this all in place; it's pinned now so that we could experiment with how to apply it.

Fashionable, even in the workshop!

 

One door prototype ready for installation.

I invited my wife out to give her insight on how to proceed with finishing the ceiling.  She was not a big fan of the carpet on the ceiling.  Instead, she suggested, maybe we could use cedar or tongue and groove pine.  She was right; the finish would not have been what I wanted on the ceiling, no matter how carefully I tried to install it. 

 So, I went to the hardware store and purchased some incredibly aromatic cedar.  I wish there was a way to capture the lovely smell!  I used the 1/4" thick cedar on the ceiling and it worked beautifully!  The only thing that was a little tricky was getting it to 'stay' on the ceiling.  I was using the PL 300 adhesive for foam board to hold the strips in place.  That worked okay until I got about four strips in place and the combined weight started to pull them off.  

I purchased a brad nailer at Lowes and tried using 5/8" brads every six inches or so.  That sort of worked, but the brads were only anchored into the foam; so they didn't have much holding power.  I ended up needing to brace the ceiling, which made working a bit tough.  You can see from the images that I finally figured out that using one thin piece, which bent, allowed the pressure to be spread across the entire area being supported.

I finished the entire ceiling today.  I'm thinking about putting it in the bulkhead section too.  It would make the cabinet/closet a bit nicer and would make it smell great too!  The Fantastic Vent was going all day today and made working in the cabin bearable with the sunshine pounding down on the teardrop.

One really interesting thing I discovered this weekend.  The teardrop's temperature gauge showed that the insulation is making a huge difference.  Without the insulation, the interior temperature rose to over 114 degrees.  With the insulation, the highest it got this weekend was about 80 degrees.  It was a little cooler, but still, that shows that the one inch of insulation is making a big difference!

After letting the ceiling 'cure' overnight, I'll be anxious to add the weather stripping seals and then try out the door with the insulation.  I'm looking forward to receiving my baskets this week.  One last week of school responsibilities; even so, I should be able to do some work each evening.

Electrical Success and Beginning Insulation

It was a good weekend of work on the Carpe Diem.  I finished all of the electrical in the galley and even figured out what I had done wrong on the switch for the porch lights!

I cleaned up all the wiring an then, still not sure if this is the best idea or not, I used the hot glue gun to anchor the wires.  I would have used wire clamps, but I couldn't screw them into the aluminum because there was nothing behind it.

Jack helped me cut and fit the pieces of insulation for the ceiling and the storage shelf area.  We just used friction to hold them into place now.  I still want to figure out how I'm going to cover the insulation.

Even the ceiling is coming along.  This is a really cool view of the teardrop; you can see how it is all coming together.

The weatherstripping on the doors is not quite thick enough.  It is a little hard to see in this image, but there is tiny gap near the floor.  I got another package of the thicker stuff and will try it when I have some more time.

These 27 LED lights were on sale at Harbor Freight for $3.00.  They have the adjustable hook and a magnet on the back.  They hang from the hinge on the door and will be great for when you have to go to the restroom or the shower.

The AC power system is still not working.  I am going to try re-stripping the wires and reconnect.

I suppose, even though I was very careful in the process, that I could have switched the two ends.  Someone noticed in one of my pictures that I could have accidentally sliced the wires when I was stripping the insulation.  I'll try re-doing the wires first to see if that might be the problem.  

One thing I thought about after climbing around inside the cabin is what to do with the storage shelf area.  I had planned to build cabinets there.  Now I'm not sure.  I'll have to figure out how to arrange the 12 volt and 120 volt plugs if I don't build the cabinets.  I'll think about it a bit more this week.