The Ceilidh Project
Progress Reports
It's time to actually start being creative!
The new ceiling is in and
looking good.
This won't really be seen at all in the
end.
I can't cut a straight line to
save my ass.
This setup worked perfectly. No I wasn't using
that jigsaw to cut the Luann. lol
Well I was but not those long straight cuts.
Design on the fly.
Draw it right out on the wall and you can see exactly how they
relate to the existing framework.
Cutting out the portholes with
a rusty hand saw.
I cut out the inside section first so I could use it as a plug
to fill the hole later.
I love this saw.
It cut a nice even easy swath through the foam.
Portholes cut out & Top and Bottom supports in.
It was a constant battle with
foam scrap.
Every possible joint of hole is filled
with the stuff.
All nice and even and feels pretty darn strong.
A blowtorch is an amazing
artistic tool.
And a definite must have when simulating aged wood.
Nice dark stain.
Got a gallon of Early American.
Feels like the ship is wearing
prison stripes!
These will be the cracks between planks.
Probably won't be seen but just in case...
Grrr and damn. I really messed
up there.
I reckon it cost me an extra $20 in materials and 14 hours of
work by having to thin of Styrofoam.
My buddy John in the first of
what will be many plank ripping parties.
We did set up a nice table assembly line system.
Took me an entire day to stain all that wood.
Glued, Screwed, Drilled, Glued,
Pegged, Sawed, Sanded and Stained again.
With a strip of black rope glued between every plank. It's a lot
of work but it will look good.
It looks like a School bus?
I'll fix that!
Thanks John.
The all new curved line of
portholes.
I have to admit it seriously raised the coolness factor.
More foam? Aaaaah!
As much as I love the stuff I am soooo sick of spray foam!
Please check back as we continue to build the Ceilidh.
Portholes Ho!
Finally it's time to make some art!
To do things in the right order I need to start on the ceiling. It may seem strange but the design details call for it. This base ceiling won't be seen in the end anyway.
I cut some furring strips 1" taller than the ceiling and used those to hold the Luann up while the glue set. The panels are all air nailed in as well. Looking good!
With the clean floor, walls and now the ceiling it is really feeling like a different RV.
I drew the portholes right on the wall and spaced them out according to the metal framework and balanced to the other side. 16" openings. About half will be screen, a few smoked Plexiglas and a couple fakes that are behind cabinets.
I cut out the inside of each porthole to use as a filler plug to keep out rain and such. I ran 2x2's as upper and lower supports. Lots of Liquid nails and more foam!
Furring strips for the uprights and it was time to stain.
Another trip to the hardware store. $111.11
Isn't that an awesome number! More lumber, the gallon of stain, a nice new paintbrush, more spray foam.
This was all over the course of several days. Most times every other day was devoted to sawing off excess foam and cleaning up. Spray it on, saw it off, sweep it up. An endless cycle but the stuff is perfect for this type of project.
Used my trusty blowtorch to age the wood some and stained it all.
The portholes are in yaaaaaah!
Time for some planking on the walls.
To simulate inboard planking I am using Luann cut into 6" strips with a runner of twine glued between each strip. I dyed a couple rolls of baling twine black to look like the tarred gasketing that was put between real ships planks.
I realize this looks like cheap paneling on it's side in the pictures but in person it is a really good effect and instantly makes you think you are inside a large ship. There is really no other structure built this way.
Here's where the first problem hit. The Styrofoam I got was a little too thin and didn't fill out the walls evenly. In hindsight knowing how I was going to skin the walls I should have paid more attention to it but now I noticed.
I ended up cutting a bunch of strips and gluing them in with liquid nails to fill out the wall level. Man was that a lot of wasted work and money.
Painted flat black stripes in where all the cracks between planks will be just in case I don't get a solid seal on every single crack =)
We set up an assembly line and cut 7 sheets of Luann into plank strips. We'll be doing a lot of this over the course of this project.
Stained on all 4 sides so I can get some variation in the wood used. I had drying tables filling all 4 horse stalls. Good thing we don't have any horses here right now!
Did I mention my Buddy John? We go way back to my Robot Combat days. This is his place we're building the Ceilidh at. Great place for it. Can't imagine what the neighbors are thinking as it shapes out. lol
Well we're standing there looking at her and he says "With those straight square windows it looks kinda like a school bus."
WTF? OMG!
Now every time I look at it I think it looks like a school bus.
Well I looked at my design drawings and realized that while the portholes and cannon ports on a ship may appear to be in a straight line this is compared to the shape of the ship itself. Now I am going to need to do some forced perspective on this anyway so I may as well start now. Three hours after deciding I had made the line on the wall and started to redo all the portholes.
I cut out everyone of the "old" portholes. Cut the new ones in, replaced the wood into the new holes, filled the gaps with foam and resealed the whole thing. It took basically one day per side to redo them.
I have to admit I am glad he called me out on this one and the end product will be much better because of it.
Well that's where we stand now! It's March 27th 2009.
Check back for more updates as we continue the build!