BUILD IT: The Star-gazer Micro Camper

[Music] this is my Stargazer micro camper and I also use it as a forest office great place to just hang out do some work chill I want to show you how I built it and convince you to build one too anybody can do it trust me first let's take a tour [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign so the idea for this build came from dedrickson his book Micro shelters I love his stuff he's got a YouTube channel called relaxshacks.com and in the back of micro shelters was a concept build by a guy named Sage rad and to my knowledge it's never been built it's just a concept there's just some loose plans to kind of give you an idea of what he had in mind I took these plans translated it to a real build and it turned into what I call the Stargazer micro camper so let's get to the build but thank you Deke for your inspiration and these books and go check out his stuff well every good project starts with a trip to hard so here we are and back with the load of lumber one piece of three quarter inch plywood for this project it's going to be the floor you're going to need to protect a lot of this build with a waterproof stain or paint of your choice just a typical painting materials I like this Pittsburgh Ultra Advanced and get it in any color a lot of the work right up front with this build is preparing your materials by painting or staining them so they're ready to go when you're ready to use them so that's what I've got to do first next thing the layout is the Arches and this can be a little bit confusing I went with six foot high end wall so you're going to want to mark that now take the width of your opening and divide it by two marking that my case two feet or 24 inches now we're going to divide that number in half and Mark at 12 inches from our Top Line at six feet where those two lines intersect that's where you put down a nail or a screw to secure a scrap piece of wood to use as a lever secure your pencil and draw down to the edge of the wood creating your arch do one half at a time when you get one side done go right back to your Top Line your six foot line and go down the other side there's a great YouTube video from the channel called Matt bangs wood that really spells this out and I'll put the link below now that you've got it all figured out all you need to do is replace it with your other end piece and trace it out and repeat with the cutting now it's time to employ the same Technique we just used for the end wall arches to figure out your door Arch determine the height and the width and the placement of your door and then just employ the same technique to do the arch the door I'm using here measures 24 inches wide by 66 and a half inches high again if you need more clarity I really suggest checking out the Matt Banks wood video on how to lay out these arches it'll make a lot more sense when you watch that now it was time to trace around my little porthole window and it comes in two pieces you want to make sure you're going to trace it with the inside of the circle not the outside add a few challenges with this one I I got my lines off but got it all figured out and I lowered my window a little so now I'm going to cut it out in order to start with the jigsaw you need to drill a couple holes to give space for your jigsaw blade to get in there then you can just use your jigsaw to trim up the circle and my particular little porthole window came with this little weird bump out spot that I had to work at to get to fit right and then it's just a process of dry fitting and making sure your window fits correctly sometimes it takes a little doing but you just keep doing micro adjustments until it fits in there foreign I was constantly making design choices and getting stuff stained as I went on the opposite end while I had a window it's just a little tempered glass shed window any window of your choice will work just determine the placement trace it out and use your jigsaw to cut it out I wanted a window that would open and I also wanted one that had that Arch top to match the end walls and I got lucky and found this one you can find a link to this window in the description below there we go next up was to determine where my Rafters would go I simply started the first one where the arch and the straight wall ended and I traced around it I just repeated that around the perimeter and initially three places and then I actually added two more later that's how I found the middle spot right there next step is just cut them out with a jigsaw [Music] next thing you want to do is dry fit a spare piece if you've got it you want that flush on the outside and you want those pieces to to be nice and snug to make sure it matches the other end you simply lay it on top of the one you haven't done yet and trace it in place so they match exactly another round of cutting and dry fitting and you're ready to go after giving it some thought I decided to add two more Rafters so I cut out two more spaces and in total we're going to have five Rafters for this project when you work alone you have to think of shortcuts so here I am just adding a box so that when I cut my Rafters it'll have something to catch it I'm cutting 10 foot two by fours into two by twos in total you need three ten foot two by fours that will be cut into six pieces and you're going to use five next up I sanded the end walls cleaning up some of the stamps and getting it smoothed out and decided to add some stenciling for a cool kind of fern-like effect and I really liked how it turned out just using some of this matte folk art outdoor paint and just using a stencil you want to use as little paint as possible when you're doing this and I just think it turned out great I like it what you got you got a bowl from a hitch I need a two and a half inch square board so I'm going to laminate these two pieces together with construction adhesive look at this thing just split when I put it in there I'm not going to let it go to waste stuff is expensive so I'm just gonna spread it by hand my hitch is 10 foot six inches long just gonna clamp it and let them dry overnight now it's time to wrestle that three quarter inch plywood back on the saw horses I want to finish the bottom which will be the floor so what I'm going to do first is sand it all down get it really nice and smooth then I'm going to finish it with a couple coats of satin verithane floor finish I sanded between coats and let it dry feels good nice and smooth love it now it's on to the side walls and I'm using half inch plywood I'm measuring the sidewalls to be three feet so marking that out and cutting it with the skill saw and hang on to those scrap pieces that's what's going to build your bench at the end and a quick coat of erythane to finish repeat for the other side oh my goodness so I just finished putting a clear coat on the top of this and in my mind I had flipped this over so I could put this on the other side and I just put it over top with a nice gloss I just put on here oh my goodness oh my goodness this is going to be back against the wall you probably won't see it but I'll know it's there and it'll drive me crazy I'm gonna turn it into something instead of a blob maybe a heart a black heart you have to love your mistakes [Music] there we go we're gonna go with that next up I decided to put a protective coat over all of the stencil work that I did just to protect it more just a nice quick coat of verithane and I'm on to decorating the door I decided it would be a nice accent piece against the opposite end wall found this really cool pieced Pine board at Menards and that's what's going to make the table the Shelf that'll be really and that spare piece will be used for the legs meanwhile a couple coats of everything will finish it off it's gonna be really pretty all right time to get to the hitch let's get this thing cut up I need it two and a half inches Square for my 1 and 7 8 inch ball hitch so whatever size you've got make sure you give it a good measure that's the size you're going to want your entire hitch to be in my case it's two and a half by two and a half so now I've got to cut this thing down and since the saw isn't deep enough to cut in one pass I had to run it through both ways again I used the box method to help catch that on the other end when I'm by myself and there you go now I've got to cut off this way now I need this to be this too because I need to cut off half an inch here ah perfect okay there's our hitch here I've got two pre-stained 10 foot two by fours and what I'm doing here is kind of chamfering the edges so when this gets flipped over it it'll have a little bit of an angle against the ground I'm going to do that on both ends and just mirror it on each one so they match cut it with a skill saw and you're good to go make sure finish that off with some stain attach it with a couple of screws [Applause] and then when you flip the whole thing over you'll be adding more screws from the top down now it's time to attach the hitch measure it out for the middle and screw it in place and put it in construction adhesive in here before I screwed a couple of these down I just loosened them up gonna add some construction adhesive but everything glued and screwed foreign now I'm cutting some blocks to reinforce the area where my threaded Rod will go through that will form my axle I want to glue and screw those and then measure the spot in the Middle where you want to drill now keep in mind that your drill is only so deep so the three blocks in the middle you're going to want to do those two at a time not all three or you won't get through part definitely takes a little bit of finagling and patience to make sure everything lines up and checks out so you're just constantly checking and rechecking and drilling your holes as you go I use the sledgehammer to tap the rod through and make a mark on the Block and then I would pull the rod back out and drill where it made the mark all right here we are to the wheels these are heavy duty cartwheels by lap wagons I'll put the link below and again this is just a three-quarter inch threaded rod these wheels have a three quarter inch bearing and there you go you would just add another washer and nut on the outside and that's kind of like the dry fit for the first wheel with the other wheel on now I can measure where I need to cut this three-quarter inch Rod off I'm going to mount the other wheel with a washer on each side and the nut and then I'm going to take a marker and mark off enough space for the nut and I'm going to take that into the bandsaw and cut it off right where my Mark is after that I'm just going to touch up those threaded rods a little bit with a file just to straighten them out and make them not so sharp and back to my frame to see how it fits again it's a little tricky you got to tap it in with a sledge hammer it's a it's a pretty tight fit and then you can even it out so that both of the wheels have enough space for mounting again you can see those extra support blocks against the hitch that runs the length of this build and the edges there we go axle and the wheels are on all right I need a couple more side supports and I'll be ready to flip this thing over I'm just gluing and screwing a couple pieces of 2x4 in between the axle and the edges just for more support and don't forget to finish off your cut ends all right so here's the finished Underside with the supports and now it's time to flip it over and get to work on the rest of it this really would be a lot more handy with two people and that way you don't have a chance of bending your axle and now that it's flipped over you want to go ahead and screw down everything from the top to give it a lot more strength next thing I'm doing is adding two by twos around the perimeter and I want to offset them a half an inch this is going to give my side walls room to sit on the base just like this once that's in place screw them in and you're good to go oops the black heart plagues me again there's no fixing that so we're gonna have to undo it and flip it around to the other side if I want it where I want it which is hidden under the bed let's go ahead and attach your two pieces using screws you pre-drill them makes it a lot easier to put them up and then your sides are up next thing you want to do is add another piece of 2x2 to every corner so measure it out in place cut them and place them just like this all these two by twos are adding structural Integrity to your little camper but they're also giving you a place to screw things together now it's time to attach the end walls and you can use the little cheater piece screwed in from the bottom to help you place that and secure it with screws now add another two by two to the front and attach your door wall it's time to install the rafters but first we're going to mark them at the eight foot Mark that way they will be evenly installed from end to end leaving a two foot overhang for the porch you want the back wall Rafters to be even with the wall whoops forgot the stabilizers there we go ahead and add the rest and concentrate on making sure that they're flush with the back wall and that the other end meets up with the mark you made before you install them go ahead and just pound them in and make sure they're flush with the top next thing you want to do is add in the rafter Ties on every single one at this point I decided I wanted to add two extra pieces going from each side to the hitch for more stability I just laid it in place and marked it for the angle cuts [Applause] with those cuts made now I just screwed them in place here's a look from underneath I highly recommend doing this while you've got the trailer upside down and it's easier to get to all right that's good to go this will that'll do that a lot of good stabilizing that front part now I need to attach my hitch receiver drilling out the holes for this hitch uh took a little bit of patience and finagling because I didn't drill straight when I went through the first time so then I had to just keep trying keep putting putting the hitch on and drilling through the holes in the hitch to make it all work out and I finally got it my bolts were a little too long and I need different nuts but this will do for now time to install that back window I'm just gonna use some construction adhesive put it in place and lock it down with some screws it's time to cut the polycarbonate for the roofing using a t-square and tin snips I cut it down to 10 foot six inches this leaves me with a two and a half inch overhang on the back and an overhang of two foot two and a half inches on the porch I installed the middle panel first centering it using one inch polycarbonate self-sealing roofing screws I'll show you in a minute so this is the screw I'm using for the poly and when you screw it down this this rubber gasket expands and makes the whole water tight you need a quarter inch hex head on your drill for this just like that these will pierce the poly really easy you don't need to pre-drill any of your panels make sure to install your panels underneath each other from the top down the bottom Edge is screwed into the trim board that runs on the inside this is what the porch looks like over the door and this is what the overhang looks like on the window side because I've got nothing to nail here too this is only half inch plywood you can only nail to my Rafters so I'm going to put a little block of wood here and it's gonna help secure this a bit more what I'm doing is just getting some little blocks of wood for nailers but make sure and drill them out first because if you just go and screw them in they're just going to split like I did this one just trying to cut Corners just just drill them out first there now I've got something screw that to right there all right I've got some blocking there and blocking here so now I can finish tying in this loose stuff I don't like that at all here's the other thing you're going to want to do you can see how this just you know I don't look good so I wanted to angle this so now I've got to do the same thing to this just going to take my t-square make a line cut it out and you're going to want around this corner so you can just imagine just smashing yourself I oh I forgot about those shoot after I got it cut out I just took my little multi-tool with a sander and sanded down those rough edges except I want to find a solution for still securing those panels a little bit more and this aluminum edging did great it's just an aluminum band that's just gonna keep this from bouncing around I like it I'm gonna do one more to cut them to size I just used my multi-tool with a metal cutting blade and then installed them snugly with a screw to that inside trim board that runs along the top cool that will be flapping around now so I found this at Menards it isn't the intended use it's a termination bar 10 foot it's aluminum for roofing but it's flexible and light and I wanted something I could Bend and be waterproof this just perfect for what I had intended but that's what it is right there it's not cheap it was about 12 bucks a stick but it's doing what it's supposed to do that's what it looks like in here now that's it's much better it's not especially on the edges here it was just kind of loose you know I just didn't like how loose it was this is perfect solution I love it now it's time to hang your door I used light decorative hinges and a small door pull with a barrel lock at the end of the day you can use whatever you'd like you can install your porthole window with some construction adhesive and screws really easy to do and the trim piece goes on the outside huh that is super cool and this just opens up for fresh air cool to build the bench you use the two one foot sections that you cut from your half inch side walls I made my bench six foot eight inches long you can do whatever you'd like you can just cut them off and then using scrap two by fours and scrap pieces of wood you're going to add reinforcements along the length and along the seams all right you can see here what I did I just added reinforcements to the bottom of my sleeping bench I just used some scrap wood and two two by fours that I still had from this project so now I'm going to cut some legs and the bench will be done cut your legs to whatever size you think you're going to want your bench but keep in mind if you want a five gallon composting bucket toilet underneath make it so that it'll fit underneath the bench all right so I've got these like kind of just really Loosely uh screwed in I'm gonna turn it over screw them in better but this side's going against the wall and I want it to uh go over the kind of trim piece I have on the bottom and then this piece is going to be in the front so I kind of wanted more support so that's why those are angled differently thank you nice so when you sit in the front you got a little more support and then this gives room back here so you're not hitting the edge now I build the table over here using the cut off pieces that we did on this board earlier make two legs appropriately sized whatever you'd like the height of the table to be and install them with angle brackets so you got these little brackets here screw in the wall oh I like it it's starting to feel like something now I'm gonna go get my mattress my foam that I need to cut down open that up and like decorate I guess my favorite part I'm just gonna use some of this just kind of soft cotton like rope ribbon I got to go around the window just put it in with the construction adhesive there we go for a cushion on the bench I went to Walmart and bought a twin foam mattress they come rolled up you unroll them they kind of expand in size and it was the cheapest option I could find for what I needed to cut it down I just used a straight edge and a marker and then just literally took a giant kitchen knife that was nice and sharp to cut it out if you have an electric bread knife that works great on foam like this perfect all right let's see how she feels oh yeah it's good and I feel like this needs a little pull out but not today one thing that needed attention was filling the gaps of these corrugated panels they do sell a foam that matches this so you just go buy the package of foam and slowly just fit them in place cutting little pieces as you go and that's going to keep mosquitoes and wind out make sure you caulk all your seams with a weatherproofing seal and don't forget the window too for trim I just took some of my little scrap pieces that I liked and use those for the window just cut them to size and I was good to go for the top curve another piece of rope type material with construction adhesive would do and three screws top in each side to secure it in place foreign [Music] [Music] thank you I think I found my spot I think I can get through here pull down some of this dead stuff pull it right in here it'd be super cool maybe right there foreign I can just move this by hand where I want it and get this cleaned out in here oh this is just a just a little sparto spot I like it just logging down the road oh let's see if that's gonna be right be a lot easier if you had two people foreign looks like everything fared all right in the travel I would say I went about 10 11 miles maybe a little farther to get here and uh she did good hang pictures back up make a fire pit here this will be great oh it's gonna be awesome [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] you can stabilize it by using these stabilizing jacks on both the front and the back it makes it nice and solid now this part here I wanted to put porch boards and I just decided not to but it's definitely something you could do so you can sit under this porch as porch is two feet and this also is two feet the other thing you could do with this is grab a friend and you could move this by hand you could move it pretty easy so just for a little coverage on this lower part just using these paper shades I cut them to length and just use double sided like sticky tape so if you do want a little bit of privacy you can have it otherwise you can just look at the forest ready shade this is what these are just a paper shade this is the natural and it is 36 by 72 and two of these will do the sides and just cut them up so now I'm going to do this side just sticking this underneath foreign hole you could just go on the outside and take a bungee cord and just get a piece of screen so that you can keep the bugs out and you can actually get some cross ventilation here so guys hope you like the video getting attacked see you in the next one let's go in the woods she gone oh don't forget to get outside get happy she go

Channel: Girl in the Woods

Views: 275,307

Keywords: DIY MINI CAMPER, mini camper, atv camper, camper on bike wheels, easy camper, build a camper, forest office, backyard office, mobile greenhouse, mini greenhouse

Id: gr9QRIN2Gew

Length: 36min 55sec (2215 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2023