Dookie

[teeots]

I like your cabinets! You're really making fast progress too

[billwilson]

Nice work buddy
great pics

FYI - i have laminate flooring
works well, cleans easy
i will do the same on my next build

[rockbender]

Billwilson - my mom came and visited this weekend and brought me 5 boxes of unused laminate floor, so it will definitely be going in. Thanks for the assurance on that one. It is an oak pattern which isn't my favorite, but you can't beat the price!

[jage]

Looks phenomenal. You know you can use cardboard for templates, right?

[blupaddler]

Great job!
Do you have any other close up pics or details on what look like pull out drawers going in under the window?


And thanks for starting the work on the battery location. I have spent a lot of time looking for a good place to put the aux batteries. So I will be watching your progress with interest.

[rockbender]

Jage, I was trying to recycle some garbage wood for my template instead of using a perfectly good piece of cardboard. The truth is that I just got the little stapler in the picture and have been excited about using it for everything. I was able to get the rough shape of my cabinet profile and then go in the van with a bunch of rips/scraps and start nailing them on with 1/4" staples. It really made things so nice, especially since I tacked down the main template piece to keep it from moving.

There are four drawers on full extension slides. The drawer boxes are made out of the same 3/16" ply that everything else is, so the sides are a little light and the bottoms are a bit heavy (could have gone to 1/8" or less). The drawer slides eat 1/2" of cabinet on each side but I think that they are well worth it to have full access to the drawer. The drawer bottom sits in a dado that is about 3/16 up from the bottom of the bx sides so over all I only lose about 3/8" depth per drawer. I would have eaten up way more by using bottom slides or putting in styles (is this the right word? Ledges? shelves?) for each drawer to run on. I did put one style and horizontal shear panel in between the two small and two large drawers to add strength to the cabinet and keep it from racking since the front face panel is so flimsy. After the boxes and slides were in I built the faces (with another piece of (3/16" ply) to go on with tighter clearances than the drawers for a better finish. I added the aluminum angle top and bottom to help protect the end grains of the ply and add a more finished look. My wife got the sticker goo off the angle and stained the drawer faces last night and they look great. I think that I've got some photos from the drawer box construction somewhere that I'll try to get uploaded. I still owe you some bumper pics, BP.

[leoberk]

This is looking great, Rockbender. I hadn't checked out your build until today after your post on mine. Now I realize that our projects--though fairly different--are on a very similar time line and, after reading your first entry, were motivated by the same set of circumstances.

I'll be following your progress closely now, making sure you don't get too far ahead of me.

[rockbender]

Thanks Leo! I'll try not to be too productive. You do have the advantage of having quite the little helper. At 17 months I really appreciate the tape stickers everywhere that my daughter adds, but it doesn't seem to contribute to the forward progress like a youngster bearing an impact driver!

I've had a slow couple of days not making a whole lot of progress, though my wife helped to get the van washed as well as the penthouse tent scrubbed down inside and out. It looks a whole lot better and it will be nice to start installing cabinets and such into a 'clean' canvas (pun slightly intended).

My layout pretty much has everything sitting to the drivers side of the van. Cabinets, batteries, etc. I was first a bit distraught about distributing the weight better, but i think I'm ok with things after adding them up. Batteries and inverter are 200 pounds max, and stuff inside the cabinets along the drivers side shouldn't be much more than 100 pounds. I weighed the cabinets and they are sitting at about 100 pounds including the drawers. Add a loaded fridge for another 100 pounds max and I shouldn't have much more than 500 pounds sitting left of center. Too much lopsidedness? We'll have to see how things look when it all goes in, but I think I'm going to move ahead as planned for now unless I come to some revelation about where the best spot will be to place the batteries.

[TroySmith80]

I worry about that weight distribution a little bit as well. But, the westy had all it's cabinets, the water tank, propane tank and fridge all on the drivers side. Never seemed to be an issue with that van. These vans are much heavier duty so i figure they should be even less bothered than the westy was.

[jage]

Different chassis but:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5854&hilit=sportsmobile+lean

Maybe get a bunch of people to climb in and simulate weight, can't think of an easier way to check distribution effects.