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Old 03-02-2020, 04:16 PM   #31
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Spectacular! You completely changed the look and did it with first-rate work. Hat’s off to you!


.

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Old 03-05-2020, 10:05 AM   #32
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This is one of the best threads I've seen. Kudos to you for doing great work, and doing it yourself.

You are addressing the one thing I don't love about my SMB - the ikea aesthetic - and doing it well. I expect I'll go down a similar path at some point, but am eager to track your progress. Thanks much for posting!
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Old 03-05-2020, 04:53 PM   #33
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We too are in the process of redoing the “kitchen” to fit our needs and trying to figure out that space behind the driver’s seat. The latest design is a slot to slide our Thunderbox toilet, a place for our owners manual and other manuals, and long cubby holes for foil and such. Still working on the details tho.
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Old 03-09-2020, 01:06 PM   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve C View Post
I highly recommend Blum soft close slides, they mount to the bottom of the drawer, are incredibly smooth and have a nice closing action for about the last 6". They also tend to be more forgiving when everything isn't exactly straight or square. I found this last benefit to be a big plus when installing in factory SMB cabinet carcasses. I ended up selecting slides that were designed for drawers 21" deep and with sides 5/8" thick. These slides are also rated for around 100 lbs. of weight.
Excellent work. I have tool envy now as well (queue the adolescent jokes). Curious about those drawer slides. Assuming you used their “Tandem” line (could not find one called “soft close”), don’t they waste a lot of space around the drawer at the sides and especially under?
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Old 03-09-2020, 01:50 PM   #35
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David, those are indeed of the Tandem Line and function as soft close. They require 1/2" of clearance on the bottom, but they should give you a wider drawer as opposed to side mounted slides. The Blum undermount only have/need about 1/4" clearance on the sides. Note that these will not provide sufficient strength to engage the Southco latch, they require a slight push to "lock".

https://www.build.com/blum-563h5330b...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

These Blum slides also need right and left locking devices Blum T51.1901L and T51.1901R If you go this route, make sure that the slides you order are compatible with the thickness of the drawer material. The above slide works for 5/8" and under, for 3/4" thickness you'd need a different drawer slide part number.

Hope that helps. -steve-
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Old 04-27-2020, 11:27 AM   #36
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Well it's been a little while and with the wife working at the kitchen table (due to virus office closings), I needed to get out of her way. So I tackled replacing the cubby above the sink.

First thing was to remove the old one. I found that I had to peel back the fabric inside the pantry to access three screws and partially disassemble the old cubby to find the particular screws holding the right side of the cubby in place. SMB had utilized two "L" brackets inside the shelf above the stove and two more "L" brackets attached to the wall panel behind the cubby.

I decided to "mostly" pattern my replacement cubby off of the dimensions of the original SMB version.
Attached Thumbnails
Old Cubbi.jpg   Remove Liner.jpg   Cubbi Removed.jpg   Old Cubbi Parts.jpg  
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Old 04-27-2020, 12:12 PM   #37
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The first step was to select and dimension some hickory for the new cubby. I selected boards for the sides, fronts and bottoms that were of sufficient size to get matching parts from. These were planed down to 9/16" thick. The original SMB parts were 1/2", but I wanted just a little more thickness in-order to utilize screws into end grain and limit the risk of splitting.

For the sides I traced around the original SMB cubby onto a 1/4" piece of scrap wood. A scroll saw was utilized along with some sanding to get the template to final size. This template was then attached to the hickory utilizing two sided tape. The majority of excess wood was removed with a jig saw and final sizing was accomplished by running the jig along a flush trim bit on a router table. I found that a flush trim bit with bearings located on both the top and bottom of the bit allowed to flip the work piece from side to side and route with the grain (as opposed to against it) gave the best results. This process was repeated for the matching side.

The fronts and bottoms were sized width wise so they would make up for the slightly thicker material being utilized and still fit into the wall space allocated.

A 3/8" round over bit was used to create rounded fronts on both the sides and the upper edges of both fronts. However, on the side being mounted to the pantry wall, only the inner edge was rounded so that there wouldn't be a visible gap against the cabinet side. On the right side's outer surface the profile was set deeper to mimic the profile used in the rest of the van.
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Pick Boards.jpg   Trace Jig.jpg   Jig.jpg   Flush Trim.jpg  
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Old 04-27-2020, 12:47 PM   #38
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The fronts and bottoms of the cubby were attached to the sides utilizing #8 X 1 1/2" screws. (Note: The use of pocket holes drilled on the backside of the fronts and bottoms would have been an equally strong method of construction and possibly easier). Holes were predrilled through the sides using a counter sink bit.

To hide the resulting holes on the right hand side (the left side's holes will be against the pantry cabinet and therefore hidden) plugs were made from some similar colored hickory scrap material and set aside.

Assembly required some careful measuring and placement of parts. Multiple clamps were utilized to secure the sides, fronts and bottoms before drilling pilot holes and final assembly.

After the screws were installed and tightened, the plugs were glued into the counter-bored holes. These were later cut semi-flush with a multi-tool blade run on top of a thin piece of scrap metal. The remaining plugs were then sanded flush to the sides.

I also took this time to paint the reading light that is located in front of the cubby. Overtime these have become quite yellow and I figured a nice "new looking" light would look better next to my new cubby.

The new cubby was mounted to the side of the pantry cabinet using the three original screw holes and the SMB "L" brackets mounted to the side wall were removed. The new cubby is super sturdy and provided a solid point the reattach the shelf above the stove top.

Another project completed and no less than 12 more "L" brackets deleted from my van.
Attached Thumbnails
Counter Bore.jpg   Sides Drilled.jpg   Plug Cutter.jpg   Allign and Drill.jpg   Plugs Glued.jpg  

Pre Paint Light.jpg   Light 1.jpg   Old New 2.jpg   Old New 3.jpg   New Installed Wide.jpg  

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Old 04-27-2020, 02:48 PM   #39
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Nicely done.
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Old 08-27-2020, 02:18 PM   #40
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Wow!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve C View Post
The "end" product (as if we're ever actually done)...

The refrigerator door panel was removed, sanded and quickly painted black. Not sure I'd recommend painting outdoors when temps are in the mid 20's, but it seems to have stuck?

In the future, I just might end up replacing the inner SMB cabinet structure. The use of MDF in RVs, especially off road RVs, makes little sense to me. I'll also have to figure out how to pull that little cubby above the sink out and will replace it with matching hickory. In the meantime, I need to go camping!!!
Your work is awesome... Looks GREAT!
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