Cabinets
Well it's been a long time since I posted. I've been busy working on the cabinets but we've also spent several weeks making up for lost vacation time. In the intervening months we went to Maui, Montana, Newport Coast and I spent a week backpacking in the Sierra Nevada. I also made a quick trip to Decatur, Texas to pick up my next project, a 1952 Silver Streak Clipper. The Clipper will be the subject of a follow-on blog...
I finished installing the cabinets in the '48 Boles Aero last weekend. Construction was a much more difficult task than I'd anticipated. Some had to be built in place, while each of the others had unique requirements that had to be met such as clear the wheel well, or fitting a very specific sized refrigerator.
I started by installing a shelf at each end of the trailer. The front shelf will go over the dinette while the rear shelf will go above the bed. Under each shelf are a set of LED down lights. Of course this meant that the shelf had to accommodate the depth of the lights and the wiring.
A shelf
Under shelf lighting
Frame of built in dinette area cabinet
The Boles had a small box under the front window. It didn't have any openings so it was basically an empty box. I decided to extend it a few inches so that you could store cushions in it. The dinette will convert from a table to a sofa seating area to a narrow bed so I'll need space to store some extra cushions.
The front cabinet closed in.
The front cabinet integrates an edge hanger for a table. I recessed it so that it wouldn't catch on cushions when the seating is in the "sofa" configuration.
The skeleton for the fridge cabinet
The fridge cabinet is sized for a fully recessed Norcold NR751 that I picked up for a killer price.
The other floor cabinets in various states of construction
The construction of the cabinets is a bit unusual compared to what you'd see in most homes today. Typical cabinets use plywood sheets formed into boxes with or without a "face frame" of decorative wood. This method of cabinet construction is fast and results in very structurally sound cabinets, unfortunately they are also very heavy.
I chose to use a frame approach that implements a skeleton covered by relatively thin (1/4") decorative plywood. Where I thought extra strength was needed (eg the fridge cabinet) the face frame has a subframe, but where strength isn't as much a factor the face frame is a structural member of the skeleton.
The joinery uses pocket hole screws. I don't have a lot of long-term experience with this method, but I've read professional testimonials and it seems pretty solid. It's easy to implement and provides some construction flexibility that more traditional joinery methods can't match.
I also took advantage of the attachment points to the wall to address shear forces on the cabinets. If you look back at earlier blog pages you might notice some horizontal reinforcement mounted under the wall paneling. Attaching the cabinets to wall into these reinforcements allows me to screw into the wall panel and use it as a shear panel.
A bit about my choice of wood. I used African Mahogany ("Khaya") for the face frames, but the skeleton is largely Poplar. There are a few places I used rift sawn Oak for strength (eg the dinette cross members that will support people's weight). Popular is strong, light, easily worked and locally available. While I was building the cabinets the price of lumber skyrocketed. For example, Mahogany rose from just under $7/board foot to over $13 before it started coming back down (after I was finished of course).
Mahogany has a characteristic that's a bit annoying that you may notice in the pictures. When it's freshly cut or sanded the newly exposed wood is much lighter in color than other wood that's been exposed for some time. So unless you tint or stain your wood it will appear uneven in color for the first several months. I started the project tint's the cross beams of the shelves but then abandoned that approach as it's very time consuming. I decided I'd be patient (ie lazy) and accept the natural process.
Floor cabinets, drawer and cabinet doors after finish
Blum soft-close drawer slides installed
Drawer fit check
It's always hot here in the Mojave desert during the summer, but this year it hit hard, hot and faster than usual. We had a streak of days that approached and maybe exceeded 120 degrees F. I had to regroup a bit and decided to install a temporary air conditioner in the Boles so I could get some work done without experiencing heat stroke. The 6000 BTU unit helps but it's still hot.
Portable LG air conditioner temporarily installed venting through window
Floor cabinets installed
Looking toward the dinette in the front
The sink and stove area
The fridge and microwave cabinet
Drawers installed mostly to get them out of the way
AC moved to rear
In this picture you may notice a frame in front of the AC unit. The bed will be on a platform above the frame and there will be two doors. One door will open to access a slide-out porta-potti. It'll be mounted on a 600lb cantilevered drawer slide. These small trailer just don't have room for a bathroom so this will be better than nothing but mostly meant for "emergencies". I got the idea from the smaller Sprinter van conversions.
Also located under the bed will be a small fresh and gray water tank. The original trailer configuration had the fresh water tank very far towards to rear. In case you are worried about the fresh water tank being slightly behind the axle, I've done rough weight & balance calculations and it should be fine.
Next up is the "plumbing" and installation of the porta-potti slide. After that will be electrical, then propane lines.
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