Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I've made a faceplate for the cabinets at the front of my tear but now need to decide how to attache the cabinet walls.



I'm considering routering a grove in the faceplate for the cabinet walls and the floor of the top cabinet. I'm using 1/4 oak plywood for the walls and floor.

Is this the best approach? What other options would work?

Are your walls already up (I'm hoping not).

I'm going to use biscuits on mine and then bring the walls in.

If the walls are already up, you could drill and screw or dowel from the outside, then cover the holes.

oops, I didn't see the 1/4 inch thick part.

Yeah, a groove and glue should work.

My walls will be 1 inch thick, foam core, fiberglass face-sheets, closed out with wood so I can biscuit -- lighter and stronger than solid wood. 1/4 inch is a hard target to hit with a fastener. so grooving the faceplate will let you attach the wall to the faceplate, but I'd still attach the faceplate to the trailer the way I suggested above -- it will be wide enough for that. If that makes sense.

It looks like you created a rabbit for the galley bulkhead.

I would do the same for the forward wall. you can lay it out and cut it with the router. I make mine the full depth of the wall framing. Set the cabinet frame in the rabbit with glue, as you erect the walls. I wouldn't worry about whether you have framing at the point of the rabbit, since the outer skin will provide enough support against racking, all by itself. If you do have framing there, that's even better!
If you made the face frame too narrow to do this, just add a bit of wood to each side. It will get buried in the joint.
As for the bottom, let it set on the floor. I don't use biscuits, but it can't hurt!

Hmmm... Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I wasn't clear enough in my question (Shouldn't write at 1am )

I've got a rabbet already for attaching the faceplace to the teardrop walls. The question is now to attach the cabinet wall dividers to the faceplace.

Let me illustrate...


Here is my cabinet design. The red indicates where I want the cabinet walls to go. They will be 1/4" oak plywood. I would like to have them as flush as possible to the open space.

I used aluminum angle as cleats for this job...1/2 or 3/4 x 1/16th, scuff up the back, and used gorilla glue and screws to attach...if you click the WWW button under my post, and look at the "galley 1,2,3" and "glue_screw" albums, you will see pics of this...since you are using 1/4ply for dividers/floors, you will almost havvta use some sort of cleat arrangement, since the 1/4" ply is too thin for biscuits or pocket holes.....
madjack

Being a wood kinda guy I would cleat behind your frame.

The horizontal board appears to be about 1 1/4" wide so cut a cleat 1" x 1" attach at the rear and glue and screw from the rear so as not to penetrate the face. use a small piece of your 1/4" liner to make sure you are flush with the face frame. This will hide the raw edge of the 1/4" plywood liner. Prior to installation if you dadoed the underside of this cleat with 2 1/4"+ groves you would have the tracks for your sliders as well.
The uprights look to measure about 1" so use 3/4 x 3/4 rips and apply the same being sure the 1/4" plywood edge is hidden. Glue and brad nail the liner to the cleats.

The only other option I see is to glue and pin nail the liner to the inside face cutting away the 1/4" where it interfers with the face frame and then to cover the rough edge showing by trimming with that small "L" shaped corner trim.

Wood cleats. If you look at Steve F's last build he has really good pictures of how he did his in the galley.

If you rabbited out 1/4" ply I would also add some blocking behind it. Just me.

After seeing the responses here, I gave up a went and bought a 3/4" piece of Oak plywood for the walls. A bit overkill but I didn't have easy access to 1/2". Thanks for all the tips. I think I'm going to use biscuits. to attach it.

Biscuits may be hard to line up and may make your glu-up a real nightmare. Could you pocket screw the cabinet framework to the sides from behind?, i.e. inside the cabinet compartment?

P.S for anyone who cares... a rabbet only has one shoulder... a dado has two

Biscuits are easy -- you put it in place, mark the lines, remove, shoot the biscuits. If you try and shoot the fasteners from the outside, I think that would be harder to hit the exact spot, though even that should be possible. Biscuits have a bit of play, so it shouldn't be too difficult as long as you can get a pencil line along the edge where you plan to put the biscuit. If it's too tight to get a pencil line down then yeah, it might be tougher, but I think he's got room to mark.

Pocket screws. Strong, cheap, easy. I rarely use my biscuit jointer anymore. Don't get me wrong, biscuits are easy, but if you have parallel biscuits it is a little bit of a hassle. You can't miss with pocket screws, and once you have the jig you will use it for everything.

RichAFix wrote:Pocket screws. Strong, cheap, easy. I rarely use my biscuit jointer anymore. Don't get me wrong, biscuits are easy, but if you have parallel biscuits it is a little bit of a hassle. You can't miss with pocket screws, and once you have the jig you will use it for everything.

I agree. I used biscuits in my front cabinets but once I bought a Kreg jig I liked it a lot better. Nice tight joints!

RichAFix wrote:Pocket screws. Strong, cheap, easy. I rarely use my biscuit jointer anymore. Don't get me wrong, biscuits are easy, but if you have parallel biscuits it is a little bit of a hassle. You can't miss with pocket screws, and once you have the jig you will use it for everything.

Pocket screws are OK, especially for making cabinets, but for the composite construction I'm using they just won't work well. The two members being joined are buried in the composite panel and biscuit will join them well even through the fiberglass facesheets.

Also, I think in this case he trying to attach a panel into the tear wall (if I understand him correctly). The pocket hole IMO are not going to be as solid, because you are screwing into (I'm guessing) chip board, particle board, or at best plywood -- none of them very thick. In that case the biscuit will offer a lot of shear area for a shallow joint. Cabinet facing to cabinet facing I agree the pocket fasteners are quicker and plenty strong, but I think his situation here is a little different. Again, I could be misunderstanding what he trying to do.