Where To Start... Where To Start.... :P

[8ball_99]

Sliders are a good idea if you dont have the space for the doors to open. As far as how to make the doors If you have access to a table saw I'd just make some flat panel doors.. Just use some 1x2 or 1x3 and build the outside frame, Then for the center just use some 1/4" plywood.. The doors will be light weight but still pretty strong.

[SirJoey]

I have been watching your build with a lot of interest. You have done a great job in a short space of time.

Thanx a lot, WA! Your kind words are much appreciated. Funny though, it seems like just the opposite to me. I look at it & think "Is this all I have to show for over 3 months work?"

I like your wall unit. With the footprint that you are dealing with, it appears to me that the wall unit is taking up 12 or 13 inches of floor space.

Good guess, my friend. It's actually 15" deep. When the bed is finished, I should have 11" between the two. Tight, but workable.

You might not be able to open them fully (unless you are also building a Murphy bed that folds up against the front wall). Perhaps you might want to consider sliders? They are a much more efficient use of space.

Shouldn't be a problem opening them, cuz I'm not putting doors on the bottom, only the 2 little openings on either side of the microwave. And yes, sliders would still be great, but I have no table saw, routers, or anything like that, so I have to just make the best use of the limited tools (& skills) that I have. Maybe one day down the line, I can get somebody to cut me some grooved boards so I can add sliders to the bottom of the unit later on. For right now though, I'm rushing to meet a personal deadline goal of finishing this thing by my birthday, which is in early June. Using it for an extended trip to visit my daughter & grandkids will be my birthday present to myself! As it slowly takes shape, I continue to get more excited!

Sliders are a good idea if you dont have the space for the doors to open. As far as how to make the doors If you have access to a table saw I'd just make some flat panel doors.. Just use some 1x2 or 1x3 and build the outside frame, Then for the center just use some 1/4" plywood.. The doors will be light weight but still pretty strong.

Thanx, 8Ball! Some good tips there for sure, although sliders are not an option, as I mentioned to WA, due to lack of tools & know-how. I'm going to town today to buy more materials & weigh my options, based largely on advice from great folks like yourself, on here! Wish me luch, & thanx again!

[SirJoey]

Another TYPICAL disastrous trip to Lowes today!

First, there was the buffoon who TRIED to operate their saw....

I asked him to rip my two 4x8 sheets of plywood to 30" wide. Well, for some odd reason, he couldn't seen to feed the first sheet into the
sawblade, so this moron decides to try feeding it through backwards! I couldn't believe it, but I didn't try to stop him. I simply stepped back,
knowing what was about to happen. Sure enough, the blade grabbed the wood & drug it through, as he tried desperately to hang on & control it.
I watched in sheer disbelief at the stupidity of it all, as the sheet nearly went flying across the aisle. The edge had waves in it which varied the
overall width by SEVERAL INCHES, so off I went with the cart to retrieve another sheet.

This time, he managed to feed them through in the correct direction, but unfortunately, I had forgotten my tape measure in the truck, so I couldn't
check them for accuracy. When I got home & measured them, I found the 30" width that I had asked for, was cut to 29 3/8"! Well, THAT'S certainly
accurate, right? Missed it by 5/8"! Can you believe that? Grrrrrrr!!!!! Geeze, I could've EYEBALLED 'em closer than THAT! I should've asked to see
his green card. It was a miracle he could even speak the king's English, he's prolly an illegal!

Anyway, I had several other items to pick up there before remembering I needed small pieces of MDO ply to make cabinet doors out of. Well, after
asking 2 OTHER employees, they said they'd never heard of the stuff, so I selected a small, 2' x 2' sheet of 1/2" oak ply instead. Figured I'd go
ahead & let them cut my doors out of it, cuz their saw will cut a much straighter line than I can do by hand, but THIS time, I found a DIFFERENT
guy to do the cutting, one who appeared to have actually been born in this country. Well, THIS idiot cut through them so fast, he ragged
the edges all to heck, so now I have to either find a way to trim them out, or just live with these ragged a$$ cuts on the edges of my cabinet doors!
UNBELIEVABLE. Here's what THIS moron did to the small sheet of oak ply that cost me NINE DOLLARS:





At least HIS measing was a little better. He actually got within 1/8" of the size I requested, even though he ruined the edges.
Dang, I could've gotten a nicer cut than THIS, with my friggin' SABER SAW!



To make matters worse, I bought the wrong kind of hinges,
but at least I have only my OWN ignorance to blame for THIS:





So, it looks like I'll be making another 50-mile-round-trip to
Lowes to attempt to uncover the mystery of the cabinet hinges!

To anyone interested in why I ALREADY hate Lowes worse than any other store I've ever shopped in,
you can find the story on the "My Rants" page of my website. You'll have to scroll down a bit to see
it, but it's called, "A Letter To Lowes". http://bikesandtrikesandmore.com/my_rants.html

I can't even work on the darn thing today, cuz I'm FAR too ticked off!

[SmilinJack]

Any time you go to Lowes, or Home Depot for that matter, you have to make SURE you get what you ask for.

I live in the vicinity of the newly relocated Lowes headquarters, so service has improved in this area considerably. However, where I use to live the worker bees in Lowes usually didn't have a clue. Nine times out of ten when I left that store, I'd be maddr than @*%! That said, I'd return the plywood to them and insist that you get pieces cut properly (without the ragged edges and sized properly) or take it home and cut it yourself with your sabre saw. You can clamp a straight edge to the plywood and cut it fairly straight that way. Lowes also has some 90 degree trim that you can edge the plywood with that will spiff it up a bit.

Good luck. I feel your pain...

[8ball_99]

Well in their defense Oak ply is pretty hard to cut clean across the grain like that.. A dull blade will tear out the edge no matter how slow you cut.. That said those cuts are really bad.. I would not get anything cut at lowes or homedepot that I wanted to be exact or clean.. I'd buy the wood and cut it your self. Like Smilinjack said just clamp a straight edge down on the wood and use that to guide your saw. If you were doing this on a table say I'd say make the cut in two passes to get a smoother cut, But since your probably just going to be using a 7 1/2 circular saw I'd run some blue painter tape where you plan to cut to help reduce the tear out.. Don't bother getting a big box store to cut it again it wont be good enough for what your trying to do..

[crazylarry]

SJ,
Your build is looking GREAT!
If you want to meet halfway sometime...I'll loan you my table saw..
LL

[SirJoey]

SJ,
Your build is looking GREAT!
If you want to meet halfway sometime...I'll loan you my table saw..
LL

Thanx, bro. Man what I wouldn't give to own one!
Glad to see U joined us here. If U EVER get a break, maybe U can start on one of these for yourself!
I'd be glad to cruise up there & give U a hand, such as it is.





Got my "sink" in. Nothin' fancy, just gonna silicone it to the counter top, & drain it through
the floor. Drain pipes aren't glued together yet, this is just a "test fit", so to speak:





In places where it doesn't matter, I'll just drain it on the ground. If I'm parked on city
streets, parking lots, etc, I'll catch it in a bucket, tub, tank, whatever I can come up with...





My new mini-blinds finally arrived too, so I hung those & the sink/stove light:



Mayhaps someday I'll get to start hookin' up some of my 12-volt stuff.

[pete42]

Looking good I check in on you every so often neat Idea using SS bowel for sink.
I have seen some with a catch jug under sink so the water would not be dumped on ground or into a bucket.
keep building and I'll keep watching

[Ageless]

If dry camping; OK to let greywater hit th ground. But remember; where there are storm sewer systems, that water flows untreated to freshwater streams, lakes, rivers, etc.

[SirJoey]

Looking good I check in on you every so often neat Idea using SS bowel for sink.

Thanx, Pete! Not my idea on the SS bowl though. I've seen this little trick used a couple of times, first by Curtis Carper.
I'm also gonna copy his idea of using a simple 2-gallon jug with a spigot, sitting on the counter, for water.
Just another classic example of the K.I.S.S. method.

If dry camping; OK to let greywater hit th ground. But remember; where there are storm sewer systems, that water flows untreated to freshwater streams, lakes, rivers, etc.

Yeah, I'm well aware, thanx. As I mentioned earlier, "In places where it doesn't matter, I'll just drain it on the ground. If I'm parked on city
streets, parking lots, etc, I'll catch it in a bucket, tub, tank, whatever I can come up with... "

In fact, I used to have a 5-gallon gas tank that I used for this very purpose, on another ol' homemade camper I had.
It was ideal, cuz it had a handle, it layed flat, & had a screw-on cap, but I can't seem to find the darn thing.

[SirJoey]

A bit of a pain to paint it in the trailer, but it's too big to get out, so I had to work
in cramped quarters, & wrestle with the darn thing to get the plastic under it.
Even had to remove the A/C cover, just to have enough room to pull it out from the wall a bit.



Amazing what a difference a little paint & a few accessories can make!



She's painted, & anchored to the floor & wall. Ready to start hookin' up some 12-volt stuff.
Still haven't tackled the ominous "cabinet door problem" yet, since that last Lowes fiasco...

[Curtis in Texas]

Your edges look to be done with a rip saw blade not a cross cut blade.

Oak is a hardwood and requires a sharp blade. A new blade is better.

Barring a cross cut blade have it cut with a finish blade and feed the wood slowly.

Measure twice, cut once.

Oh, and coming along nicely, great job man!

[SirJoey]

Oh, and coming along nicely, great job man!

Thanx, Curtis! I appreciate it. Oh, & thanx for the blade tips as well.

I think I'm just gonna go ahead & use these ragged @$$ boards the way
they are, ragged edges & all, in spite of Lowes "professional" cutting job.
Maybe they won't look TOO terribly bad, once they're painted satin black...

[Cliffmeister2000]

Joey, sand the edges a bit to remove the potential for splinters. You could even dab a bit of wood filler on the edges to fill the voids before you stain, then sand them smooth. It coouldn't hurt.

[8ball_99]

I second the wood filler since your painting them.. Once sanded and painted you probably wont even notice.