My Simple Benroy

[johnthom81]

I started this build at the end of March 2010 with the hopes of being able to have a useable, but maybe not finished, 5x10 Benroy by Memorial Weekend. My build is being done without a garage, so on weather days the work gets done inside our living room (wife is skeptical, but going along with it). The trailer was a 5x7 Yamaha motorcycle trailer that I had stretched to 10'.The outer walls are 3/4 birch plywood, cabinets are 1/2" arroco plywood. the countertop was bought premade from a big box lumber store. As of May 9, it looks like we may not have to sleep in a tent for Memorial weekend, but still have a long way to go.

[johnthom81]

I drew up this profile using Adobe Illustrator and of course made modifications as needed throughout the build.

[johnthom81]

Tried to lay out the plywood so there would be a minimum of waste and still have some extra in case of mistakes. It has worked out very well so far.

[johnthom81]

Here she is, folks. This will be my Benroy (I hope).

[johnthom81]

Grind, sand, prime. Ready for wood.

[johnthom81]

Good karma: recycle some windows from a "Hippie Preacher" bus. $25 each, and one of them is an emergency exit window.

[johnthom81]

The windows after cleanup.

[johnthom81]

Here is the wall profile after stretching the plywood to 10'. Thanks so much for the tip on how to do this. And yes, that is my living room.

[starleen2]

Looks good so far - I hope you aren't building it in your living room? Could prove difficult getting it out the front door!

[johnthom81]

Test-fitted the walls and found that my trailer sagged 3/4" in the middle. Great! Now what do I do? I ran a string from front to back along the trailer, measured the sag at each cross bar, then installed a shim between the trailer frame and subfloor. Came out perfect. You never know what challenges a build will throw at you, huh?

[johnthom81]

Built my galley lower cabinet (in the living room) and installed 3 drawers that I traded for at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

[johnthom81]

Test fitted the galley lower cabinet and bulkhead. Looks pretty ok.

[johnthom81]

Polyurethaned the walls and finished the bulkhead/galley structure installation. I'll add an 8" deep shelf with a 2" front at the top of the galley to complete this part of the structure.

[johnthom81]

Here is the interior with the storage cabinet installed. Amazing how solid the structure becomes when you secure the inner structure to the outer walls. I have enough 3/4" Birch plywood left to make the cabinet doors to match the walls.

[grizz]

Not just a quick build, but a very neat one too.

I like your wife, my Nicola would tollerate most of that too, I think, anyway, she once goaded me into putting a motorbike in the kitchen.
Your galley looks lovely too.

Keep us updated.