NE Wisconsin Generic Benroy 5x8... my first!

[TimC]

I crunched the budget numbers this morning and I have cracked the $2500 figure! I'm quite a ways from finishing. Guess I'm not much for following a budget. I'm going to try to estimate the rest and see how close I come to reality.

Verry nice work,i love your ceiling ply,what is it?
That 2500.00 will blow out by the looks of your build quality and eventualy youll forget about all the 50's here and 100's there.
Main thing is you enjoy the ptocess and the end result

Thanks, the ceiling is 1/8" lauan from Menard's. I like the look of it too. It is sealed with three coats of water based polyurethane. Love that finish and use it whenever I can. Cabinet frames are red oak finished with Johnson's paste wax. Easy peasy!

I know I underestimated my build cost which is why I am saying I busted my budget. I have many things to buy still. Making what I can when I can. Fenders, 50 bucks, lighting, 50 bucks+, electrical system with battery $150?, hatch hinge $75+, etc. etc. etc. I have my PMF ingredients for finishing the roof.

[TimC]

Last few days progress. Installed foot board cabinet frames. I'm sure my ventilation design was a lot more work than an RV vent and fan in the ceiling, but, I can just picture being at the beach when a sudden downpour soaks my mattress due to an open vent. I want to eliminate all chances of leaks through the roof.

I originally was going to install a 200mm case fan in the front of the cabin with duct going out the front and into a tongue box, then out the bottom of the tongue box. Beans I don't know if I'll put a tongue box anytime soon I decided to incorporate the duct design in the rear foot board cabinets. If you look close at the following photos you can see about a 1" gap between the ceiling skin and the cabinet frames. That is the only part of the duct showing in the cabin. I skinned inside the cabinets from the top/front of the frame down to the inside of the bulkhead wall. Two 45cfm 120mm case fans at the top of the bulkhead will exhaust air out the galley area. I might hide that end of the duct in a cabinet top.

I wanted to maximize the flow of air through the vent system. I roughly figured the two fans at about 40 square inches in area (4.5 x 4.5 x 2), so, the gap on top of the cabinets at 1" by 58" should give very good air flow off the ceiling of the cabin. I can get 120mm case fans with as much as 120cfm each (noisy) if these 45cfm fans prove to be less than ideal. Roughly, the cabin is less than 130 cubic feet. With the two 45cfm fans the air should change in less than three minutes assuming no make-up air restriction. A Fantastic Fan at 900 cfm seems overkill for 130 Cu Ft and I saved a good amount of cash. The case fans were less than $20 for four of them. This should be good...

Cabinet frames before interior skin/duct


Skin installed and top edge clamped overnight. Love this 1/8" lauan!


This image shows the backside, inside the duct that was created using the lauan skin. I'll cover this access point somehow to close it up and provide access for maintenance.


Galley view of ducts. DON"T DO WHAT I DID... Predrill your 4-1/2" holes prior to installing bulkhead on a drill press. Those of you that have experience with a Milwaukee 1/2" drill motor attached to a 4-1/2" hole saw know what I'm getting at! More than a few choice words that can't be repeated here... UPDATE on the previous struggle. Had I thought this through at the time I would have taken some scrap 3/4" plywood and used the same hole saw ON MY DRILL PRESS to make a pilot hole. Then temporarily screw that onto the location of my fan ports and the pilot plywood would have helped guide the hole saw through the bulkhead. And maybe another on the inside to help the finish of the cut without binding. I was close to a visit to the ER for a broken wrist or forearm after several kickbacks of the hole saw. If I was smart and not in a rush...



Close up of galley view


Next up...
-Finish electrical cabinet door installation
-Order a electrical inlet thingy
-Final design for galley cabinets, electric

[TimC]

Last few days progress...

Finished electric raceway cabinet and added partitions in center cabinets




Next up
-trim hatch/wall profile
-Interior cabinet doors

[TimC]

Trimmed hatch/wall profile to incorporate an exterior "gutter" as suggested by noseoil... thanks!

[TimC]

Interior door build... red oak

Rail and stile, not professional quality, but, I'm still proud of the results. Only the second set of rail and stile doors I've ever made. Panels are 3/8" thick rather than the standard 3/4" to save weight and materials. My preferred Johnson's Paste Wax rubbed finish. I like the natural light color. Just the glued up panel shows the wax finish. Once it drys it will be just a bit darker than the unfinished red oak.







Next...
- tomorrow I hope to have the door finish done, hinges and pulls on and doors hung
- resume galley design and construction

[TimC]

Cabinet doors and foot board cabinet shelf installed.

Headboard cabinets


Foot board cabinets complete with my fav forum tuned in!

[TimC]

Over the next few days I will be knocking out a few small tasks including cabin wiring, electrical duct work from raceway to roof, installing cabin doors after painting hinges, weatherstripping doors, etc. Not real exciting stuff until it is all done so there will not be many photos.

I don't know if I want a wiring duct from the elec raceway thru the floor. Can't think of anything that I might need that for. I am contemplating installing solar panel wiring, but, I haven't given that much thought yet. That might have the plug in point under the floor somehow. My panels will be remote of the TD and will just plug in and charge the battery. Probably a folding set as mentioned on a couple posts I've seen on T&TTT. I figure I'll get more juice if I can turn the panels a few times per day. I suspect I'll be in shade for much of my camping so want some flexibility as far as panel position. Still don't know where my battery will end up being installed (tongue box, galley area, remote of TD and installed each trip).

Have a good weekend folks...

[TimC]

After some putzing around with small tasks that don't show much progress I began to frame in the galley cabinets. Decided I wanted to use up some red cedar I have had for years. The abundance of red cedar was a little too much so I painted the walls a contrasting tan to tone it down a bit. One 120v outlet in the galley should be enough for me. I will be doing mostly 12v, but, decided for resale value it would be good to have 120v options in the galley and cabin. For the minimal cost it is a good investment me thinks.



Bottom cabinet frame (shown below) will be a 58" ish wide drawer that will hold a folding side table for a camp stove and the camp stove. The center has a scrap spacer for temporary support of the frame during installation. The table has one set of legs and the other end will have a cleat that hangs on one of the drawers. Hope that design isn't to awkward to work around while camping.




Next up:
- glue up panels for doors/drawer fronts, rail and stile frames for doors, raised panels for doors
- partitions in lower cabinet and drawer slides (58" drawer on bottom for folding table and camp stove)
- finish 120v install

[noseoil]

Tim, it's looking really good in the finish department now. Like the use of warm tones & wood finish as it really brings the overall look into focus, both outside & inside.

About that bottom drawer being full width, I would think long & hard about not supporting the center of the counter with at least one stile like you already have now. Over time, bouncing down the road & weight above that drawer opening, I think the center of the counter will begin to sag & cause a problem with the drawer body or its contents. It's just too much weight for a face frame to support without something holding up the middle. If possible, can you do two drawers & still fit the stuff you need into them?

Don't want to be a back-seat builder, but I did a small letter desk like that & had the same issue with the 3/4" top panel over time as working & writing made it settle & push down on the drawer. Fortunately it was my desk, so no problem from a customer...

Anyway, just sayin' it's looking really nice now & coming along well, a labor of love to be sure.

[TimC]

Tim, it's looking really good in the finish department now. Like the use of warm tones & wood finish as it really brings the overall look into focus, both outside & inside.

About that bottom drawer being full width, I would think long & hard about not supporting the center of the counter with at least one stile like you already have now. Over time, bouncing down the road & weight above that drawer opening, I think the center of the counter will begin to sag & cause a problem with the drawer body or its contents. It's just too much weight for a face frame to support without something holding up the middle. If possible, can you do two drawers & still fit the stuff you need into them?

Don't want to be a back-seat builder, but I did a small letter desk like that & had the same issue with the 3/4" top panel over time as working & writing made it settle & push down on the drawer. Fortunately it was my desk, so no problem from a customer...

Anyway, just sayin' it's looking really nice now & coming along well, a labor of love to be sure.

Thanks noseoil... Hmm? Very good point. That's something I didn't think about in the design. I do have to partition off the center cabinet to provide for attaching the drawer slides for the two sets of drawers on each side of that base cabinet. I think a solid piece of plywood firmly attached to the bulkhead wall and back of the cabinet frame should do it. The counter top, being a fairly large panel will require some room for movement (I'm allowing 3/23" gap on the back for expansion and contraction), so, I think I will only attach the front of the countertop panel to the frame and maybe the very front of those partitions. The back I think will just have a flexible strap or cleat that allows movement to keep it from lifting.

I'll see how structurally sound that makes the lower drawer frame after I put in the partitions. Also, the 58" wide drawer on the bottom may not be be structurally strong enough to support itself as time goes by. I might give it a couple simple slides underneath as well as the side slides just to be sure.

Here's the original plan. Might take your advice and split the bottom into 33"ish and 25"ish drawers. It might look unbalanced but would be stronger and last longer.

[KCStudly]

Another option would be to make the rail above the slot a deeper section, like maybe a 1x3 instead of a 1x2. You would lose a little height for the drawers, but the cabinet section could drop down using the face frame as a rail.

It would mean a little rework, but not too bad at this stage.

[TimC]

Another option would be to make the rail above the slot a deeper section, like maybe a 1x3 instead of a 1x2. You would lose a little height for the drawers, but the cabinet section could drop down using the face frame as a rail.

It would mean a little rework, but not too bad at this stage.

The 1x3 is a good idea KC. Those are 1 1/4" wide so 3" would add some serious stiffness. If what I have done by adding partitions of 3/4" BC plywood to the sides of the middle cabinet section plus a 3/4" bottom doesn't stiffen up the frame I still have the option to change to a 1x3 as I have built it all up with a kreg jig and screws, no glue yet.

I switched gears a bit and decided to complete some work on my cabin doors. I was a bit apprehensive about bending some aluminum t molding I bought to trim out the doors, but, after following some directions I saw on you tube with soap and a propane torch (below) I successfully bent a nice curve in the t molding to match the door profiles. I couldn't believe how easy that was and how nice the aluminum bent without kinks.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxhdFsrzSmY
[/url]

[TimC]

Annealing aluminum t molding for cabin doors... I may be rethinking hatch trim after seeing how well this worked.

Regular bath soap on section that will be bent


Heat with torch. When soap turns black aluminum is flexible enough to bend easily. Warning... support long lengths of aluminum as it will begin to droop from its own weight




Bending on door template


Soap cleans off easily with dish soap

[KCStudly]

Cool. It is always a big relief when something we are uncertain of goes exactly like we thought it should!

[TimC]

Cool. It is always a big relief when something we are uncertain of goes exactly like we thought it should!

Ha, I was scared sh$#less that I was going to wreck my trim. This TD build has been a series of serious apprehension often followed by folks here giving me reassurance and then the results giving me the satisfaction to plow forward!