Atomic's 1968 Tradewind Twin Renovation

[Atomic_13]

Between time with family this extended weekend I cut the parts for the galley drawers. I used 3/4 Baltic birch plywood for the sides and 1/4” Baltic birch plywood for the bottoms. A stacked dado saw blade set and a table-saw made short work of the project.

Front view, which will be covered with a white painted drawer face.



Corner joinery.



Rear view illustrating the dadoed slot for the 1/4 bottom. This will be secured on one side only to allow for wood expansion with fluctuations in relative humidity.



I’ll sand, glue, staple the boxes ensuring they are square during assembly. I plan to simply finish them with deft spray can lacquer.

I sourced full extension, soft closed, stay closed (10# pull) drawer slides from Amazon for $16/pair (Knape&Vogt Kv8400 Brv22 22 inch). These specific slides require the drawer boxes to be 1” smaller (less wide) than the cabinet opening.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B510BEI..._AIl.Bb43NCCDB

[rmkrum]

Nicely done. Love the interlocking joints. Couple coats of Deft will make them look nice and stay nice for a long time.

[dbj216]

Your Airstream is much better built than the factory. You will be summoned to the bean counter's office to explain why the drawers are way over the cost allotment.

Heck, my 75 Overlander doesn't have drawers except for three plastic ones in the galley. It has plastic bins that slide out with a tambour door covering the opening. It is a Tupperware Trailer. But that's the way they built them in the mid 70s.

David

[J. Morgan]

Plywood is an AWESOME products for building a trailer.

Stable, relatively light, and strong.

I love plywood.

[Atomic_13]

3/4 baltic birch is indeed overkill. 1/2 would have been just fine but I had a stack of six 4'x1' sheets of the plywood given to me. The bean counters will be happy and the excessive weight added to the trailer will further justify my F250 purchase.

[dbj216]

Okay then, way to go. Use up some obsolete inventory and help justify the tow vehicle "investment" at the same time. Happy bean counters.

David

[J. Morgan]

Originally Posted by Atomic_13

3/4 baltic birch is indeed overkill. 1/2 would have been just fine but I had a stack of six 4'x1' sheets of the plywood given to me. The bean counters will be happy and the excessive weight added to the trailer will further justify my F250 purchase.

Lol [emoji4]

I was serious though, I really do love plywood. I used a ton of it in my build, and I still comfortably tow with my 1/2 ton.

I made a LOT of my structural members from planks I cut from plywood sheets, and I was going to make my drawers from plywood too but Elizabeth told me she didn’t want any drawers.

I made a flatware rack out of plywood instead....

[Atomic_13]

This week I sprayed the Baltic birch drawer boxes with a satin lacquer from Watco. I couldn’t source Deft locally, which I like to work with. Regardless of brand, spray lacquer is some stinky stuff, but it does such a nice job it’s worth it in my opinion. Don’t forget to wear a respirator and turn off your shop heater until after the flammable overspray has settled. Things could get exciting otherwise. The boxes look nice and should last a long time.

I was debating using walnut for the drawer fronts but opted for a light color to provide some white space on the galley front. My original plan was to glue up some poplar panels and paint them white. However, I found some fall off from a prior project using hard maple that fit drawer front dimensions. I really hated to paint such pretty wood so I took a stab at whitewashing / pickling the maple. I still need to apply a top coat but I’m optimistic it will look good.

[Atomic_13]

Given I used a white alkyd / oil primer to white wash the drawer fronts, I wanted to make sure I used a compatible top coat that wouldn’t yellow over time. I plan to very lightly sand/distress the wood next. From what I’m reading, three light coats of Minwax Polycrylic would work well as the top coat. I’ll apply this to my test board to see how it goes.

[Venturewest]

Looking good, Brian. I can't wait to see the finished door fronts.

[rmkrum]

Minwax Polycrylic on my dressers has not turned yellow in over 20 years of use. It’s good stuff. Its over oil-based white stain. I used a scotchbrite fine white pad between coats to remove dust and scuff the gloss off it. Still looks beautiful.

[ALUMINUMINUM]

There's evidence that around 3500 B.C., the Egyptians glued several thinner layers of wood together to make one thick board.. So, I'd say that it's been in development for a long time.

The outskirts of my hometown has a Menards, a Home Depot, and two Lowes. Downtown, we have a many generations old, family owned lumber yard, that claims selling “better than Baltic” birch plywood. When quizzed, the old Lumberman replied, “It's b/b not b/bb." OK, where do you get it? “It comes from Russia, 'cause that's where it's grown” he grumped...

$125 for a 12mm 9-ply, exterior glue, all hardwood sheet. I like it. It flexes less than 1/4” plate steel. B/B isn't better than B/BB, just prettier. It machines beautifully, I have one drawer, ash face, Baltic birch box. I used 12mm b/b Baltic Birch for all the platforms in the GT.

Atomic, your machine skills are more professional than mine, but in common, finding uses for scraps is the way to go. There's a dozen different species of wood in my trailer because I use coveted shop scraps, and resawed the entire original ash into a different configuration. I used Ash, birch, cedar, cherry, fir, mahogany, maple, oak, pine, spruce, redwood... whatever can work, color match best I can.

Even my floor is all “plywood”. Flooring is Hard Maple harvested in Canada, shipped to Finland, engineered into 7-ply, exterior glue, titanium oxided T&G strips, 2 meter x 75mm x 11mm, then shipped to USA. Glued and pin-nailed down, it doesn't move, it's tougher than a bowling alley, and heel strikes have the resonance of wood. Many of the two meter strips catch three frame cross-members which add rigidity to the monocoque. The furnishings are fastened to/thru it, I work right on it unprotected, It's harder than my maple workbench, self-heals in a few weeks from dropped hammer dents, and so far, I've resisted drilling it for dogs and holdfasts.


Always enjoy your progress reports and your artisian solutions.
.

[Hittenstiehl]

Nice little banquette table
aluminiumiumium.

[ALUMINUMINUM]

Thanks Hittenstiehl, The GT is remodeled with the intimacy of “The Two of Us” in mind. It's been a tremendous study of 3D space, figuring out how Bigfoot can get around Godzilla while she's merrily pirouetting about the trailer.

[Hittenstiehl]

Great image in my head of the two of them doing the dance.

[TouringDan]

Wow, you never know what you are going to learn about when you tune in to this thread. Plywood from Russia? If I would have known this was available, I would have used it instead of the stuff available from Lowe’s. Even tho it is incredibly expensive, you really don’t need that much of it, and the results would have been worth it.

Thanks, Dan

[Atomic_13]

I finished the installation of the center drawers in my galley. The lowest opening uses a false drawer face hinged at the bottom to allow access to plumbing.



The three drawer boxes were made with scrap 3/4 baltic birch plywood (overkill) using locking dado joints and glue for the corners (pictured previously - see post 261). I clear coated the boxes with satin lacquer to protect the drawer boxes. The 100# full extension drawer slides are specific for RVs, requiring 10# of pull to open (Knape&Vogt Kv8400, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B510BEI..._AIl.Bb43NCCDB) These should hopefully stay closed as the trailer is bouncing down the road.

The slides are mounted to 1/2 sheets of baltic birch plywood that have been cleated to the bottom of the walnut countertop and the top of a lower shelf inside the cabinet. I drilled oversize holes in the cleats to allow the wood countertop to expand/contract with as the relative humidity changes in the trailer. This also allows for a bit of lateral adjustment for the drawer slides. Round washer-head wood screws secured the cleats to the upper and lower connection points.

The drawer faces were made from hard maple that had been whitewashed and then clear-coated with three coats of Minwax polycrylic. To attach the drawer faces I pre-drilled the holes for the drawer pulls on the maple faces first, positioned the faces against the drawer boxes/faceframe using shims ontop of the drawer face below, and then inserted temporary screws through the drawer face into the drawer box.



Once the drawer face was secured to the drawer boxes where I wanted them, I opened each drawer and inserted permanent screws through the drawer box into the drawer face from inside the drawer.



This permitted the removal of the temporary screws on the front and subsequent installation of the drawer pulls. To install the pulls you still need to drill through the holes (where the temporary screws were through the drawer box plywood). Don’t forget to use a scrap block of wood inside the cabinet to minimize tear out from the drill bit passing into the drawer box.



Overall, I’m happy with the installation but not all that keen on how the drawer faces turned out. They have have a peach hue, rather than being predominately white in color. I may end simply painting them solid white in the long run but really wanted to keep the maple grain visible. We’ll see if the whitewash wears on me.

[Venturewest]

The cabinetry has turned out beautifully!

[dbj216]

Geez, the drawers are sure nice. Looks like something Thomasville would build in North Carolina.

Me, I'm just using 1/4" plywood for shelves inside a cabinet. That's the way it was built by Airstream, I have nothing better. I would have to start from scratch to build drawers. I did consider it for a while. I see you can buy drawer DIY kits on line and wondered if I could make them work somehow. The wife said I should find a cabinet maker. Her Limited has galley drawers and she likes them.

I'm not showing her your galley design and build.

David

[TouringDan]

Originally Posted by dbj216

Geez, the drawers are sure nice. Looks like something Thomasville would build in North Carolina.



David

David

I don’t think Thomasville can touch the quality and craftsmanship that Atomic_13 is custom building.

I am like you. I am just trying to match the stock cabinet work that was built by Airstream. Well maybe just a little better if I can.

Dan