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InterBlog · 01-18-2019, 09:08 PM

I’ve already been using them for about 2 years on the awning screen. Heck, I’ve had magnetic signs on my work car for 13 years now. Of course they don’t take weight but they are on there for the life of the car. Washing and waxing underneath them is a good idea. Otherwise they are fine. The clear coat is fairly durable.

InterBlog · 01-20-2019, 11:21 AM

OK, I'm at the dry-fitting and hardware-selection stage of this project. I have a bunch of hardware coming from two different vendors - always a pain when I can't get stuff quickly from Amazon, but such is the case with the highly-specialized products.

I started this thread intending to have this sideboard double as my MOLLE passenger seatback storage unit. That proved to be a less-than-ideal design proposition when it dawned on me that the seat back is inflected rather than flat.

BUT YOU CAN BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR that I am not going to design any single-use gadget for the Interstate. Everything has to have multiple purposes. I'm now looking at ways to have this sideboard double as an under-awning clothes drying rack. We get plenty dirty living off-grid, and I wash clothes almost daily using lake water. My property is situated within about five miles of the farthest contiguous point east in Nova Scotia, and within a relatively small number of miles of the farthest point east in North America. The North Atlantic assaults us with its full frontal (double entendre) on a daily basis up there. It frequently rains with no warning, even if just in short sudden bursts. I need to dry laundry under the awning, not in the open.

Anyway, here's the stage of the project right now. I've got some folding travel hangers coming from Amazon, which get good reviews (described as 12 PCS Portable Folding Clothes Hangers Travel Accessories Foldable Clothes Drying Rack for Travel (Black)). This collage shows regular bulky household hangers, but I won't be using those on the road. You can also see here how our little off-grid table cannot possibly hold everything we need when eating a meal.

bugsbunny · 01-20-2019, 11:33 AM

This is great!!!! Fantastic!!!

InterBlog · 01-20-2019, 11:59 AM

It's more aluminum goodness, isn't it??

Recent forum-joiners won't remember this, but Bugs used the phrase "aluminum goodness" several years back, and I never forgot it.

bugsbunny · 01-20-2019, 03:24 PM

Aaaahhhh

I am definitely going to use this idea!

This solves several problems for us and willl use as you have shown.! Thinking the table might work also to hang laundry in the shower when it is less than perfect temps outside; maybe rain jackets also to dry more easily.

I am planning to redo the sofa bed making process in the spring - we have the three part one (couch and two side chairs). Presently, I have to take out a heavy table top and use that for making the bed. I am going to replace that with two pieces and span the gap to make up the bed. At least one of those pieces will be a Lagun table (Thank you for all those posts and ideas), with a wooden top attached for bed support. The other will be either another Lagun or a cutting board. Then, I will store the "aluminum goodness table" sandwiched between the cushions and bed support tables.

Thanks for posting all these mods you make and the thoughts behind them!

Bugs aka Katy

InterBlog · 01-20-2019, 04:01 PM

The space in my wet bath is pretty much fully developed. I'm still aspiring to mount this on the outward-facing side of the galley cabinetry. That's part of the reason why I have multiple pieces of hardware on order - because I have to think of the storage logistics as well as the operational logistics. There's very little depth of clearance on the galley cabinet, as I probably mentioned already. I might go one way or another way on the hardware, depending on how it fits.

Online Metals pretty much appears to be one entrepreneurial guy in Garland, Texas. That's a 1' x 2' sheet of perforated aluminum, which means it was an off-the-shelf order and I did not have to pay for custom cutting as I did with the previous pieces I ordered from him.

LB_3 and I rounded the corners ourselves. We used a cereal bowl as a template to round the computer table corners, and an Oneida dessert bowl to form the corners on this piece (smaller radius). We don't have the best equipment for those kinds of cuts, so we sandwich the aluminum goodness between pieces of plywood, which I then stand on top of for stability, with the whole assemblage placed on our workbench, overhanging the edge. LB_3 then jigsaws the curves a few inches from my toes.

rmkrum · 01-20-2019, 10:33 PM

You might want to consider buying LB_3 a few nice clamps for his workshop.

I can’t get anyone on my family to climb up on the workbench, much less hold still whilst I run power tools within inches of their toes....

Piggy Bank · 01-21-2019, 05:45 AM

Nice

For the clothes horse purposes, could you also string another piece of shock cord along near the back side of the platform, hanging toward the ground, with about 3 inches of slack?

This would give a secondary "rod" to hang or tie-off items not on hangers. A pair of yoga pants, a few bandanas, a clothespin clipped pair of socks.

InterBlog · 01-21-2019, 06:27 AM

On the clothes drying issue, what I would LIKE to do, and what I NEED to do, are probably two different things.

I had it in my mind initially that I wanted a more elaborate clothes rack apparatus. Something like this thumbnail below, magnetically anchored to the side of the Interstate. The arms fold down on this, so it packs into a tiny space. I could only locate a thumbnail of this pic, so the resolution is crappy, but you get the idea:

However, I haven't taken the plunge because I don't know if I need THAT MUCH clothes drying space. I would have to span the Interstate's side window in order to anchor such a device properly, and that's a very large run of space. It's also a very big ask of any magnetic system, which would need to be complex and would be time-consuming to develop properly.

An iterative approach (Pareto Principle) is more productive. Last summer I simply stuck wet clothing pieces to the side of the van using individual magnets - not ideal (pic in first post of this thread). Developing this multi-function table is the next step in the improvement process. This summer, if it turns out that the table isn't meeting the need, AT THAT POINT I will start thinking larger.

I really like perforated aluminum for projects such as this. Any number of accessories can be attached using mini-bolts that simply extend through the existing holes - it's like the metal version of a MOLLE system. I'm trying to come up with a simple way to prevent clothes hangers from blowing off the thing - in my photo above, they are simply balanced on the edge of it. I think I can improve on that.

InterBlog · 01-21-2019, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmkrum

You might want to consider buying LB_3 a few nice clamps for his workshop.

I can’t get anyone on my family to climb up on the workbench, much less hold still whilst I run power tools within inches of their toes....

LB_3 inherited his late father's elaborate workbench, which was custom built and optimized for his father's unusual height (6'5"). I tend to do the standing and LB_3 tends to do cutting because it's very awkward for me to do much of anything on that surface, with me being 11 inches shorter than the person for whom it was designed - my elbows end up around my ears. Father-in-law didn't design it to allow the easy use of clamps. It's so robustly constructed that I could probably park a small car on top of it, if I could figure out how to get it up there.

InterBlog · 01-25-2019, 09:58 AM

Gripe / rant / resolve:

I'm so DONE with USPS. Henceforth, I'm choosing private sector delivery methods no matter the cost.

This is the last box of specialized hardware I need to complete this table project. I'll skip the ranty details, but this is an outright fabrication - there was zero blocked access.

It's not the fact that their delivery is late that is the irksome - it's these ongoing insults to intelligence in the form of illegitimate excuses. If they just said "we couldn't do it", I probably wouldn't even notice that it was late.

First world problems, yes, I know.

Piggy Bank · 01-25-2019, 11:11 AM

I just couldn't make it on time.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...0mMoQ1nZcZhNv-

toskeysam · 01-25-2019, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Gripe / rant / resolve:

I'm so DONE with USPS. Henceforth, I'm choosing private sector delivery methods no matter the cost.

This is the last box of specialized hardware I need to complete this table project. I'll skip the ranty details, but this is an outright fabrication - there was zero blocked access.

It's not the fact that their delivery is late that is the irksome - it's these ongoing insults to intelligence in the form of illegitimate excuses. If they just said "we couldn't do it", I probably wouldn't even notice that it was late.

First world problems, yes, I know.

Sorry...had to laugh.....we have exactly the opposite situation here. We live in a small community in a mountainous area. Our local USPS carrier knows me by name, and never misses a delivery. A “private” carrier in a brown van missed. There is a street adjacent to our property, but not our access street. He was on that street when his GPS told him he had arrived at the destination. He looked for the nearest porch and dropped it there.

I only knew about by the text message they sent saying it had been delivered to my porch. I was in my driveway....I called and explained it wasn’t delivered to my porch. They insisted it had been! Fortunately, another driver (who was familiar with my home) heard the messages and found the package within minutes and made special run to get it to me.

Pahaska · 01-25-2019, 03:09 PM

My brown van package ended up at the right house number on the wrong street. A FedEx driver stopped the other day and wanted to know if they had delivered a wrong package to me.

Our mail lady sometimes stuffs mail in the wrong box. I get to know my neighbors that way.

All in all, I don't find any one service any better than the others.

Boxster1971 · 01-25-2019, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Gripe / rant / resolve:

I'm so DONE with USPS. Henceforth, I'm choosing private sector delivery methods no matter the cost. ...

I've had things miss delivered by USPS and FedEx. UPS seems to be the most reliable delivery company. YMMV.

InterBlog · 01-26-2019, 05:38 AM

Given the choice between lying and incompetent, I'd choose incompetent.

InterBlog · 01-26-2019, 08:40 AM

Saturday morning learning moment:

LB_3 and I worked many unusual conveniences into the design of our house, the build of which we had commissioned about 8 years ago. One of them is shown below. We intentionally boxed into a corner this massive upright Kenmore Elite freezer (the same one I use to prepare Yeti freezer ice monoliths for cross-continent transport). It is placed up against a wall on its right side. The only route for all that hot compressor air to exhaust is here on the left side (with a little out the top).

I designed it as a passive cogeneration-analog clothes dryer (I'm showing my many years of living among Houston's petrochemical complexes, obviously). I loosely pack two layers of hanging wet clothing in this space (plus smaller items on the wall hooks). It dries clothing very quickly with much gentler heat then a tumble dryer. Given that the clothes are placed on hangers wet, I just shift the hangers to the closet when everything is dry (the hanging rack is double-stacked so the entire left side of the freezer is utilized). Very efficient. Saves energy and clothing wear-and-tear, too. We do use a tumble dryer for some items (sheets, towels, LB_3's business clothing where we need the dryer to remove wrinkles), but close to 100% of my clothing is dried here instead.

So simple, so easy, and so efficient. Uses energy that would be generated whether or not it is recaptured and put to good use - just a little bit of forethought can make a significant difference like this.

And today I'm using my "clothes dryer" as a handy work surface for making final hardware tweaks on my suspended sideboard (I can't use the freezer's front face because it is convex-curved).

bugsbunny · 01-26-2019, 09:36 AM

Love your drying solution for your house! I think we might need to see some of the other design features from your house!

That is a really good idea!I keep thinking that the shelf looks like a great place to dry a sweater (It is cold in NH today!) Your design is much more versatile than the plastic sweater drying racks and easier to store!

bugsbunny · 01-26-2019, 09:40 AM

I keep thinking about hanging the shelf from the roof of the Interstate shower with the suction cups. I would then put paracord loops for hangers or clips, etc., through the holes of the shelf for attachment points.

InterBlog · 01-27-2019, 09:15 AM

For the benefit of those of you who had very legitimate concerns about paint scratching, I went into considerable detail both in this interim-final design and in the blog description as to how scratching is minimized.

Our van turns 12 years old this year - I take good care of it, but it's not extremely precious. It has a whole collection of character dings from 12 years of life and about 67,000 miles on the road. I aim to avoid blemishes where possible, but I don't lose sleep over them, and I don't decline to develop projects just because a bit of wear might result from them. I have to balance the utility of the projects against any potential minor downsides.

For reasons of logic, I tweaked a few of my original parameters relative to the "dry fit" image posted above - every project is iterative. I put those explanations and the project sourcing in this blog post.

NEODYM-SUSPENDED MULTI-PURPOSE SIDEBOARD FOR THE AIRSTREAM INTERSTATE