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Roadtoaster · 05-13-2009, 08:19 PM

Wow, nice big cabinet. I assume it will sit proud of the side cabinets. Hope the surgery went well and you can get back here soon. I need closure!

Pahaska · 05-13-2009, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadtoaster

Wow, nice big cabinet. I assume it will sit proud of the side cabinets. Hope the surgery went well and you can get back here soon. I need closure!

There will be a 1' high x 1' deep lower cabinet attached to the main cabinet. On the road side, it will conceal the converter. On the curb side, there will be a bit of storage under, probably for my little hand-held vacuum cleaner and 12v vacuum.

On top of the lower cabinet, there will be a shallower (9" deep)and slightly shorter cabinet on each side that will share one wall with the main cabinet. I may leave one section open for use as a bookcase with some sort of removable rod across to keep the books in place.

The hand doesn't hurt much more than before the surgery, but the bulky stretch bandage makes it a bit hard to type. I bought the material for the cabinet doors and drawers today before the surgery. I think I can do most of the cutting to length with the bandage in place. Saturday, I graduate to a band aid and then, I ahould be able to use other power tools again. Right now, it would be hard to do something like set up the router.

Roadtoaster · 05-13-2009, 10:30 PM

Glad the surgery went well and you can return quickly. Your description sounds like a very good looking group of cabinets. For the doors to the only cabinet I built for my trailer I cheated and bought custom made from Rockler. My skills have a limit.

Pahaska · 05-16-2009, 01:58 PM

Yesterday, I cut some plywood and oak parts and prefinished them with polyurethane. This morning, I loaded my miter saw and those parts in the truck and went out to storage to install the fronts of the base cabinets.

The left side base cabinet conceals the converter and has a vent to exhaust hot air. The intake vent will be in the door, which will be piano hinged. I'll staple some plastic to form a crude duct so that the hot exhaust air will mostly exit the vent and not recirculate. I finished the last cut just seconds before the sky opened up and finished the intallation to the tune of rain on the tin roof of the storage shed.

I took measurements each 4" along the top of the front partition which I will use to make a template for the tops.

The wires to the breaker panel and the switches will come up against the front wall and the breakers and battery switches will be in bottom of the side cabinet which will sit on top of the base cabinet. The switches and breakers will be accessible through the door of the upper cabinet.

The right base cabinet will be the home of the hand vacuum and the little 12v vacuum that used to live in the couch arm As shown in the photo, there is plenty of space for those and more.

Pahaska · 05-17-2009, 06:48 PM

What a day! This morning, I was simultaneously informed by my credit card company (USAA) and by EBay that my card had been used by someone other than myself. Some juvenile, apparently female, had made a bunch of small transactions and had tried to open multiple EBay accounts using my number. This took up much of the day, but the card is closed and USAA is reviewing the bad charges. Most of them were still pending, so very little had been charged to me. Most were under $2. Guess they thought no one would notice.

The rest of the day was used in making the cabinet doors for the main cabinet. I have just enough of the bamboo blind material that I used on the other cabinets to do these 2 doors with a lot of small pieces left over. I haven't figured out what to use on the side cabinet doors. I may just go with raised oak panels.

Anyway, here is the first door with the first coat of polyurethane and ready for hinges.

Pahaska · 05-19-2009, 08:23 AM

I forgot the camera yesterday when I went out to install the cabinet doors. The doors look great. I get some photos today.

I also temporarily disconnected the battery and did a lot of wire relocation in preparation for relocating the 12v breaker panel. I made templates for the top of the base cabinet and came home and cut and polyurethaned that plywood. I also made the face for the new breaker/kill switch panel which will live inside the roadside base cabinet.

This morning, I did the routing on the drawer sides and ends. After this coffee/email break. I'll cut the drawer bottoms and assemble the drawers.

Pahaska · 05-19-2009, 09:51 AM

Here is a drawer box in the clamps. I used pine for light weight and low cost and routed and glued the joints. I inset the drawer ends 1/8" to allow space for the screws mounting the handle to the oak drawer front that will be added.

Pahaska · 05-19-2009, 01:57 PM

Just came back from the trailer after installing the tops of the right and left base cabinets, installing the breaker panel in the new front, and checking the fit of a drawer. Thanks to some careful measuring, all went well. By swiveling the chairs at right angles, the drawers can be fully extended without moving anything.

I forgot to get the measurements for the doors in the lower Cabinet, so that will be on my list for tomorrow. My last task for this afternoon is to make and finish two drawer fronts.

SilverCabin · 05-19-2009, 09:54 PM

John,

I started to make this modification to my 23' Safari today and discovered what you said in post #36 that there is only about a 1/2" of space between the panel and the circuit board. However, the LED with resistor I picked up from Radio Shack is an inch long, so it won't fit in the space (see picture). There doesn't seem to be any room for this LED on the MicroPulse panel as you have done. Do you have a source for shorter LEDs.

Thanks,

Randy

Pahaska · 05-20-2009, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilverCabin

Do you have a source for shorter LEDs.

Thanks,

Randy

Mine came from Radio Shack, but I have found that what they stock changes from time to time and from store to store.

You can use a LED without resistor and a separate resistor. There is a calculator at Calculate Resistors for LEDs that will tell you the resistor value once you know the LED specs. Typical resistance values are in the range of 2000 ohms.

Another approach is to use the LED you have and drill a hole in the cabinet adjacent to the MicroPulse panel to mount it. That is how I mounted my LEDs for the outside lights.

SilverCabin · 05-20-2009, 09:15 AM

John,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll probably have to go the separate resistor route. There is no room next to the panel in my 23'. It's right next to the range hood.

Thanks,

Randy

Pahaska · 05-21-2009, 02:28 PM

Yesterday and today were good progress days. I did some rewiring to reach the new fuse panel location more easily, installed the hardware on the doors and drawers, installed the drawers, built and finished the face frames for the side cabinets, and installed the trim around the inserts in the cabinet doors.

I temporarily installed the face frames for the side cabinets in order to make a template for the end wall between the frame and the trailer front.

The wife visited the trailer yesterday for the first time since the transformation started. She gave it a thumbs up.

On the to-do list. Doors for the side cabinets, shelves for the side cabinets, tops for the side cabinets, and doors for the lower cabinet. With this list completed, the trailer will be totally usable, though nothing is ever finished when I am around.

On the future list, some magazine racks and a folding dining table to nest in the recess where I removed the former folding table.

Roadtoaster · 05-21-2009, 03:37 PM

That looks great. I really like the recessed upper cabinets. Very pleasing to the eye.

Pahaska · 05-21-2009, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadtoaster

That looks great. I really like the recessed upper cabinets. Very pleasing to the eye.

The setback gives us space to recline the chairs without having the chairs sit way out. I do think it will look good, but the main reason was space. In a 30 or 31, I would probably have made different choices.

Pahaska · 05-23-2009, 06:43 PM

I brought the trailer home today where I had my workshop about 300 feet away. I installed the hardware on the cabinet doors, installed the doors on the side cabinets, and installed the side cabinets in the trailer. I still need trim on the top of the sie cabinets: HD doesn't stock the trim I used on the top of the lower cabinet and Lowes is the other direction.

A thunderstorm trapped me in the trailer and I found a leak above the front window. Not a big leak, but drops ran down the screen. The drops ended up on the top of the central cabinet, so I spotted it quickly. No telling where it is coming from: I thought that I had checked the caulking above the window quite carefully.

Now, the bad part. As I pulled out of the subdivision, my tire alarm went off for the rear tire on the road side. The tire was going down fast, and I found a place to get mostly off the road. I could hear the hiss. The curb side of the trailer was in mud, but the bad tire was on pavement. I used the door mat to kneel on to get to the spare. I had to jack the trailer slightly to get the spare out and it (and me) were covered in mud by that time.

Of course, the spare was low, so I put the pump on it while I built a ramp of levelling blocks. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive and a locking differential; I managed to get right up on the blocks with two wheels in the mud. Just as I was finishing, someone finally stopped and offered aid; too late then since all that was left was to tighten the lug nuts on the spare.

The culprit was a piece of the blade of a box or sheet rock knife. I think the hole is far enough into the tread that the tire is repairable. The tire is on the other side from where I was working, so I'm sure it was nothing I dropped. I can't guess where I might have picked it up since I saw nothing on the road.

I'm now more than ever a believer in tire alarms. It saved the tire (probably) and saved possible damage to the trailer.

Roadtoaster · 05-25-2009, 03:46 PM

Very nice looking. Sorry about the flat thing but at least you were not on the road in a rain storm.

Pahaska · 05-30-2009, 06:24 PM

Just returned from a "not really a rally, rally" with several other Airstreams at Johnson City. I have to report that, in my estimation, the new interior passed the acid test with flying colors.

The chairs are comfortable, the footstools are not intrusive, and there is a great feeling of spaciousness in the lounge area of the trailer. It is nice to be able to step right up to the drawers in the front center cabinet.

It is now definitely a two-person trailer, but that is how we use it and it was well worth the effort.

whitsend · 05-30-2009, 09:37 PM

Beautiful work John. Sorry we had to miss this "Not Really A Rally Rally" at Miller Creek. I look forward to seeing your latest improvements!! Sounds like ya'll had a great time, but our Highland Lakes Unit is known for having nothing but the finest folks in the Airstream world.

Pahaska · 05-31-2009, 06:47 PM

My good friend, Tom Beebe, who is an artist in steel, made me this flag pole holder in the form of a dragon. I also have a "hammer-diller" that Tom made for me to stake down my awning pole with a head made from a tack hammer head.

Tom has made items like this for a lot of us, but the flag pole holder was my idea and this is the first of the kind. Tom's favorite material is salvaged synchro rings from automatic transmissions.

Pahaska · 05-31-2009, 06:57 PM

Even "Onslow", my Munchkin cat, likes the new interior. The new central cabinet has become his favorite place to watch the world go by through the front window.