where did you get the doors? i bought the marinco 30A and the 110 and cable look like that. did you buy the doors separately and just cover the 110 outlet and cable?
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david
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i actually bought a second tv/phone marinco plug, and made the 110 outlet mount from a sheet of aluminum, cut round to fit in the marinco mount, and a surface panel mount outlet from McMaster. I used a fly cutter to maker the holes exactly the size I needed. I wish I had taken pics of the whole process. The outlet was actually one of my cooler custom mods!
If you look just to the side of the outlet, you can see one of the rivets I used to mount the panel outlet to the aluminum sheet.
the piece, when finished looked like a perfect "o". a fly cutter is for cutting metal. It's got a drill bit as a pilot hole, and a small cutting knife that can be adjusted along an arm that extends perpendicular to the bit. THe adjustability makes it perfect for making specific hole sizes. The blade is tapered on one side to ease the cutting, so when it cuts teh metal, it puts a taper in the metal, so it's important to get the steps right when cutting it from a piece of aluminum. Here's my step-by-step.
1) measure the inside diameter of the surface mount plug
2) set the fly cutter up for the diameter of the plug cutout, with the taper to the INSIDE (DO NOT cut the outside diameter first, or you will have no metal to hold on to)
3) either reverse the fly cutter head so the taper's on the outside, adjust for the outter diameter and cut again OR have the outter sircle scored in the metal prior to making any cuts, make rough cuts and finish with a bench sander. NOTE: if you use the fly cutter for BOTH cuts, you MUST keep the piece attached to your drill press so it stays lined up). I chose to just finish the outside circle on the bench sander because it seemed easier, and the circular patches I did on my 62 Globe Trotter project turned out pretty nice!
I think you lost me - can't you just make one cut for the diameter of the plug? When you say taper, I assume it cuts at an angle so there is a very slight taper in the alum when cut?
Last time I cut a hole I used a hole cutter thats actually for wood - lots of teeth - I figured if I messed up the cutter I would just throw it away, as it turns out it made a nice hole the aluminum - I always wondered how they made those nice round holes and I had assumed a special cutter like you are describing, except I'm not really clear on it.
you can use a hole saw for the inner hole, too. That would probably be easier, but I would definitely recommend rinishing the edges of the outter circle with the bench sander. It gave me great results on the 3 round patches, and porch lite surround ring on my Globe Trotter.
Ken, if you're using the hole cutter I'm thinking of--they type you use to cut a hole in a door for dead bolt, for example, you can buy the some hole cutters for use on metal. They front door in on our house is metal, so when I installed the dead bolt I had to buy one. The teeth look more like a hack saw that the large, open teeth found on the hole saw used on wood.
Jim
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What is that line from "Miracle on 34th Street"? Something like "Maybe he's only a little crazy, like those men in Washington."
Here's where I am so far with the AC installation. I bought a tiny Samsung 8K BTU unit at Lowes for $150 on clearance. It's supposed to be good for a 12X15 room. The price was right, the size was perfect, so here we go....
First, I disassembled the AC unit from the case and drip pan, then i drilled 2 holes (one on each side...curb and street) so that the condensation would drain out, rather than over the pan. Finally I added 2 brass nozzle fittings so i can attach 2 hoses.
Why did I drill 2 lines? Well, it's always more difficult to thet the side to side level right, than it is to get the front to back (because of the jack), and in the event that I'm slightly off-level, I wanted as much of the condensation to drain as possible.
Here's a pic of the underside of the unit with the fittings attached:
next, I drilled (2) 2" holes in the floor, and sealed the edges with Poly. Once the unit was lined up, I cut the opening in the side wall to let the hot exhaust out...
The 2 drain lines run through the floor and straight out the belly pan, through grommeted holes. I thought about making a "Y" connector so I'd only need 1 hole, but it's the belly. Who looks at that?
Next, I built 2 wooden brackets to suspend the AC unit 3/4" off the floor. I did this for 2 reasons, First so I could easily check for leaks, and second, I didn't want the condensation pan to sit directly on the floor filled with cold water. I figured that would only accellerate mold and floor rot in that area... sometime down the road. Here's a pic of the brackets...
Next, I built the shroud to isolate the intake air for cooling the unit from the interior of the trailer. This shroud fits snugly to the curved sides of the trailer, and extends about 2/3 the length of the unit (from wall to front). When I did my measurements on this piece, I forgot to add the 3/4" for the riser brackets, so I'll need to trim it down before I can install it with the AC unit.
I removed the shroud for now, and installed the unit to tripple check that everything lined up correctly, hooked up the drain lines, and test ran it. She cools great! We didn't let it run long enough for the condensation to run out, but I had test run it for an hour the day before, and everything drained as it should.
The next steps for me here are:
• Cut down the shroud so it fits snugly to the top of the unit
• seal the exhaust to the trailer sides
• Install tie-down straps to the unit
• order and install the louvered door on the outside
• cut intake vents in the floor (for the unit cooling air)
• see if I can make an extension cable for the unit control, so I can install it on the face of the front couch.
oh, and then CHILL OUT! haha! Ducting will come later, when I address the kitchen cabinets.
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