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utee94 · 03-18-2009, 03:34 PM

I absolutely love your idea of the "rack cabinet."

I've only been camping in my Overlander twice, but I've been renovating it for about 4 months now, and the counter on top of the 'fridge cabinet at the entryway invariably fills up with tons of junk, just as you stated. Right now it's drill bits and bolts and wire cutters and receipts and beer bottles, but in my ideal world, it will be maps and flashlights and butane lighters and campground paperwork and beer bottles, and the rack cabinet is perfect for holding ALL of the above.

Well, except for the beer bottles. Those will still stay on the counter on top of the 'fridge cabinet, which will officially become "The Bar."

Great ideas and beautiful work, thanks for sharing! I'm disappointed now though, to hear that you won't be providing any more updates for the next month. That is cruel torture!

-Marcus

3Ms75Argosy · 03-18-2009, 04:07 PM

Wow! That's some beautiful work you're doing there. One question though, it seems your doorway steps down inside? Was this standard in the '50's, or is your floor built up?

Looking great! What are you doing for a bathroom... wet or dry bath? Are you making your own shower pan?
Marc

air19 · 03-18-2009, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3Ms75Argosy

One question though, it seems your doorway steps down inside? Was this standard in the '50's, or is your floor built up?

What are you doing for a bathroom... wet or dry bath?
Marc

Thanks Marc.

That step down was standard in the early 50s. It is actually nice because you only need one more step outside instead of the borderline two.

My bath was created by GSM when Colin Hyde and crew did the majority of the re-work on my FC. It's a wet bath and very efficient (read: small) in fitting with everything else going on inside. I'll take some pictures sometime and post. We made sure the throne seat was comfortable for all that reading time. We put a small but very usable sink in one corner. And Colin found a hose connection for the shower that plugs into the sink faucet so we can share the sink hot/cold control with the shower. Always thinking dual purpose in a small unit.

air19 · 03-18-2009, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by utee94

I'm disappointed now though, to hear that you won't be providing any more updates for the next month. That is cruel torture!

-Marcus

Thanks Marcus,

No torture intended. I'm actually trying to pace myself on the construction instead of rushing through everything. It gives me more time to think through the design and try some new things instead of just building away. For the cabinet area I'm currently working on by the door, I went through three different designs before I settled in on this combination.

So far I'm spending over twice my time doing design work compared to the actual building.

The bins for instance are great for space efficiency and weight savings, but they are tough to design in. They come in a certain set of sizes. So if one bin doesn't fit then the next one is 3 inches bigger and I have to decide if I want to give up that much more space or take it away from somewhere else to make it work.

And really enjoying the process. Cabinetry is the fun stuff (for me at least).

slvrlng · 03-18-2009, 07:53 PM

Thanks a lot! Now I'm going to have to revisit my design and probably start over!

LOL Now those are some great ideas! Absolutely beautiful work and the end result is going to look great.

soldiermedic · 03-18-2009, 08:57 PM

This work is awesome. my old 56 Caravanner was framed in 1x2 cedar to keep it really light. Love the bins and roller doors!

Steve

air19 · 04-26-2009, 09:06 PM

I'm back to working on the cabinets again. Now things are getting more challenging because I'm starting to work up the curved walls of the Flying Cloud.

I have built the 1x2 framework for the cloths closet. This took a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to anchor it without going into the bathroom wall. It's a wet bath so I didn't want to put any screws in that wall. And getting everything to fit tightly going up the curves took many cuts and test fits, and cuts and test fits, and ...

On the left side is the hanging space for shirts and on the right side is space for three more bins and a couple of shelves.

I have also done a first pass at putting the birch plywood draw fronts on the bins for the two lower cabinets in this area. I haven't adjusted them to get them perfectly flat or unified the gaps between drawers. That will happen after I get all the cherry trim on.

So here are a couple of pictures that are just work in progress.

1956Safari · 04-29-2009, 07:39 AM

Nice work! Will the fronts need any edging?

air19 · 04-29-2009, 05:00 PM

No edging will be needed on the drawer fronts.

When I add the cherry trim then the fronts will be flush with the trim and the edges will be hidden.

If you look closely at the pictures of the beds you can see the drawers flush with the cherry trim. I'll use that same technique everywhere.

In other cabinet projects, I have put a 3/16" hardwood band around the plywood to hide the plys even when the drawers were open.

But in this project I'll have close to 30 drawers so I decided to go halfway and just make sure all the plys are hidden when drawers and doors are closed.

air19 · 05-10-2009, 08:25 PM

These cabinets have taken a lot more time than I expected - 6 weeks of on and off work. The cloths closet was my first cabinet where I really had to deal with the curves in the roof. Just doing the scribing of 7 pieces of birch ply took 2 days. The cherry trim is all in place now in these photos and it really helps the birch ply drawer fronts jump out.

There are a total of 14 bins in this area between the pantry and the cloths closet (lower and upper sections). LOTS of storage, and I think I utilized over 90% of the possible space in this area. Some of the bins have their pulls drilled out, and I'll finish the rest over the next couple of weeks.

There are 3 doors in this area and I have finally found some european hinges that I can surface mount into my thin birch ply fronts. Rocklers and Lee Valley are my two best hardware sources and this time Rockers had the hinges, and Lee Valley and the rare earth magnets I'll be using to keep the drawers and doors closed. I've got the hinges and magnets on order. So in another installment I'll show the results.

Here's the first of the pictures of this area.

air19 · 05-10-2009, 08:31 PM

For most of our countertop surfaces in this Flying Cloud we are going to use Marmoleum. We have it on our kitchen countertops in our house and it has proven to be very durable in that application. We used it on the floor of the Flying Cloud. So why not keep going with it.

The marmoleum on the floor is a colorful red with many other colors mixed in as highlights. The counters got more of a orange/brown color that has a nice warmth to it.

My wife applied the marmoleum using contact cement to a half inch sheet of ply that she roughed up the surface to a bit so it would apply better. We put it on about a half inch bigger than the plywood. Then I cut off most of the excess with the bandsaw, and did the final cut with a trim bit in my router. The final step was edging it with cherry trim like we are using everywhere else.

utee94 · 05-10-2009, 08:39 PM

It looks fantastic, I'm so glad you're back to working on your Airstream. Keep up the great work, and the updates!

-Marcus

air19 · 05-10-2009, 08:39 PM

We thought for a long time about how much hanging space we needed on most of our camping trips. The answer was not much. So our hanging space is about 10 inches wide and just long enough for a shirt or sports jacket.

We would rather use this type of space for storing linens for the beds, towels, and cloths that can be folded.

The upper part of the cloths closet has the hanging space on the left side and a couple of shelves and 3 bins on the right. The lower part of the cloths closet has 3 very deep bins above the wheel well, and 2 shallow bins in front of the wheel well.

Here are some pictures of the upper part.

pbearsailor · 05-10-2009, 08:40 PM

This is really stunning. I am so impressed.

Coolest part about what you've done to me is the way you've been able to tie your new design to the spirit of the original.

My '57 still has the original cabinets and I see parts of them here, but of course what you've done is totally new.

Really look forward to your posts.

cheers,
steve

air19 · 05-10-2009, 08:50 PM

We thought a long time about whether to build frame or frameless cabinetry. We choose the frameless because you can get more space out of them and we simply like the look of the inset doors and drawers.

The challenge is that things need to be built a bit more precise and they might not travel as well going down the road. With the design of our bins I needed to get the cabinets very precise anyways to be able to hang the bins so they were just tight enough to be supported, but not too tight that they wouldn't slide easily.

My next project is to rework the kitchen area. When it was roughed out by Colin and team at GSM, it was built with a framed design. I want to retrofit it into more of a frameless look. I'm guessing that I'll be able to create inset doors and drawers, but without a total rebuild I will have the wider appearance of the framed design.

Here's a picture of where I'm starting on the kitchen. The first assignment in this area is for my wife to get together everything she would like to store in this area. Then I'll cut this in half for what is reasonable to be taking on the road, and then we'll create spaces that work for everything.

air19 · 05-10-2009, 08:59 PM

I realized tonight in looking at my thread that I have been sharing the details of my cabinetry projects, but haven't really shown the bigger picture of the entire design inside our Flying Cloud. Sometimes I'm a bit too detail oriented.

So here are a couple of long shots inside our Flying Cloud. From the door looking back, on the curb side you can see the new kitchen pantry and cloths closet cabinets I've just about finished. Behind them is the wet bath. At the back is a single bed, and coming up the street side is the other single bed. At the mid point on the street side is the kitchen.

From the door looking forward we will eventually recreate our combination dinette/lounge area. So that picture just shows the two batteries and the fresh water tank up front.

My next project is re-working the kitchen area, and then I'll get to the toughest area the combo dinette/lounge. Of course the goal is to get this out of the shop sometime this summer. We'll see. I'll hope.

danalee · 05-19-2009, 06:26 AM

Wow-just beautiful. You guys are very talented!

air19 · 05-23-2009, 05:27 PM

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the compliments. Now on to some details. My hinges arrived from Rockler and my rare earth magnets arrived from Lee Valley. So I spent some time today putting on my first door.

Here's a couple shots of the small door that opens to a couple of shelves in the cloths closet.

air19 · 05-23-2009, 05:40 PM

It took a while to find the hinges I wanted. Since all my cabinetry is inset, I wanted hidden European style hinges. Blum is the most popular brand and they are very nice and easy to adjust once in place. But the Blum hinges require a deep cup to be drilled out in the door, which works fine for 3/4" doors, but not my light weight 1/2" doors. After looking through the entire Rockler catalog I found these inset hinges that are surface mounted with screws and they worked fine for my application. Not as easy to adjust with just slots to move the doors around, but serviceable, and the key thing is they are hidden so they continue to follow my clean look with the rest of the cabinetry. One other benefit, these hinges are self closing. So I almost didn't need magnets, but I decided to put them in so the doors wouldn't even bounce during travel.

Here's a link to the Rockler hinges - http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...32407&pn=32407

For the rare earth magnets. I have used Lee Valley before and they have a nice improved set of magnets that were easier to install this time. In the past the magnet fit into a cup that went in first, and you couldn't really get the magnet back out if you did something wrong. Now Lee Valley has rebuilt the magnets as a one piece cup. Good thing because I had to do some fine tuning to get these to grab the way I wanted.

Here's a link to the Lee Valley magnets - http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...363,42348&ap=1

And here's a picture of the hinges and magnets up close.

utee94 · 05-24-2009, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by air19

It took a while to find the hinges I wanted. Since all my cabinetry is inset, I wanted hidden European style hinges. Blum is the most popular brand and they are very nice and easy to adjust once in place. But the Blum hinges require a deep cup to be drilled out in the door, which works fine for 3/4" doors, but not my light weight 1/2" doors. After looking through the entire Rockler catalog I found these inset hinges that are surface mounted with screws and they worked fine for my application. Not as easy to adjust with just slots to move the doors around, but serviceable, and the key thing is they are hidden so they continue to follow my clean look with the rest of the cabinetry. One other benefit, these hinges are self closing. So I almost didn't need magnets, but I decided to put them in so the doors wouldn't even bounce during travel.

Here's a link to the Rockler hinges - 150° Fully Concealed Hinge - Rockler Woodworking Tools

For the rare earth magnets. I have used Lee Valley before and they have a nice improved set of magnets that were easier to install this time. In the past the magnet fit into a cup that went in first, and you couldn't really get the magnet back out if you did something wrong. Now Lee Valley has rebuilt the magnets as a one piece cup. Good thing because I had to do some fine tuning to get these to grab the way I wanted.

Here's a link to the Lee Valley magnets - Cupped Magnet Sets - Lee Valley Tools

And here's a picture of the hinges and magnets up close.

Thanks for the info, and especially for the details and sourcing too.

I do have one question-- I've seen Carlos and Uwe and others, and now you, use the rare earth magnets for closure. But I've never really seen how you installed them. Do you use a forstner bit to cut a hole into the door and a corresponding hole into the cabinet carcass, or is there some other way to do this?

It looks great and, as always, thanks for taking the time to document!

-Marcus