Little Girl Refurb 1972

[Minno]

Made good progress today. Completed building the face frame and installed it onto the plywood carcass. Everything is joined together with glue and pocket screws. Waiting until tomorrow to let the glue set up before cutting the stove opening out (stove goes above the furnace).



End cap of the cabinet so far. The small cutout in the upper panel is for 3 light switches. Now to decide how many shelves will be in the big opening.

[Minno]

The Kitchen cabinet is almost complete. Over the last two days, Kay poly’ed the cabinet, while I built the countertop, shelves for the end cap, and a false door front.



The cabinet with 3 coats of finish, and the countertop, stove, and sink just sitting in place. The countertop is not mounted yet, as I want to install the drawer runners before installing the countertop. The runners have been shipped, and I hope to have them Monday or Tuesday.



I made a filler piece to fill the hole at the bottom left next to the stove. Basically a false door front that gives us a really good idea what the remaining doors will look like.




On the end cap, I installed the 3 light switches. From left to right, they control the scare/patio light, the outside over the door light, and the inside overhead lights.



Here’s the shelf unit I built to slide into the opening on the end cap, also with 3 coats of finish. I need to add metal retaining bars, similar to what I installed I the medicine cabinet before installing into the opening.


Another project we accomplished over the last week or so was building the valance for the front window and installing the front curtains.



This is the top of the valance, which is ½” thick basswood. It’s 3 pieces, biscuited and glued together. The center piece is straight, and the two side pieces are the curves for over the wing windows.



Here are the two curved side piece templates. After making the cardboard template for the right side, I figured I could just flip it over and use it for the left side too. Boy, was I wrong! I flipped it over and held it up to the left wing window, and the curve on the left side of the trailer is way different from the right side of the trailer. So, I ended up making another cardboard template. No biggie, just surprising that the curves are that different.



Front curtains and valance installed. The wires are for the stereo, which will be enclosed in a cabinet mounted over the middle of the valance. The valance will be mounted to the underside of the cabinet, and the temp brackets will be removed. Now all the curtains are installed!


I also made the water heater electrical connections today. Tested the water heater without gas or water, just to make sure it would try and light the burner and then illuminate the indicator lamp showing that the burner did not light. Both functions work! Nice when things work the first time!

Chris

[Minno]

Finished the shelf unit for the end cap and installed it this evening. Also installed the two duct covers.

[SpiritAtBay]

It's coming right along!
Thanks for posting.

[nmbosa]

Chris and Kay, your trailer is really looking great.

Norm

[Minno]

Thanks all!

Made fairly good progress over the last 3 days. Kay had Friday off, and I took Friday afternoon off as well. Most of the weekend was spent building drawers, drawer fronts, and doors for the kitchen cabinet.

While Kay was varnishing the drawers and doors, I installed the drawer slides I bought from Rockler. After receiving them and trying them on for size, I realized that one of the drawers was quite a bit shorter than the other ones due to the light switches by the entry door. Bought a 16” set of slides for that drawer. The rest of the drawer slides are 22”.




These two pictures show the drawers slides installed. The first picture is the 16” drawer. I had to install a plywood back to hold the ends of the drawer slides. The second picture shows some of the other slides. They are mounted the same, with the backs of the slides mounted to the inner skin. If you look closely, there is only one screw holding each slide to the back. I waited until I installed the drawers in the slides before fully mounting them to the wall.



These two pictures are after we installed the drawers into the slides. The drawer fronts are just set in place right now – I’ll attach them to the drawers tomorrow or the next day. The drawer boxes are made from ½” basswood with a ¼” plywood bottom. Nothing fancy, just glued and stapled together using butt joints. Plenty strong enough I think. We had set the doors all in place earlier in the day, but I neglected to take a picture of them. I will post pictures once they’re installed.


While waiting for the poly on the drawers and doors to dry, we started working on installing the fridge and water pump.




We installed a solar fan for the fridge vent inside the roof vent opening. Still need to install the solar panel on the roof and connect it to the fan. We did test it, and the fan runs very quietly. We then riveted the vent cowl back in place. We cut about 5 inches off the bottom of the cowl since the new fridge sits higher than the old one did. Cutting the plastic cowl was much easier than we thought it would be. We used tin snips and it cut just fine, without any signs of being brittle or cracking.


We also installed the water pump. Intake from the tank is the blue pex line coming up out of the floor. It goes through a brass valve and then a strainer that came with the pump. The valve is the winterizing valve. The brass cap comes off and the vinyl tube is connected onto the valve to pump rv antifreeze into the system.



After installing the pump, we installed the fridge platform. Before we took the fridge off the platform, we measured and marked exactly where it needed to be to line up with the roof vent.



Here’s a shot under the fridge platform. The water pump and fresh water tank fill and vent lines all tuck under the platform. Access to the pump strainer, winterizing valve, and fresh water tank drain (down inside the opening in the floor) is a bit tight, but easily reachable by both of us. The battery cables still need to be clamped down so they don’t rub against the floor opening. Should have done that before I bolted the fridge base in place…

Chris

[MrBeast]

Looks like you all are getting close.

Funny how the last little details of a project that always take the most time isn't it?

[Minno]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

Funny how the last little details of a project that always take the most time isn't it?

Especially when you discover that all the drawers are 1/2" too wide , so you spend the next 90 minutes cutting one side off, cutting the fronts and backs down, and then putting them back together... Shoulda checked the fit after building the first drawer. Then I wouldn't have repeated the same mistake 5 more times. Oh well. They all look great, and they fit.

[Aerowood]

Check this place out for slides, much cheaper and bigger selection then Rockler

Cabinet Hardware & Hinges - Woodworkers Supply | WWHardware

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Minno

Especially when you discover that all the drawers are 1/2" too wide , so you spend the next 90 minutes cutting one side off, cutting the fronts and backs down, and then putting them back together... Shoulda checked the fit after building the first drawer. Then I wouldn't have repeated the same mistake 5 more times. Oh well. They all look great, and they fit.

What happened to measure ten times then double check twice?

[Minno]

Yah, well, doesn't always happen, I guess. The measurements were all correct, but he built them "backwards". And did it 6 times. They all fit in the "hole" but not between the slides. Luckily it was an easy fix in that we didn't have to rebuild all the drawers and repoly them. I plead innocence as I was polying the doors and drawer fronts when he built them. Chris pleads that he wasn't feeling well that day and wasn't thinking straight.

Thanks, Aerowood, for the link. We had hunted around the web for a deal, but I don't remember coming across that one. Those suckers are expensive!

Kay

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Minno

Yah, well, doesn't always happen, I guess. The measurements were all correct, but he built them "backwards". And did it 6 times. They all fit in the "hole" but not between the slides. Luckily it was an easy fix in that we didn't have to rebuild all the drawers and repoly them. I plead innocence as I was polying the doors and drawer fronts when he built them. Chris pleads that he wasn't feeling well that day and wasn't thinking straight.

Thanks, Aerowood, for the link. We had hunted around the web for a deal, but I don't remember coming across that one. Those suckers are expensive!

Kay

And this is why I am a welder and not a carpenter, it is easy to make a piece of steel longer. I find the board stretcher just doesn't work all that well.

[Minno]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

And this is why I am a welder and not a carpenter, it is easy to make a piece of steel longer. I find the board stretcher just doesn't work all that well.

That's why you buy 15-20% more wood than you think you need.

[Minno]

Quilting is easier too, because if it's a little too big you can ease it in the seam, and if too small you can ease it the other way. Wood doesn't seem to ease quite as well.... .

Kay

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Minno

Quilting is easier too, because if it's a little too big you can ease it in the seam, and if too small you can ease it the other way. Wood doesn't seem to ease quite as well.... .

Kay

I find it also does not respond well when you heat it with a torch and try to bend it...

[Minno]

I don't respond well to being heated by a torch either!

Chris

[Minno]

Woo Hoo!! The lower kitchen cabinet is completely finished!



Countertop, stove, sink, faucet, doors, drawers, and hardware are all installed. Everything is hooked up. Faucet and sink both work. Still need to hook up the fridge so we can test the propane and stove.

We pressure tested the water system, first with compressed air and then we filled up the fresh water tank and tested for leaks. Found three minor ones. One was on the fresh water tank vent line where we transitioned from vinyl to pex to change the tubing size, and used a worm screw clamp to secure the pex to the fitting. That connection leaked. Replaced the worm clamp with a regular pex crimp-on clamp, and it no longer leaks. The second leak was on the fill to the toilet. I neglected to put Teflon tape on one of the threaded fittings and tighten it all the way. Again a simple fix. The third leak is on the cold water inlet to the water heater. It's leaking at the threaded fitting on the water heater itself. I’ll need to take a couple of pex fittings apart to remove the threaded fitting and reseal that one. It’s a very minor leak, so it may wait until after the rally in September. Fortunately, it's right inside the vanity door, so it's all easy to get to.

Since we had water in the trailer, we added a bunch of water to the black and gray tanks, and checked to make sure they drain ok through the new dump valves and plumbing. We also verified the low point drains actually drain the entire water system.

All in all, we are quite pleased that none of the pex clamps or fittings we installed leak! The water pump provided good water flow, and once it fills the system, it’s really quiet.



Kay replaced the cord on the flag pole we inherited. We still need to make a permanent bracket for it, but here it is just sitting in the tongue of the trailer.

A highlight of the day was when Mr & Mrs Wabbiteer dropped by. We had a nice visit with them for a couple of hours. It’s really great to meet folks we chat with on the forums!

[desertair27]

Visually stunning work on the kitchen! I like the flooring as well. Is it cork?

[Minno]

Yes the floor is a floating cork floor from Lumber Liquidators. It's one of our "splurges" but we think well worth it.
Chris has become a very good woodworker over the years, starting with our house. I always like his work.

Kay

[2Rhinos]

You do great work.
Makes me want to get back to work on mine........maybe later!