Overlander Dinette

[Jim & Susan]

Now that I'm home from work and have time to compose a reasonable question....

How did you attach the cherry to the birch plywood? Did you dowel peg it, glue it, biscuit joint (is that the right terminology?). I really like the way the table turned out.

The other question is about the finish. Do you plan to stain it or just put a protective top coat over the raw wood? What are you using for the finish coat?

Great lookin' work, Zep. You're an artist!

Jim

[Zeppelinium]

I'm going to use Helmsman Spar Varnish, wateproof. It's not quite as fine as MinWax polyurethane, but it looks good enough. It will really bring out increased contrast between the birch and cherry.

The cherry edges are just glued on. I often use biscuits, but I can get a more perfect fit with a closely cut rabbett. The cherry edges are "L" shaped, so there is a flange of cherry underneath the plywood. My fantasy is that this makes the joint stronger. The rabbett in the edge of the cherry has just the right depth to accept the 15/32" plywood flush on top (with a little bit of sanding).

The final product looks simple, but I don't seem to be able to design anything that's simple to put together. Gack. This was a 7-day project, about 4 hours a day.

Zep

[fotochop]

dude, you are quite the woodsman...

awesome design/build, but it's all we expect from you ;-)

..hard to argue with multi-purposing...these trailers are made for it and you nailed it..

..stringer is a good idea, I added one inside the wall on the Lif-Table install, it woulda totally wobbled without it...

[utee94]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

I'm going to use Helmsman Spar Varnish, wateproof. It's not quite as fine as MinWax polyurethane, but it looks good enough. It will really bring out increased contrast between the birch and cherry.

The cherry edges are just glued on. I often use biscuits, but I can get a more perfect fit with a closely cut rabbett. The cherry edges are "L" shaped, so there is a flange of cherry underneath the plywood. My fantasy is that this makes the joint stronger. The rabbett in the edge of the cherry has just the right depth to accept the 15/32" plywood flush on top (with a little bit of sanding).

The final product looks simple, but I don't seem to be able to design anything that's simple to put together. Gack. This was a 7-day project, about 4 hours a day.

Zep

I love the Spar Varnish, it has long been my finish of choice for exterior woodworking projects, and I've used it extensively for the interior of my Airstream as well. It's a marine product, and I figure, what better than marine products for my Land Yacht?

Beautiful work as always, Zep. Quite the inspiration.

-Marcus

[Zeppelinium]

The final touch (besides getting the cushions covered--soon) is the microwave. It won't quite fit above the fridge. I decided to remove and cover the 12V outlet, since I've never really needed to use it in any of my Airstreams. The outlet was preventing the microwave from sitting against the shell.



You can see at the right edge of the photo that I installed a plywood backing sheet for mounting the table. The sheet doesn't go all the way down to the C-channel--I thought that the large area of the sheet would provide enough up-down stiffness. Nope, the outer tip of the table moves about 1/4" under load--if it went all the way to the floor it would have been significantly more stiff. But the sheet does provide plenty of left-right stiffness. So it's satisfactory (for now).

Oops, gotta remember to cover the old speaker hole.

Zep

[Zeppelinium]

The wine rack is done! Simple concept, pain in the butt to install. It's 1/2" plywood cut into 6-1/8" wide strips, then cut with slots to allow the strips to egg-crate together. Each compartment is 3-1/2" square, except the four on the end are a bit wider (4-1/2") to accomodate odd-shaped liquor bottles.



The whole thing is surrounded on the four sides by 1-1/2" thick foam insulation. I'm counting on the belly pan insulation underneath and the cushion on top to provide a nicely insulated box, suitable for the hot afternoons of Burning Man, etc.

Zep

[toastie]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

The wine rack is done! Simple concept, pain in the butt to install. It's 1/2" plywood cut into 6-1/8" wide strips, then cut with slots to allow the strips to egg-crate together. Each compartment is 3-1/2" square, except the four on the end are a bit wider (4-1/2") to accomodate odd-shaped liquor bottles.

Attachment 99019 Attachment 99020

The whole thing is surrounded on the four sides by 1-1/2" thick foam insulation. I'm counting on the belly pan insulation underneath and the cushion on top to provide a nicely insulated box, suitable for the hot afternoons of Burning Man, etc.

Zep

zep, just copy-ed all of your pictures, what a great job, thanks for sharing...........toastie

[Zeppelinium]

Oops. If you attach the bottom cushion to the seat with velcro, the split seat has a problem--you have to unstick the velcro on the non-opening end so that the cushion doesn't hold down the opening half. There was no real reason to split the seat. It really doesn't matter if the seat opens above the drawers.

Both benches shouldh have been made identical, as far as the seats go. So now the cushion on that side will have velcro in the middle and far end, but not on the near end (the non-opening end).

Funny how you discover errors long after you thought you were DONE.

Zep

[lgastall]

How many meters of fabric did you use for the seat covers?

This is really inspiring stuff.

Thank you,
Lucy.

[tallytwo1994]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

Oops. If you attach the bottom cushion to the seat with velcro, the split seat has a problem--you have to unstick the velcro on the non-opening end so that the cushion doesn't hold down the opening half. There was no real reason to split the seat. It really doesn't matter if the seat opens above the drawers.

Both benches shouldh have been made identical, as far as the seats go. So now the cushion on that side will have velcro in the middle and far end, but not on the near end (the non-opening end).

Funny how you discover errors long after you thought you were DONE.

Zep

Zep,

Not sure I understand the problem - could you explain with photos? It's always good to learn things in advance.

Thanks,
Carol

[Zeppelinium]

Only half of the seat opens on the bench with the wine in it. So if you velcro the cushion down to the non-opening side, you have to "unstick" it in order to open the lid to the wine.

Zep

[epperp]

Hi Zep,
I found this thread from a link on the 59 Overlander thread, and rather than hijack that thread with my questions, figured I'd revive this one.
I really like the L design, you have great ideas here that I hope to adapt to our 59 Tradewind. Being smaller than your Overlander, I wondering if we have enough room to make a comfortable sofa/dinette area in an L shape. Would you by chance have dimensions of your layout? Suggestions for anything you'd do different after using it for a while now?
Thanks much for the inspirations, here and on your other threads--always great ideas!
Eileen

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by epperp

...being smaller than your Overlander, I wondering if we have enough room to make a comfortable sofa/dinette area in an L shape. Would you by chance have dimensions of your layout? ...

The reason I blog all my work is I am a very poor record-keeper. This text paragraph from post #1 is really all I have:

The seat is 48" long and 18-1/2" wide, with a slope of 4.5 degrees, front to back (that's 1-1/2" in 21"). The back is 15-1/2" high, above the 3" seat cushion, and slopes back 14 degrees. With these general dimensions in hand, I put together the supporting box with the right slope. The backbone of the box is solid maple and all three moving parts hinge to it, so it has to be stiff. The end panels establish the slope of the seat.

I'm sure you could fit an "L" dinette. I assume one bench would be under the window. You'd have to figure out your own table support--one end on the curb side wall and may one leg. One thing I like about my dinette is the short table doesn't need a leg at all.

In your Tradewind (the only model 70s Airstream I haven't worked on), what's the distance between the entry door and the front? You really need 48" to seat two people.

Zep

[epperp]

Zep,
Thanks for the patient reply when the answers to my questions were already right in the thread, including the distance between the benches. I can't believe I forgot seeing them by the time I reached the end of the thread. Short term memory is the first to go...
We do have the 48" distance between the door and the front, but we have a stacked window next to the door, so I wouldn't have a seat back for the full distance from door to front, only about 3'. I was thinking of making the end of the bench under the window a built-in endtable of sorts, a landing spot shelf for stuff as you reach in the door, with a storage drawer under the end table.

I really like your short table and long table options.