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Topic ClosedStep by step: removable storage cabinets

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Ex-car bloke View Drop Down
Vanorak
Vanorak


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 May 10 at 09:19

I couldn’t sleep last night so I was in at the workshop at 4.45am and two hours finishing the doors, de-clamping, sanding, de-gluing and generally tidying up.

 

So now I have 5 of the 6 doors/drawer-fronts.  They’re impressively light – birch is a hardwood but quite light, not just in colour.

 
 
 

The remaining one is going to be a little trickier as it’s the door that folds down to become the table top, so the outside needs to look like the rest of the doors while the back (the table top side) is completely flush and smooth with no gaps where the rails meet the centre panel.  That’s for another day.

ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 May 10 at 16:53

The next few stages were quite time consuming, involving a number of processes to the blank rails and stiles.

 

The grooves are cut first, on the router table.  The 6mm birch ply panels will locate in these.

 

Next, I made the mortice and tenon joints which will be used to make strong joints so that the doors can take abuse without falling to bits.  They’re actually floating tenons, so the 6 doors/drawers had to have 48 mortices cut for the 24 tenons.

 

 

I then sanded all the components – a boring job but necessary before construction as it’s impossible to do after this.

 

After this I cut out all the 6mm ply panels and again sanded everything to 240 grit.

 
 

Each door/drawer-front is then fabricated dry, to make sure they all fit together okay, which they do (of course!) and all are marked and placed in sets. 

 

 

 

The final stage is gluing and clamping.

 

 

The important thing at this stage is to make sure the doors aren’t bent or twisted.  With such long and lightweight doors it’s easy to do this.  I had to weight one of them down (see pic above) as it was bent by the sash cramps. 

 
I also glued the panels into the grooves.  This is not common practice for frame and panel doors but doing so means that the doors will hold their straight shape when dry, and also will guarantee that the panels don't vibrate in  the frames when driving.


 
Lots of work involved, but the result will be doors that are both very light and very strong.  


Edited by Ex-car bloke - 24 May 10 at 17:00
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 May 10 at 20:54
Thanks Nick!  Yeah, having a fully equipped workshop (and our own sawmill!!) is very handy indeed!  I do some site work but try to take jobs that are purely workshop-based - it always gets tricky working onsite, as you know...
 
I did some more on it today but forgot to take my camera so will update the blog after the weekend - I have a few days off first. 
 
I'm right into the groove on the van project now though, I just want to get it finished. 
 
Mrs ECB is organising our summer van trips as we speak and she has no idea how organised we're going to be with our lovely new cabinets - I'm making them in secret.  No doubt I'll still get a bollocking for spending so much time on the van instead of on the house - trouble is she knows how much time it takes to make handbuilt furniture so if I say it was a three day job it won't wash!!  LOL 


Edited by Ex-car bloke - 19 May 10 at 20:55
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 10 at 20:20
looks excellent,

top quality workmanship.

its amazing what you can do with the right tools. i really want to sort myself out with a fully functional workshop this year, rather than a storage shed!! most of the stuff i do is on the road but its nice to have somewhere to build.
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Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 10 at 13:16

Next, making the rails and stiles for the doors and drawer fronts.

 

Take a lump of kiln dried birch.

 
 
Plane it, thickness it, resaw it and thickness it again and you end up with some 16mm x 40mm pieces.
 
 
 

 

Making the handle cut-outs involves making a ply template, screwing it to the back of each rail, drawing round the shape, bandsawing each close to the line and then refitting the template to allow routing with a bearing-guided cutter.  A bit of faff this stage as you have to wind up and down the router cutter and flip the work piece half way through routing each curve, to avoid tear-out of the wood on the exit of the curve.  The result is a perfect copy of the smooth curve of the template.

 

 
 
 

Finally I routed a recess on the back of each rail to provide a decent finger grip.

 

 

So, the result of this morning’s endeavours: all the rails and stiles cut to size, handle cut outs done.  Sanding next but that will wait for another day.

 
 

It may be coming clear why you just can’t buy van units like this – I’d have to charge about five grand for the pair at this rate!! LOL



Edited by Ex-car bloke - 18 May 10 at 13:18
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 10 at 08:59
Interesting stuff EBC, keep it up!
2007 130PS SWB Pearl Black Kombi. My Van Blog.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 May 10 at 17:02

Decent progress today.  I made a good profit on a piece of furniture last week so I'm giving some unpaid time to the van project this week. 

 
I’ve produced detailed drawings of the left hand (narrow) unit with all dimensions so that I can make my cutting list.  I’ve gone for simplicity and lightness again with full width doors, this time each hinged at their bottom edge.  The lower one is designed to open and hang down allowing the cabinet to be open when camping without the door getting in the way.  The upper door folds down and becomes a table.  I’ll probably use metal folding stays to hold it when open.  I need to make a neat way of having it like a panelled door on the outside and a flush top table on the inside.  The front lower panel sits tight against the wheel arch so the whole unit steals no space from the van, effectively.  I haven’t bothered to draw in the door handles or the shelves.
 
 

 

Next I cut out the side panels of this cabinet using the method described earlier.  They needed some reshaping at each stage, quite a lengthy job in all, but he result is good, with nice clean edges and smooth curves.

 
 
 

Now I have my cutting list.  Over 100 wooden components in birch ply and solid birch.  I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have gone down such an obsessive route now – I just can’t help myself.

 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 May 10 at 22:23

Spare time has been scarce this week but I managed to grab half an hour or so this evening to get the final panel template measured, scribed, cut and trimmed for fit.  This is for the front panel of the left hand unit, the narrow storage unit.   The final dimensions will be narrower than this (it will be no wider than the wheel arch) but I made the template over-width so that the chipboard didn’t disintegrate at the thin bottom shape.

 
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 May 10 at 10:03

The next stage is to make the template more accurate, so that the shaped edge of the ends of the cabinet fit the van better.  To do this I placed the mock up into position and stuck bits of thin card along the edge with the ends of the cards touching the van side.  This card edge is now an accurate copy of the shape I need.

[EDIT: sorry about photo orientation, Photobucket keeps turning them through 90 degrees for some unknown reason...]
 
 
 

The template is now placed onto a piece of chipboard and a line drawn around the card edge.

 

 

Next stage is to screw the 12mm birch ply under the chipboard.   The blade of the jigsaw cuts on the upstroke so the sacrificial piece (ie the chipboard) needs to be on top.  If using a bandsaw it would be underneath.  This prevents “breakout” that bane of sawing plywood, especially across the grain, where without a sacrificial piece you end up with a horrible broken edge extending as far back as 10mm.

 
 

Next I cut along the line with the jigsaw.  It’s an awful, crude tool, the jigsaw, and on large shapes impossible to get a decent straight or curved line, especially with chipboard since it keeps being diverted by hard bits of glue and imperfections in the surface.  For this reason a degree of sanding of the edge is needed afterwards.

 
 

 

The end result is a very nice clean edge, though and well worth the effort.  And it fits perfectly!

 

 

 

I repeated this process on the front vertical panel of the cabinet.  In addition, I had to shape the curve where the cabinet meets the wheel arch, with a bevelled edge.  An angle grinder and sanding disc is perfect for this.  This bit is inside the cabinet so the finish is not critical.

 


Edited by Ex-car bloke - 11 May 10 at 10:05
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Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 10 at 21:54
Been mega busy at work so not done the work on it I'd hoped this week.  However, I received delivery of the drawer runners so have been able to do accurate drawings of the drawers and figure out how the drawer handles will work.  I'm making the bases right at the drawer bottoms rather than raised up in a groove, so the lost space is minimised.
 
I've also done some weight reduction after lifting a sheet of 12mm birch ply and being reminded how bloomin' heavy it is!   So I'm now planning to use 9mm ply for the shelves not 12mm, and the rear of the drawer box can be reduced to from 9mm to 6mm and reduced to two separate small sections rather than a full panel.
  
 
I've also done my cutting list so hopefully will get some time on it in the workshop next week.


Edited by Ex-car bloke - 08 May 10 at 22:02
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Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 10 at 18:02

This is the story of my new removable van furniture.  I’ve had so much help from other van owners that I feel motivated to make this mini-blog in the hope it will end up being of some help to someone somewhere.  By the way I have it on a Word document in the unlikely event that someone may want me to email it to them.

 

Our previous approach to van camping, even for long trips, of “chuck it all in the back and hope we can find things when we need them”, needs to be upgraded.

 

My T5 is a daily car, work van and camper, constantly changing its use, so I’m forever fitting and removing seats, the full width deck, the chipboard floor protector etc.

 

So, I have no interest in a regular camper conversion.  I need something that will easily be converted into a “camper” and back again.

 

I have no need for fridge or specific cooking units or for bed space as I have a Reimo roof and bed fitted and we take a tent-camping approach when it comes to equipment.  So it’s organised storage space we need, nothing more.

 

I’m a furniture maker by trade (www.rossketteridge.com if you’re interested) so feel like I can’t just bodge something together quickly and to be honest I’m really enjoying the process of designing something with such different needs to my usual work.

 

I’d like to buy Voringher ply but for cost and ease of supply, despite the weight penalty, I’m going to use birch ply in 12mm/9mm and keep the weight down in the doors by making them framed 6mm ply.  I’ll be using solid birch in light sections for lippings and strengthening braces so the end result should be strong and not too heavy.  I figure that the additional fuel use for periodic camping trips is minimal in the grand scheme of things; it’s not like I’ll be carting the cabinets around permanently like in a fully converted van.

 

My overall thinking is:

 

Right hand side of van: a 400mm deep cabinet incorporating two main storage sections and two full width, fully extending drawers.  I know these will add weight but in my experience drawers are by far the best storage device for easy access to a lot of small stuff.  I’ve had too many years of camping where I seem to rummage in at least three bags every time I need something.   The drawers will double as storage boxes as they will be on clip-off metal runners, so another benefit is that the camping gear can be in the garage all packed and ready to clip into place at short notice.  I may make them non-square so that I use ever cubic centimetre of the space available.

 

Left hand side of van: A narrow cabinet, extending in depth no further into the van than the rear wheel arch that incorporates a fold down flap door which will double as a table top.   

 

To accommodate mini-me we now need to camp now with the double rear seat in place so this restricts the area for the cabinet to rearward of the seat back.  

 

Detail considerations:

 

My van’s mechanicals are treated with great care but otherwise it gets dirty and bashed about a lot so I don’t go in much for carpeted surfaces and such like.  The cabinets will have rounded edges and be finished in Osmo Polyx Oil, a hardwearing satin clear finish.  So the overall look will be light, easy to clean and functional.  I’ll probably carpet the insides to minimise rattles.  To save space and weight there will be no handles, but integral grips.

 

I agonised a lot over the method of holding the doors closed without rattles.  After searching through cabinet makers’ suppliers and yacht chandlers and considering every catch, lock and latch ever invented, I reverted to simple basics.  So, the doors will close onto concealed magnets which will hold them in place when we’re stationary.  No catches to get in the way of luggage or to get dirty.  When travelling I’ll secure all the doors and drawers with simple wooden toggle twist-locks.   Rattles will be avoided by fixing small urethane buttons to the closing edges, so there’s no wood-to-wood contact.

 

To maximise space the cabinets will be without backs and will probably not have shelves.  I may make dividers for the drawers to stop stuff shifting about.

 

The work starts: assessing the space

 

This is the blank canvas.  The wooden rails are there to fix the single span decking and will provide fixing points.  Because they are fixed to the trim fixing points, they don’t run parallel with the floor so cannot be used as reference points.

 
 
 
 

Getting a reference point

 

To establish the horizontal and vertical planes and the plan view left/right/front/rear, you start with the van floor and from here use a giant square.  Mine’s made from chipboard.   The material doesn’t matter as long as it’s straight and square in every direction.

 
 
 

I placed the square in a position where one of the faces was on the same plane as the end face of the cabinet.  I used the line of the wheel arch at floor level as the front/rear line.  I used the metal rule just to align the square better along this line.

 
 

Measuring up

 

Using a square and a ruler, I measured key points along the internal van shape.  At this stage I’m just aiming to make a rough template.  Each point is marked with a line and a distance figure.  I know how far the position of the chipboard square is from the eventual position of the outer edge of the cabinet so I can do this job with the chipboard square placed any distance from the van side, within reason.   I make sure I don’t forget to mark the position of the front and rear of the cabinet on the floor.   
 
 
 
 

Making the rough 3-D template

 

From the chipboard square that I marked out, I joined the dots, cut them out and made up a 3-D template out of the rest of the chipboard and some softwood.

 

The purpose of this is to get a proper feel for how deep and long I want the final cabinet to be and where I want the shelves, drawers and doors to be positioned.  For example the drawers should naturally finish just where the window frame line goes towards the glass, so I can use this space in the cupboard above.

 

The other purpose of this template is to provide a base for the more accurate marking-out stage, where I will stick pieces of thick paper along the edges to more closely trace the shape where it meets the van sides.  That’s for later.

 

Before I make the left hand cabinet template I held a board in the intended position of the cabinet side just to visualise the final space.  I tried the dog cage for fit (as they will sometimes travel with us) and measured the clearances for drawers, doors and table top.

 

SketchUp modelling

 

Like most furniture makers I use Google SketchUp extensively.  It is a wonderful (and free!) tool for anything three dimensional, from garden design to decorating to full house design.

 

I’ll work up a fully detailed drawing so that I can confidently make all the components separately and know they will all fit together.

 

I can also try out various design ideas, different rail thicknesses, shelf positions, door and drawer formats and much more, using SketchUp.

 

These are my working drawings.  I haven’t put every detail in, such as the rounded edges on the doors, but otherwise it’s an accurate representation of what I’m planning to make.

 
 

You can see on these that the edges of the 12mm ply are strengthened by the bonded-on 12mm x 20mm braces which are used on the shelf edges as well.  They also hide the ply edges and give the impression of solid birch wood, as well as giving firm fixings for hinges.  The rails above and below the drawers are there to provide a base for the toggle locks I mentioned above.

 

The scoop handles will have contoured finger grips inside the curves.  The doors are kept single not double to save weight and keep it simple.  The top door is held by a lightweight stay that is released when the door is pushed beyond 90 degrees and the bottom door just rests on the floor when open. Trying to keep things simple!



Edited by Ex-car bloke - 03 May 10 at 18:14
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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