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Topic ClosedStep by step: removable storage cabinets

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Dub4life View Drop Down
Yardie
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 10 at 14:04
Originally posted by Ex-car bloke Ex-car bloke wrote:

So now I have leather lined drawers, how terribly decadent!  Much more practical than the lining carpet I'd planned to use, and the smell that wafts up when you slide the drawer open is just fantastic! 
 


just like my porn draw!
here's mine I did 3 years ago, no rattles either. Built one on either side at the same depth, bottom bit opens a hinged door to wheel arch where I keep the Jack and Jump leads.
Motexion, not cheap plywood!
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Ex-car bloke View Drop Down
Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 10 at 17:14
Originally posted by BlackBeltBlakey BlackBeltBlakey wrote:

So to attach your cabinets you effectively now just use an allen key?       Are you just attaching them at two points, basically at window level?  Nothing at floor level at all?
 
 
Just an allen key, yes.
 
Yes, just two points.  On the wider cabinet the fixing points are near the top of the window.  On the narrow cabinet one is near the top of the window and the other the bottom.  The reason is that the front face of the cabinet runs in a plane that is over the glass and the cabinet is not as tall as the top of the window.
 
I will soon be modifying this to four fixing points for each as just two has proven insufficient.  We were away for the weekend and crammed the cabinets full (and boy can you get a lot in them! Big smile) which pushed them out a bit at the bottom.  I plan to fix them at this lower point to the wooden frame that I already have in place about 200mm below the bottom sill of the windows.
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Ex-car bloke View Drop Down
Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 10 at 17:20
Dub4life, your storage unit looks great.  Not come across motexion before but being a furniture maker I really had to go for wood, plus I wanted wipe-clean surfaces not fabric covered.  "Cheap plywood", you cheeky bugger! Wink
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Big-AL View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jun 10 at 08:22
Nothing wrong with a bit of cheap ply wood , pulled out my mates shed , with a coat of B+Q  black stain on it   LOLLOL
Come on Ex car bloke whats the hold up !!
"Big-AL doesn't do spelling, but if he did, he would rpobalbe be the best in the world"



2007 Kombi 130 Sportline
Alan Ranger
www.rangersgarage.co.uk
01980 655555
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Ex-car bloke View Drop Down
Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jul 10 at 21:11

I’ve been busy for a while....my Financial Manager (me) told me to get some paid work done so the van cabinet jobs have been temporarily on hold...

 

However, of the nine remaining jobs I’ve managed to get work done on 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8.

 

The coat hooks and vertical rails are now made and fitted to the wide cabinet, all in 6mm birch ply to match the rest of the cabinet.  The rails will take Velcro straps to tie back whatever is stored or hung on the cabinet end – coats, folding chairs etc.  The hooks are designed to be low profile and I have a second row of hooks to fit about half way down, for children’s coats and other shorter stuff.

 

 

 

 

I also have a similar system to fit to the narrow cabinet.

 

The big top-hinged door on the wide cabinet now has lightweight stays fitted.  These are excellent; they click in place when you open the door by 90 degrees and to release them you just open the door an extra 10 degrees or so and they allow the door to be closed.  A very nice, compact design.

 

 

 

The curtain/blind dilemma was solved when I realised that the megavanmats lining carpet sticks to the Velcro I have already fixed around the window frames for my existing blinds.  When I next see her, I’ll get me old Mum to sew Velcro tape around the edge otherwise they’ll get tatty, but for now it does the job, blocking light, protecting the glass and hiding the cabinet contents.       

 

 

 

In the meantime I’ve used the cabinets on a couple of weekends away and left them in for day to day use and I have to say they’re superb, but then I would say that wouldn’t I? LOL

ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Ex-car bloke View Drop Down
Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jul 10 at 18:09
Drawer dividers made and fitted.
 
 
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jul 10 at 16:56

I got most of the final jobs done today.  We’re camping the week after next so the pressure is on!  I also need to fit my new Reimo rail but that’s another story...

 

The first job of the day was to finish fixing the vertical luggage rails to the cabinet ends.  These have been simple to make but quite time-consuming. 

 

I fixed them from inside the cabinet so that the outside appearance remains screw-free.  I used my usual screw of choice, Spax T-Star, which self-tap into the wood and bite very strongly, so I’m confident of fixing the rails without glue.  The combined thickness was 24mm so I used 25mm screws with a brass cup washer.

 

The left hand narrow cabinet was fitted with rails and coat hooks. 

 

 

 

This is the front face of the same cabinet, with just a set of four coat hooks still to be made and added.

 

 

The wider right hand cabinet was fitted with another set of rails and four hooks on the front face - I did the rear face last time.

 

 

 

Next, the two fixings near the tops of the cabinets that secured them to the van were supplemented by two lower fixings.  On my first test run I found that the cabinets, when stuffed full of heavy contents, were forced away from the van side near the unsecured bottom.  As before, I used angle brackets, M6 threaded inserts and M6 allen-headed bolts.  The existing softwood frame (used previously for my full-width bed deck) made this task easy. 

 

Left front:

 

 

Left rear:

 

 

Right front:

 

 

Right rear:

 

 

I’ve been thinking lately about crashproofness of the whole set-up.  As in “What would happen to it in event of a collision?”

 

I feel confident that these four-point fixings are substantial enough to stop the whole thing being ripped off the van, as it's very solid now.  In any case, the double rear seat would stop the big cabinet if it did come unstuck.

 

Anyway, back to the final job of the day, fixing the stays to the top door of the narrow cabinet, which becomes my fold-down worktop for cooking and preparing food etc.

 

The steel stays are lightweight but very strong.  To be sure the table top will take a bit of abuse, I decided to bolt through the door end of the stays rather than just use screws.  I used M4 bolts with locknuts.

 

It was an absolute bugger of a job, for two reasons.  One, the manufacturer’s instructions had the geometry dimensions wrong, so I ended up having to use trial and error to (eventually) get the right locations for each end.  And two, some idiot (me) had put the shelf right in the way of the desired location of the fixing point of the stay.   Because the shelf and the support were glued in place, it was a bastard of a job to do without wrecking the cabinet and I had to make various cut-outs in the corner of the shelf for the stay and the heads of the nuts that protruded from the door fixing.

 

Several hours later I had a very sturdy table top opening perfectly to exactly 90 degrees so I was well pleased despite the cursing and wasted time.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m pretty much at the finish line now with the job, and ready to rock and roll.

 

I’m not sure I need to bother with the planned carpet lining to the shelves as it will just make them harder to keep clean.  I think I’ll use them for a bit and see how I get on.

 

A planned future development is to cut away the top 120mm of the front face of the wide cabinet.  This is the bit that protrudes above the top shelf.  Removing it will allow me to carry a couple of windsurfing sails, a mast and a boom in the long thin space above the cabinet and along the top right hand side of the van to the driver’s headrest.        

ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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oldgit View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jan 11 at 00:06
Hi Ross,
 
What a real craftsmans job !
Would you still have the Word.doc  that you could email to me ?
I`m trying to get rear furniture made for my lwb Shuttle T5 (extra 13" behind twin sliding doors;  mirror image on either side, gap right down the middle with two fold forward single rear bed/seats at the `C` pillars). 
I know a local chippy that your article may just inspire as to what can be achieved !
regards,
Olgit.
email: 
 
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Ex-car bloke View Drop Down
Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 11 at 20:53
Peter, email in your inbox.
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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edpd1b View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jul 11 at 22:04
Superb workmanship...
 
 
My van arrives tomorrow, I cant wait to get stuck into kitting it out. I have until the end of the month so is going to be a task to get it all done.
 
Inspirational work, mine will be marginally less quality I think. Nice One
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Vanorak
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Aug 11 at 07:48
Thanks Ed.  We're off to Ireland for a fortnight so the wide cabinet is being taken out of storage and getting bolted back in this week. 
 
They've been used and abused and are wearing well.  I keep the narrow one in permanently.  It adds loads of storage without using up any of the floor space.  Worth all the hassle involved in their making!
 
Hope all goes well with your project.
ECB           2006 SWB 174 window van
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