Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Kitchen Cabinet, Post 4
Start work on making the sides for the kitchen cabinet. With the metal frame supporting the load on the cabinet the sides don't have to be very thick. I'll be using 3/8" plywood.
That's the same thickness that I used on the van floor. Here's the piece that used to cover the back of the van before I re-did the basement hatch.
The front piece for the cabinet will be cut from it.
Use T-nuts to secure the plywood to holes drilled in the metal frame.
I originally tried 4-40 sized T-nuts but they didn't have enough grip in the plywood so removed those and upgraded to a mixture of 8-32 and 10-32s.
With the sides mounted on the cabinet I can trim the 3/4" plywood countertop to it's final size. Plan out where I want to place the sink.
Once I've decide on the position, flip the sink over and draw a line along the edge.
Use calipers to get the distance from the outside to inside edge.
Then use the calipers along with the first circle to mark the cut I'll need to make.
Drill a pilot hole where the jig saw will begin.
Then cut out the circle with the jig saw. Since I'm not shy about pointing out my mistakes in this build you'll forgive me for crowing about what nice job I did on this free hand cut. It's not a perfect circle but pretty darn close. I was pleasantly surprised.
Once the sink was dropped into place it couldn't shift sideways more than 1/8". Line up the faucet on the sink.
Mark the cut outs then use a hole saw.
I bought the faucet at Lowe's for around $45. Picked this particular model solely because the spout is high enough to reach over the edge of the white dishpans.
continued -
Start work on making the sides for the kitchen cabinet. With the metal frame supporting the load on the cabinet the sides don't have to be very thick. I'll be using 3/8" plywood.
That's the same thickness that I used on the van floor. Here's the piece that used to cover the back of the van before I re-did the basement hatch.
The front piece for the cabinet will be cut from it.
Use T-nuts to secure the plywood to holes drilled in the metal frame.
I originally tried 4-40 sized T-nuts but they didn't have enough grip in the plywood so removed those and upgraded to a mixture of 8-32 and 10-32s.
With the sides mounted on the cabinet I can trim the 3/4" plywood countertop to it's final size. Plan out where I want to place the sink.
Once I've decide on the position, flip the sink over and draw a line along the edge.
Use calipers to get the distance from the outside to inside edge.
Then use the calipers along with the first circle to mark the cut I'll need to make.
Drill a pilot hole where the jig saw will begin.
Then cut out the circle with the jig saw. Since I'm not shy about pointing out my mistakes in this build you'll forgive me for crowing about what nice job I did on this free hand cut. It's not a perfect circle but pretty darn close. I was pleasantly surprised.
Once the sink was dropped into place it couldn't shift sideways more than 1/8". Line up the faucet on the sink.
Mark the cut outs then use a hole saw.
I bought the faucet at Lowe's for around $45. Picked this particular model solely because the spout is high enough to reach over the edge of the white dishpans.
continued -
