Now that I had the front wall of the camper box in place I could work on the refrigerator cabinet; the same way as I had done back ago on the propane cabinet. So here we are back in 10-Galley and Greatroom - I guess because most of what is happening is refrigerator related. But there is great deal going on here.
Like the double duty being pulled out back, where the propane cabinet is also the bathroom sink vanity and counter top, the fridge is not "just a fridge" - no, it is here, perhaps more so than anywhere else in the camper, that we try and pull every cubic inch available into use.
From the interior side we have the fridge itself and because of the rounded sidewall, the fridge cannot be placed any higher than it is, so we made use of the space between the fridge top and the enclosed door-style cabinet above to use as a deep, but short shelf landing for whatever. We imagine maps, literature, books, laptop, travel guides, etc.
And below, at least until a fridge replacement is necessary if ever, another open shelf this time for a couple pairs of shoes. Like at home where shoes come off upon entry, I expect our camper will be quite similar. Coming in? Lose the street shoes. Put on the slippers, camp shoes or just don socks or go barefoot. We'll figure out a good method for the on/off thing and perhaps outside storage of muddy boots.
But how did we get there? And what next? Glad you asked.
Quite some time ago I began work on the fridge cabinet, while the front wall was still out and I could get to things for both planning and building. The fridge is designed for "zero" clearance on all sides except right above for the chimney stuff. And in order for the convective air flow to operate the fridge cooling correctly, the sides of the fridge have to be within a MINIMUM distance of the side walls in the cabinet, and that distance is a small fraction of an inch; what maybe 3/16" max? I forget - I saw it on another brand installation manual. So I started with the wall build-out on the left (common to the wall on the right of the range).
Here I found I had made a shelf cleat too short for the fridge wall. So that got replaced first.
Notice the channel cut in the longer cleat for the propane line.
And in place.
Then I cut 3/4" insulation board and filled the cavities, cutting a groove for the propane line and conduit.
Then covered it up.
At this stage we took the fridge down off the high garage shelf and tried to slide it in place. It wasn't happening. The fridge hadn't very much lip to cover the rough opening, or to place mounting screws for that matter, so I was very exact on minimum sizing. As it turned out I had to increase height about 1/2" and width about 3/16". You might detect such increases in some of the photos hereafter.
The width was simply a matter of cutting more out of the face board, but the height required lessening the fridge shelf board thickness. I went from 3/4" to 1/4". Fortunately the fridge weight is right over the shelf supports. But the new 1/4" shelf front edge posed a problem for the 3/4" thick piece of trim board I needed to put on its front. You'll see in today's post how that worked.
To get a proper feel of what outside storage capability there would be, I temporarily installed the access opening frame, and a scrap board for the camper corner.
Originally I had planned in my head to leave ALL of the space under the fridge for outside storage. When I made the face board cuts I decided to reclaim that space for interior storage (shoe shelf). At this stage I decided to split the difference, so I put a pair of my big feet shoes in place and made a pencil mark. Then I rounded up to an even 13" and planned the back of the cabinet to be there. What that accomplishes is a slightly larger depth for outside storage, allowing a place for something like a coiled extension cord above an enclosed utilities (wiring) channel below. You see a scrap piece of plywood acting as that wall in the above photo.
And, by cutting off the unnecessary back three inches of angle iron horizontal leg from the fridge (compare previous photos and next photo) and filing all edges and corners smooth, I could more easily access the area between the front wall of the camper, and the cabinet wall still to be built on the RIGHT side of the fridge (while standing inside facing the fridge). Believe it or not, that space will allow room for a full size ax and perhaps a small shovel (I picture a folding army shovel like I carry in Lil' Willy) resting on top of the fridge shelf just above the front wall utility channel area.
The back wall board of the shoe cabinet will give excellent support to the thin 1/4" fridge shelf, as does the shelf supports on either side. But again, the front edge is weak, and needs a 3/4" trim fastened to it's front - part of the original cabinetry that was cut out when I made the new rough opening. To get that on I started with a 1" strip of 1/2" plywood, glued and 1/2" stapled from the 1/4" surface into the 1/2" strip. Nice and strong.
Then I glued and nailed the 3/4" by 3/4" trim strip onto the new 3/4" edge. I used a 1 1/4" pneumatic finish nail for fastening it, but really, it is the glue that does all the holding. The nails and staples help yes, but they really just hold it tight until the glue dries. And it's not the glue that holds, it's the wood fibers gripping each other through the medium of the glue. If you can figure out how to make wood fibers grip themselves without use of glue, nails or staples, you will become rich!
Anyway, this is how the edge turned out.
Oh and here's how the back wall board worked.
I'll meet up with you all tomorrow morning in 7-Finishes & Finishing as we put paint on these pieces.
