Cool Mods - Thread restored 10/18/2012
My daughter was getting a little warm in her bunk during our last camping trip, so I decided to put her a fan in to keep the air flowing. I had been wanting to add a 12-volt fan to the main livin...
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Our TT (2010 Trail Cruiser 23qbc) came with 3 plastic trays under the sink. I've never liked them and I don't know how many times I pulled the little one completely out. So, I decided to replace them with drawers.
Last weekend I went to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore and bought 3 drawers and a couple of cabinet doors that looked to be a close match for the interior of our 23qbc. Total cost was $6.50 since it was 1/2 price day! The drawer glides and new 10 inch saw blade cost a lot more.
This weekend I got to work on the demo and fabrication. I was going to go with 3 drawers to match the trays but decided to change things up. The first thing was to (carefully) remove the rails the trays slide on. Once those were out I put a piece of 3/8 plywood on each side to give me a good backing for the drawer rails.
Space under the sink is constrained by the drain at the top and the heat ducts at the bottom. between the two I had about 13 inches of space so I decided to go with an 8" x 13" x 19" drawer on the bottom and a 4.5" x 13" x 19" one on the top.
I pulled out the table saw and got to work cutting the oversized drawers down and reassembling them. As usual the first one took much longer than I expected. Lots of bruises and considerable cussing ensued before it was mounted in the cabinet. The second one went quicker, though I'm sporting a nice bruise across my stomach from the bottom kicking back when I was cutting it to size on the table saw; guess I should have double checked the fence was straight. Lesson learned.
It was almost dark so I did my final cuts, using part of the doors I'd purchased to make fronts for the drawers. This morning I put the fronts on, put the drawers in and loaded them up. As a bonus, the little silverware tray that came with the trailer fits across the top of the drawers so we'll continue to use it for shower change, batteries and other loose odds and ends.
Last weekend I went to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore and bought 3 drawers and a couple of cabinet doors that looked to be a close match for the interior of our 23qbc. Total cost was $6.50 since it was 1/2 price day! The drawer glides and new 10 inch saw blade cost a lot more.
This weekend I got to work on the demo and fabrication. I was going to go with 3 drawers to match the trays but decided to change things up. The first thing was to (carefully) remove the rails the trays slide on. Once those were out I put a piece of 3/8 plywood on each side to give me a good backing for the drawer rails.
Space under the sink is constrained by the drain at the top and the heat ducts at the bottom. between the two I had about 13 inches of space so I decided to go with an 8" x 13" x 19" drawer on the bottom and a 4.5" x 13" x 19" one on the top.
I pulled out the table saw and got to work cutting the oversized drawers down and reassembling them. As usual the first one took much longer than I expected. Lots of bruises and considerable cussing ensued before it was mounted in the cabinet. The second one went quicker, though I'm sporting a nice bruise across my stomach from the bottom kicking back when I was cutting it to size on the table saw; guess I should have double checked the fence was straight. Lesson learned.
It was almost dark so I did my final cuts, using part of the doors I'd purchased to make fronts for the drawers. This morning I put the fronts on, put the drawers in and loaded them up. As a bonus, the little silverware tray that came with the trailer fits across the top of the drawers so we'll continue to use it for shower change, batteries and other loose odds and ends.
