Saturday, August 18, 2018

Doing the duffel shuffle

Now that the passenger seat swivels, it's not so great as a duffel bag holder once we're camping. I mean, why swivel the chair just to look at a stack of bags?
So I added more rear overhead cabinetry. This time on the driver side. The plan is to use it for my clothing duffels, and spousal unit will store her stuff on the driver side.

I'm using the same frame design as the passenger side, but there is one difference to deal with.
See that black plastic cable conduit snapped onto the driver's side wall?

The passenger side cabinets (and cabinet wall) can fit up flush against Annie's side wall.

But the driver side has to accommodate the cabling in that conduit. There was really no good reason to build around the conduit, since it's only there to protect the cable. So the first step is to cut away the conduit.

There will be 2 cabinets, mainly to provide a center support point. Overall length will be 4.5'.

Now to build the cabinets. This time, instead of the rear wall on the outside of the frame, I'm putting it inside the frame. The cable will run behind it. Once the cabinet is assembled and glued up, we'll cut the frame (where the blue tape is) so the cabling can pass behind. That cut is already done to the cabinet to the rear.

Next, I added some support for the top of the rear wall.

The cabinets are hung to ceiling rafters at the face and rear top, and to Annie's sheet metal at the bottom rear.

I made up a quickie jig to angle the upper rear screws correctly. There was no easy way to set up a jig at my drill press, so I just cut a piece of scrap at the right angle and clamped it down.

Then I edge banded the cabinets and started mounting them. (Not what it sounds like...this isn't dogwood.)
First cabinet is attached to the ceiling.
The front screws are spaced for a piano hinge, if I decide I want to add doors. But since the goal is to stuff soft duffels up here, I'm hoping that cargo netting will do the job.

Both cabinets are up, bottom screws are installed. I ran power in case I ever want to add some under-cabinet lighting.

Added command hooks to hold the cargo net, added our signature mushy rubber trim, and as the last step, test fit a duffel bag.

While all this was going on, the aesthetics committee convened, and determined that an additional dimmer/strip light would be aesthetically pleasing above the sink.
So I installed one.

Stay tuned for our next thrilling adventure, where we attempt to improve our sound system on the cheap.


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