Putt

[Putts]

Oh this is getting goooood!!!

You think that was good, watch this...

Kinda switching mental gears here since the whole registration thing is out of the way. 

I've got a build window until about the end of October when I have to quite using adhesives here in the Montana cold. So I'm going to go full out for the next 8 weeks or so on the interior structure. Once winter sets in, I can build drawers and doors inside my house where it's warm, fitting bits out in Putt as necessary. At that point, Putt's cabin will be insulated so working out in Putt will be easily bearable. 

The basic build order from here is: electronics cabinet; kitchen cabinet; front ceiling; rear wall (between bed and garage...er, drom); bed cabinet; and bed. Phew! 

Off we go!

Electronics cabinet. 

Bunch of this..

Then this...

A lot of that, actually.

Test fit.

Close enough.

Put the ceiling bit on and prime it. 

Kind of complicated at that forward end.

Viola!

Gets a little in the way of the window sightline coming in from the front.

About what I figured though, and plenty of room for electronics. 

On to the kitchen cabinets!

 

[VanKitten]

Very nice. Building the frame and getting the hardware decided (latches, slides, hinges) was all the tough part for me.

I built a couple of really odd things into my cabs. Just waiting for the cabinet maker to finish the door panels (I just don't have the stuff to make doors). Do you do the doors too?
I never did learn to use a joiner.

 

[FinallyFree]

Great craftsmanship!

 

[Putts]

Do you do the doors too?    

Yeah...but they'll just be 3/4" ply. I don't know how to use a joiner either.  

Great craftsmanship!

Thanks! I'll keep trying.

Working on the kitchen cabinet.

Kind of amazed at how many holes I have to drill to do one of these thing with dowels.

Jut did a little mental math: The kitchen cabinet has 144 holes for dowel pins.

Hopefully pics of it going in this weekend.

 

[rvpopeye]

Wow , all solid oak !

 

[Putts]

^^Yep. Need to figure a way to work in a few bricks for the build.

S&B on wheels!

 

[rvpopeye]

Nooooooooooooooooo !

 

[Putts]

I ain't right, dude, ya just never know what's gonna happen.  

 

[rvpopeye]

That's what scares the crap out of others !
Resistance is FUTILE !

 

[VanKitten]

Very nice! I like oak. I like all the natural woods.

The only doors I did in my RV are just oak plywood. Sliding doors for the top cabs.

Supplier here gets nice quality hardwood panels. What will you use?

 

[Putts]

Supplier here gets nice quality hardwood panels.  What will you use?

Just the same furniture grade 3/4 birch ply I've been using everywhere. It's way more than I need, but it makes it east to have enough meat to screw into for hinges and fixtures. It's nice not to have to worry about weight.  


Onward....

More kitchen cabinet...basic box done.

Probably worth showing the tools needed for doweling something together.

This is the little tool to center the drill and hold it vertical in the wood.

Once you've got the holes drilled in one of the piece you put these two little center punch dealies in the holes.

Then you place it carefully up against the piece of wood where it will go. You can see the punches in the bottom of the piece of wood.

Then you clamp it hard. There's a problem with this bit: As you press in on the parts the little point will move ever so slightly due to the grain of the wood and screw up your alignment. A real carpenter will have all manner of clamps and fixtures to get this right...I'm not a real carpenter, so things do get out of whack. A belt sander and wood filler is my friend. 

Too many pic, have to start a new post.

 

[Putts]

Clamping!

Once you've pressed it into place you get two marks on the piece of wood where the dowels go.

Then you drill it out at the punch marks with a drill set to the right length.

If you looks at the corners you can see how out of whack things can get.  

Oh well, I can only do the best I can do. 

Alakazam, it's up!

Phew.  Time for a beer and to start meditating on what's next.

 

[highdesertranger]

thanks that's real nice. I am assuming you glued everything. what glue did you use? what made you decide on dowels instead of screws? highdesertranger

 

[Putts]

I used Tightbond III. Going to be interesting to see if it cracks somewhere down the line crossing a railroad track.

I figured more wood through the joint to take up the flex, and more glued surface area. Once the dowels are in there a screw won't make much difference. The other thing is when you glue it together you only have so much time before you have to clamp the pieces together or the first ones start to set before clamping. Adding a screw step seemed unneeded.

Hopefully I've overbuilt it enough to overcome the places I've no doubt failed. We'll see.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Impressive!

I remember taking woodshop in junior high and learning about using dowel pins in wood joints but that was ...a few decades ago. About 4 1/2 decades. So it's nice to see it being put to good use here!

 

 

[Gary68]

nice craftsmanship there putts,i thought about an exposed dowel but just got lazy and went with screws and wood glue,ran out of sikaflex

 

[bullfrog]

I have gotten into the habit of using a screw to clamp and align then after the glue has completely dried remove the screw and drill for a 1/4" dowel, glue and cut off flush. All the projects I've done with screws in humid climates tend to rot out around the screws after a few years and the dowels never do.

 

[VanKitten]

Beautiful!

 

[GypsyDogs]

Your build is so much cooler than mine... (which also hasn't started yet..lol)
I don't have those tools, nor those skills, nor that shop.

 

[Queen]

My dad taught me to dowel when I was a kid so I thought it was a simple and easy thing to do, turns out not so much. LOL Wouldn't attempt it these days, no proper shop and not quite the right tools, so it's glue and screw nowadays.