PC Projects Over Winter

Thanks Gradygal for the picture.

I went into my rig this morning before leaving for work to take measurements.  I hope to order drawer faces to build extra wide drawers, going from six small drawers to three huge drawers.  I also will need two horizontal rails for the cabinet itself for in between the drawers.

My top left drawer is actually the deepest of the three, which you can see is the same with Gradygal's cabinet.  I am thinking of making it more shallow, better for  utencils, though is still one inch deeper than my utencil drawers at home.


Right now the drawer faces measure
8" - top
7" - middle
7" - bottom

I am thinking
6" - top
7" - middle
9" - bottom

The 9" drawer would be nice for tall cookware and even bulk food.

With dividers planned, nothing would slide around much when braking hard.

Judy, Thanks for the picture. I think that looks really nice and much more usable for me then the butcher block.

I have the slide in right now so I went out to see what Ron meant with the drawers blocking the refrigerator door and getting by, being as we have the 2350's. This is all so new, and the short time we had our other 2350 .. we grilled outside and have not done any serious prep work or cooking in the kitchen .. I can see where it could be a problem.

Ron: are you talking about taking your door off completely on the right side and making a stack of drawers ????

Carol, I found the photo of the BBB basket that is mounted in our 2910 in place of the cutting board.

Judi

Ron: are you talking about taking your door off completely on the right side and making a stack of drawers?

I am seriously looking into......

- Remove the right side door and all 6 small drawers, nothing reused except for some drawer glides.
- Remove the three 2" wide cabinet pieces (2 horizontal rails & 1 vertical stile) that are in between the six drawers.
- Install 2 horizontal cabinet rails, finishing the cabinet to accomodate 3 large drawers that would span across where the six are today.
- The interior cabinet wall divider between left and right side drawers would need to be removed or modified.
- The depth of the new drawers would be determined by the closest back wall obstruction.
    I think the new drawers can be deeper (farther to the back wall) than the old ones but further research is needed..

Okay, I pulled out all six roller-glide drawers and looked at the base cabinet interior.

PC builds the galley base cabinet with a smart production approach utilizing modules.  The center three drawers is one module, and the right side 3 drawers is another module.  The right drawers are 1 to 2 inches" deeper to the back wall.  The top two drawers are deepest vertically to help items clear the recessed stove top.  But the obstruction is maybe 1.5", not that much.  I compared my PC to my house kitchen drawers.  I am making the new single PC top drawer one inch vertically deeper than at home which means only 1/2" less than "home-normal" where the stove hangs down.  For my single extra wide top drawer, I will put in dividers to easily identify taller versus lower clearence areas.

I hope to reconstruct the cabinet interior without the use of a back wall as is required with the current modular design.  This will allow me to have deeper drawers.  I won't know my limits until after I disassemble the two drawer modules.  I anticipate differnet drawer depths for best utilization of the cabinet interior volume.

Working with Carol Simms, moments ago I ordered 3 custom size drawer fronts, and two rails.  Once I have them in hand, I will start this project.  Until then, it's back to the backup monitor and Scanguage-II.  I will take step-by-step pics for those interested, with costs too.  The hard part for me will be making three large strong drawers that are road worthy with significant weight inside them.

So I guess my Bed Bath & Beyond drawer mod will never see any use.  Anyone interested in it assembled to half rails with spacer/bushings attached, send me a PM and we can work out a price and shipping.  All you'd need to do then is to slide out your butcher block with rails, and slide in this one with rails.

Ron, I have NO IDEA where you are with dimensions, etc., or what will or will not work but I recommend a quick look at Ikea for the drawers they use in their PAX wardrobes. I know a lot of people do mods to Ikea products since they are "flat" packaged to begin with which enables cutting and playing prior to assembly. Our Ikea store also has a damaged area where you can pick up the components from damaged cabinets, etc., where maybe the drawer parts are intact but the frame is damaged so you might get even more savings. So far the furnishings we've bought from Ikea have been quite sturdy. They have drawers for kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, living room shelving, etc. Checking Ikea could get you the "bones" needed to build sturdy custom sized drawers. If we hadn't decided to buy a PC, we'd be remodeling our kitchen and walk in closet using Ikea storage. Sigh, my dream kitchen will have to wait while we run away and play. I'm good with that.

Ron,

   Have you checked out if the cabinet PC uses gives support for the counter top?  By looking at ours I can't tell how much support is provided to the counter top by the back of the cabinet and then the vertical support between the two sets of drawers in front.   Will be waiting for pictures on your project.  Sounds like fun.

Barry and Sue

2 frazzled,
Thanks for the tip, but I will be trying my best to get every square inch out of that base cabinet, with adequate minimum clearances.  I don't want to hit the back wall or other obstructions with any drawers.  I do have a table saw and other wood working tools and even some virgin 3/4" maple hardwood material on-hand.  I should be able to make these 3 drawers better/stronger  than if utilizing Ikea materials.
Years ago for our first motor home, I built this drawer which is very generic.  I plan to do it more professional-like for the PC, also utilizing the old PC ball bearing drawer glides..


Barry-Sue,
I should have included your concern for I too wondered before I pulled out the drawers.  The drawer modules do not support the counter top in any way for they stop many inches short of the counter top.  The left side of the left drawers seem to be attached to the back wall.  But I am feeling in the blind and am not sure of it.  Whatever attachments to the back wall or floor, I will duplicate or improve upon.
Good catch.  Thanks for bringing that up.

Vince installed the wire basket in our 2350 ... it looks fantastic and I am so happy with it ... thanks Ron and Judi.

Carol

I moved the monitor and mounted a Scanguage-II

I need to do something with the scared headliner.  Maybe I could find a low profile sun glass tray from a junk yard vehicle.


Removing the original Ford mirror was a bit tricky because there are no screws to remove.  Following Ford's Service manual, I used a thin flat blade bent screwdriver and pry'd the black bottom away from the silver metal tab, while lifting upward.

Regarding the wiring and all, the trick in making the project easy was removing the center twin dome light (2 screws) and also the two visor hooks (1 screw each).  Then the headliner with curtain rod was easily dropped to fish wires around.  The original mounting pedistal for the monitor in the headliner is both screwed and bonded with double-sided tape.  It took some TLC to separate the headliner from the adhesive tape which stayed stuck to the mount.

Following up with the galley cabinet drawer project, check it out in detail HERE

Ron
   I wished to heck I would have waited till winter to do my summer projects. I had to get off the top of the RV yesterday, got to hot. Will change to fall and spring projects from now on haha... Don't you dare say a thing about that garage you have. haha... looking forward to your updates,,, I'm reading the stuff about the scan gauge and back-up monitor, may put that on the  fall project list.   I would have not really planned these projects for the summer I know it's too hot. Heck I don't even go Rving in the summer.  Wife went out of town for six weeks( new g-baby on the way) did not want to get to bored so went ahead and planned on doing these.  I have a couple more things to do then will be done.  teaser,  I'm working on the windows for heat problems
David Sparks

Sparky, apparently your winter is our summer.  Hang in there.  Try working under a shade tree in the early morning  if you can.