I got a few coats of my wiping varnish mix on the false drawer front, the table drawer front (and bog oak handle), and various other bits 'n bobs. I fitted the dummy drawer front in front of the sink using spring catches:
The colour mis-match looks awful in the photos, but I think it's the flash. It's OK in real life.
I designed a folding piece of additional worktop, but then found my space was too narrow to allow me to use the design and materials I had in mind. So, I had to make up my own panels, which were much thinner (only 18mm). I made some edge strips on the router table:
Ripped up some 6mm ply (mistake!):
Then glued the strips in to make hollow core panels:
Next came my favourite job: mitre-ing. I can do it pretty well, but I've spent a lifetime hating the job:
These were pushed in to the edge of all the panels, glued & clamped, and then cleaned up when the glue was dry:
This doesn't need to be pretty, because it is all going to be laminated all round with Formica (or similar). The edging is to give me something solid to screw hinges into. Now, the mistake. I should have made this of 3mm ply, not 6. It's heavier than I'd like, but plenty stiff/ strong enough, so I think 3mm would have been fine. The other mistake was regarding a line of hinges which won't be at an edge. It would have been a doddle to insert a strip of solid wood underneath their location, but I didn't think of that until the middle of the following night. I'll have to drill some dowels in.
Right...a big moment has arrived. Time to start the cedar strip cladding!!!
The bottom edge of the cladding is going to be covered by a bog oak cover board. This will leave the bottom edge of the cladding sandwiched, but exposed underneath. I decided to use oak here, where it's hidden, for extra longevity. Lot's of spray will get thrown up onto the under-edges opf the trailer, so I don't want any end grain exposed, and oak is bomb-proof. I cut and planed some suitable bits, popped a wheel off, and laid out the first piece. It is critical that this is straight, because it sets the line for everything above, so I faffed about on my hands and knees for a few minutes, with a long straight-edge of aluminium:
The oak wraps around the front of the teardrop too:
The other side is exactly the same.
I could then start with the strips. The plan is to have some ash at the bottom of the sides, to provide a contrast to the dark cedar. However, I knew I had loads of cedar, and might be a bit short of ash, so the first strip I put in was cedar, knowing it would be invisible, covered by the bog oak cover board. Turns out I had prepared plenty of ash, but had hidden part of the stash under something else, so I didn't repoeat this on the other side.
So, the first strips went on, glued all along to each other, to the frame, and to the insulation. Disposable gloves on, because there's PU glue everywhere!
The next mistake I made was forgetting that the detail around the door would be exposed. The ends are covered by bog oak, so the joints don'ty have to be perfect, but around the door, there is no covering. I did one of the strips a bit crudely, but again, didn't realise my error until later that night.
You might remember months ago I made a router jig and took random areas out of some of the ash strips. Well, here's why:
Instead of having the ash and the decdar meet in a defined contrasting strip, I thought I would gradually blend the two together over a few course. You'll see what I'm getting at in a minute. In the meantime, I ran out of spring clamps, so made some quickly:
Cutting those little bits of thin WR cedar in was slow and tedious. By the time I had got to the 6th or 7th strip, the first were dry enough to clean up:
The following day I could clean the rest up and get them glued and pinned onto the teardrop:
That's as high up as I can get on that side, because the next bit of decoration starts there. For details on that you'll have to stay tuned.....but for a hint, I am quite a fan of Pink Floyd.
