spent nearly a week ,on and of ,making the top for the kitchen and finally got it fitted today sink is in cooker is in drawer is fitted waste connected and im realy pleased with it think, ive mastered the router at last ,
what caused me all he problems realy was i didnt want the cupboards to be as deep as the fridge /wardbobe unit as i felt it would look a bit box like if it was all level .When i planned it i didnt allow for the big vertical rib in the side of the van whic throws the cooker forwards 4 inches so ive made a deep work top to oversail the front of the units with the cooker within the depth
SPINFLOW
The screws that clamp the appliances down in the work top go through a plastic cup that realy isnt man enough, on one the stainless steel has chopped the rim of and now i need to get a replacement and the screws/bolts have such a fine thread they are a nightmare to use both sink and cooker are siliconed in so not going to move but need the cup as it holds the stop for the glass lid.
as the photo shows this has allowed me to get imagenative with the curves and some fancy router work on the edges since its my first attempt at laminate im dead chuffed
in between routing and glueing ive cut the tops for the bed boxes complete with lift up lids well actually lids as ive buggered one up and cant redo it till ive cut my last sheet of 12mm faced plyfor the batroom wall when if ive measuered right ill have an ofcut large enough to recut the lid

dont know how this picture got here but i cant seem to delete it still it shows how for its come

work top

have just spent most of two days making the work top and fitting the sink and cooker in ,We had decided we wanted a worktop that was curved to allow a bit more floor space so this ruled out normal kitchen tops i decided to make it from birch faced ply original plan was two thicknesses but his didnt hide the bottom or the sink and cooker which oversail the units below so three it had to be ,on the up side i now know a bit more about using a router . Ive always liked the vanished edge on ply so now i have it in abundance
Getting the curves right was very tricky we tried marking round various tins plate etc but wound up doing them with a drawing compass I had to dredge up a lot of schoolboy geometry which was lurking in the old grey matter bisecting angles is obviously something like riding a bike
When i got the sink in place I found it was slightly damaged you couldnt see it immediately but it was half inch high one corner rather than send it back i manged the pin it in place with a board screwed down on top happy to report its now reasonably straight
Had a bit of a panic over the battery when we were playing with the seats a few weeks ago something got left switched on the next day i had no central locking and reverted back to using the key old skool style.decided to charge the battery this week as realey ill need to move it soon ,left it charging all night and next day still flat so back on for another night .When i got in this morning the smart charger was showing defective or deeply discharged battery thought some thing had gone most probably the battery but after connecting the earth back up it started first time .

well ive decided work is the curse of the motorhome builder but ive had to do some this week but light nights and warm weather have allowed us to get a fair bit done mostly finishing things that were already half done.the thing with this building lark is you often need stuff in place to build around it so it gets left halfway.this week weve fitted the oven and the fridge all piped up and wired the battery now resides in a nice plastic box the pump is finally screwed down the wires from the tank gauge is neatly tied up underneath the van ready to connect as is the water pipe from pump to tank
at the moment im trying to get the bare essentials finished so i can get the gas tested as my insurers want a gas certificate whats realy annoying is im a registered gas fitter by trade and cant certify my own van still its only money and if we were worried about money we wouldnt have started this would we ?
also fitted some of the cbe electricals so far so good but some little problems the fused spur for the water heater has no continuity terminals for the earth wires and is so small its difficult to get the wires in one terminal is to small to use a insulated crimp on so had to trim the plasric back
why do the insist on fitting large multiway plugs on both ends of the tank probe leads to get the wires through a small hole i had to chop the ends of to be rejoined later ive done the same with the wire from the ultrastore as it wasnt long enogh i now need to find some five core alarm wire to extend it
still undecided on how to make the worktops as i realy want to curve the edges which rules out post formed chipboard domestic worktops not sure if my carpentry skils are up to routing timber edges onto a formica coated ply sheet for now im going to fit the ply and appliances in then decide if i need the curves as much as it seems now

just spent a cold damp weekend in norfolk why are bankhols always wet?have been picking away at bits that dont realy show on the new build some more wiring is in battery terminals fitted battery charger is fitted,put the two earth tags in water heater is now fitted and plumbed up down side of using 12mm is the lack of fittings available locally i would like to capp all the ends and test but dont have loads of 12mm caps to do this with
ive also glued the sheet of 3mm on the front of the kitchen units just need to cut out the holes with a stanly knife and add the edging
one thing i cant decide on is what to use for the work top it may just be fitted in ply for now till i can find a suitable finish for it realy need this done so i can fit all the gas appliances and get a gas cert to keep the insurance company happy pics will follow soon

ive been realy busy the last few days as everything has been going well no doubt now ive put it i writting that will change cut the vents in for the fridge after jiggling the hieght around to get fridge as low as lossible without having to cut in to the plastic mouldings on the van sides .While I was at it i cut in the mains hook up box which ive put at high level on the rambler its low and can be a bugger to line up especially in the dark so hopefully thats not going to be the case with renee2.ive now sealed the fridge vents so that theres no cold air getting in to the voids between insulation and lining boards
Once the hookup was in ive fitted the fuse board and put some more wiring inanything passing through the struts is in conduit or grommets
Decided i had a void behind the kitchen splash back so rather than run in the fridge void ive come out and back under it was just a case of im not sure if the heat from fridge would effect the cables but better safe than sorry
all the cables are p clipped as i dont want them moving around and possibly fraying or making a noise
last picture shows the fridge/ wardrobe unit with holes cut for the controlls between the two all the electrics are going under a false floor in the wardrobe above the fridge which will make them easily accesible if the wife doesnt fill it with shoes like the one indoors, only joking hun i agree a girl can never have enough shoes

furniture

template made from old floor
right hand box devided to take gas bottles

got to the stage where i need to cut my first sheet of faced lightwieght ply i need to get a wall up to see where everything goes decided to cut a template first as it quite a complext mix of curves and straight bit and its all got to be a tight fit so using a section of the old ply floor i made it in two pieces first piece up to the start of the roof and then a piece for the top then i joined them with some 2x1 i then transfered this onto the first sheet , scribed round it and cut it with a jig saw after a bit of trimming and sanding it was in place
the template wasnt quite right to fit the opposite side but it was close enough so i repeated for the other side getting these two in place realy lets us see whats going where
seems like ive been measuring and measuring time and time again all weekbut the end result is both bed boxes are now made i cant final fit them till i position everything thats going in them gas bottles in the back of one and a small cupboard for the hook up lead and small bits and bobs battery is going next to the gas locker and possibly the water pump

Bit of a milestone this week weve actually finished something .the ceiling one of thse jobs thats actually easier than you first think, was dreading the thought of all that overhead work .Used 3mm faced ply from magnums and the plastic jointing strips and edges i had already fitted batten between the ribs of the van and simply glued it up with fc40 I started with one sheet straight down the middlewith cut out for the roof lights glued only the center batten wedged it up and left it over night this way i could easily join to the edges
realised it was just as easy to panel over the second rooflight and stanly knife it out after it was alll stuck
if i was doing it again id put the batten on the ribs to get flat run down the length of the van i didnt as i was worried about hieght but 10 mm wouldnt make much difference

above picture is of the side door panel covered in carpet weve used the original 6 mm ply lining as the panels will have to be removeable im just going to screw the panels on with plastic covers on screws with hind sight we should have used the plastic push in 's which could have been glued to the board prior to covering then there wouldnt be anything showing , still next time

had lots of problems with the side door window frame as i spaced the frame out to match the lining opened the door only to find the frame collided with the side of the van stopping the door from opening so weve had to drop the inner part back into the lining unfortunatly after id thinned the frame down i forgot to change the fixing screws for some thing shorter and pushed one right through the side of the van the air was very blue for five minutes then i realised its not the end of the world, just close
all the time im doing a task in the van i find im also thinking about the next thing i really neeed to focus on one job at a time to make progress
weve also carpeted several bits that will show after the wall boards are up and also the panels for one back door and the side slider great stuff can be moulded around even the most akward corners with a bit of stretching or a few nips and tucks all stuck on with 120 degree spray adhesive we found its best to cut each piece over sized spray the adehisive on to the panel and the work from center sticking it down as you move outwards then trim of excess you do need lots of stanly blades as they soon lose the edge