Several people have asked for the exact specs of theWe build washbasin cabinets. It fits well behind the sliding door pillar and in front of the third row seat. Here's a detailed look at the design and the parts you'll need to order to build your own.
Disclaimer:It's up to you to check the measurements, components, prices, etc. before ordering, building or installing this cabinet. I'm just repeating what we did. It may or may not suit your needs.
OK, with that out of the way, let's go. As long as you can cut wood and assemble Ikea furniture, that's fine. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions.
Frame options for sink cabinets
The cabinet frame consists of 1″80/20 Aluminium-Strangpressprofile.
This material is amazing and comes in many different sizes, a few different colors and with many mounting options.
- We chose the black anodized finish. You can also use the "silver" color of the basic profiles. It's still anodized, but clear instead of black.
- You can also use if you really want1/4 round piecesin the front corners. These are curved and look very cute.
- We have opted for profiles without T-slots. We wanted a closed look for aluminum. Our cabinet only has T-slots where the wood panels slide and where they are needed to fasten the 80/20 together. However, extruding with the slots all around is cheaper.
- We also chose to use anchor fasteners (#3395) to connect the extrusions together. They are relatively strong, do not interfere with the wooden panels that we slide into the frame, and do not cause holes in the visible faces of the 80/20 profiles.
- We order all aluminum parts cut to length and pre-drilled for the anchor attachments. This adds quite a bit to the cost, but it saved us a lot of time during the manufacturing process and was a lot cleaner than we could have cut at home. Also, after the parts are cut, a black anodized finish is added so they are black on the ends and in the milled holes.
These are all choices you can make. There are cheaper alternatives that you can researchLocal 80/20.
Here is a list of what we ask for (click to enlarge):
As you can see, 3395 anchor fasteners don't come cheap. Machining the undercut for the fasteners costs $2.25 per hole. Even cutting the profiles to length costs $1.95 per cut. For us it was worth it because it gave us Ikea parts of great precision and ease of assembly.
In the order image above you can see the columns for the "finishing". If you're using the same anchors that we use, when ordering profiles, select "counterbore" on the order page and you'll see a screen like this:
This is a picture of the two ends of your piece of metal. This extrusion is 1003 with three adjacent open slots. In the order list you can see that he needs downgrades in the “A” position on both ends. Just check the A box (twice) and add it to the profile.
In fact, we don't buy our 80/20 pan head screws. UsBulk order on Amazon. 250 stainless bolts cost us less than $15. Since we will be building more 80/20 things in the future, these were worth getting for us.
The pan head screws are for the corner joints that we use on the rear cross members. Instead of expensive hidden anchors, we simply use L-shaped connectors to hold the frames together at the back where no one sees them. We also bought four of the same L shaped connectors to attach the bench to the top of the frame.
Each L-shaped connector accepts two pan head screws and two T-nuts. The T-nuts slide into the T-slots in the frame pieces, and then tighten the bolts to hold everything in place. Simply!
[Note: We had to loop the small tabs on four of the L-shaped connectors to make them work on the workbench. You might want to find a slightly different attachment method if you don't have a grinder or file handy]
assembling the frame
About a week after your order you will receive a package. I hope you already have a setImperial size ball end allen key, because you need them to assemble all the screws. The spherical ends are pretty important so you can place the key at an angle.
Here's the order in which we'll put things together:
- Find the two pillars for the back. There are 1003 long pieces (3 open sides). Arrange them so the faces are closed at the edges, then place the two 14.5" 1010 crossbars at the top and bottom to form a rectangle.
- Use four of the 14060 Inner Corner Brackets to attach the top and bottom to the posts. It is easiest to loosely insert the t-slot bolts and nuts into the corner brackets and then slide the t-slot nut into the t-slots on the crossbars and bolts before tightening anything.
- Locate the two columns to the front. There are 1002 long pieces (2 open sides). The two open surfaces obviously go into the interior of the case. Lay them out with the closed sides toward you and the edges.
- Find the three 14.5″ sleepers from 1003 and six from 3395 anchors. Attach the anchors to each end of the cross members. Now you know why drilling these holes for you is 80/20 - they're in just the right place!
- Attach the slats to the studs with the closed side toward you (the “outside” of the cabinet). Slide the black ends of the anchors into the T-slots on the columns. There is a crossbar on the underside of the front with the anchors pointing towards the ground. One goes near the top of the front with the anchors pointing down. The third is at the top of the front with the anchors facing up where the workbench attaches. Tighten the anchors with your allen wrench.
- Now you have a front and a back. Make a proper closet by adding four 15.5 inch pieces of 1003 to the top and bottom of each side. Again, the closed faces face away from the cabinet, and the top anchors face up and the bottom anchors face down. This gives you free slots all around through which the wooden panels can be pushed.
Easy, isn't it? Even if you make a mistake, don't worry because it's very easy to disassemble and reassemble.
add panels
We use a 1/4″ thick layer of bamboo for our panels. You should cut the sheet about 5/16″ wider than the opening on each side and top and bottom.
For example, the opening for the sides of the cabinet is 30″ high and 15.5″ wide. So you need a panel that is 30 + 5/16 + 5/16 = 30-5/8″. It needs to be 15.5+5/16+5/16 = 16-1/8″ wide. You may want to cut the panels a little smaller for easier insertion, but remember you don't want them to rattle!
It's really easy to pull the top profile off the sides and front, slide the panel down into the slot and then reinsert the profile when you're done.
Depending on what material you use for your panels, you may need to wedge them on the back to keep them from bumping, or maybe use small dabs of silicone sealant inside the slot at various points to hold them in place. Watch after; Using the silicone means you glue the pieces together and they won't come loose easily if you want to make changes later.
Adding a workbench
You need to calculate how much overhang you want your countertop to have and whether or not you want that overhang on both sides. Since we have another (removable) cabinet in the sliding door area, we did not add a worktop overhang on this side of the cabinet. We added a 1/4″ overhang in front and on the other side.
Attach two of the corner brackets to the inside of each of the two top side profiles. The corner brackets have small tabs to keep them centered in the slots, but we use them rotated 90 degrees so we need to remove them. The alternative is to buy or manufacture other mounts.
The idea is to place the four brackets to provide four screw locations on the underside of the bench. Assuming you're using a countertop that can be screwed, tapped, or clicked together, you now have a way to attach the countertop to the cabinet.
Make sure your mounting points do not get in the way of installing your sink or faucet. It may be better and easier to create the holes for the sink and faucet before figuring out the final locations for the brackets. Once the sink hole is cut out, but before you install the sink itself, give yourself enough access to see where each bracket should be and screw the brackets together to hold the countertop in place.
sink and faucet
The sink we use is aRectangular Navy Ambassador. It fits great in this full size sink cabinet. We also use yoursSink drain and filterbecause it is very compact. The faucet is also from Ambassador Marine. It belongs to youModell Aidack. All these parts have worked very well for us.
We had to drill the hole for the faucet very close to the bottom of the bench. This meant that the hoses coming out of the bottom of the faucet were interfering with the 80/20's top bar at the back of the cabinet. We moved the top bar on the back of the case down in our design. With 80/20 it's a very easy change.
water tanks
Our fresh water tank iselsewhere in the trailer, but we decided to use this sink cabinet as a place for our gray water tank. We wanted it to be in the van because it's not as likely to freeze. We also needed it to be portable. we decide to use5 gallonsbecause they are easy to lift and empty. This particular version *only* fits under the sink with the 1/4″ plates in place. We attached the tank with a strap to keep it from rattling around.
The sink drains directly into a canister through the screw cap. When a can is full, we simply unscrew the lid and move on to the other can. The loop on the hose acts as a trap to prevent odors from going back down the drain. We don't have ventilation, but the water doesn't bubble when it comes out of the sink.
We had to modify the canister lid a bit. It already came with a hole because it has a reversible spout. We just swapped the spout for one1″ connection with flanged end. The flanged end was too wide and deep when we bought it, so we had to clamp it in a vise and trim it a bit. If you don't have a lathe, you can do the same by hand. It might take a little longer...
There is enough space under the sink for two of these canisters, making it easy to use one for fresh water and one for ash. A small 12v pump to get the water to the tap would also fit in if you need it.
Adding a port
We built a closet door from three layers of bamboo plywood. The two back layers are just a frame around the edge that is glued to the front layer. This makes the port 3/4″ thick.
Because the door is built into the cabinet frame, it requires hinges that attach to the side panel. We use some very similar hingesthese Blum built-in hinges. We glued some additional 6"x6" plywood squares to the side panel where the hinges needed to be attached. We used a 1/8″ layer and then a 1/4″ layer. This built the sidewall flush with the 80/20 frame.
In the photo above you can see how the hinge connects to the side panel (left) and door (right). We did this so the back of the door is flush with the back of the frame. This will insert the front of the door 1/4″ from the front of the frame. When closed, the door only covers the slots in the frame.
The lock we use is aSugatsune LJ-61flush snap closure. We have it in all the other lockers, so it makes sense to use it here as well. Check prices elsewhere if you want to use the same - for exampleATGstores.comit sometimes has a much better price.
It was interesting to make a hole in the door for this. First we had to measure *very* carefully. Then, using a 2-1/4″ hole saw, we drill through the back to the correct depth for the backing board to be attached. We then turned the door over and drilled from the front with a 2" Forstner bit to complete the hole to the correct diameter of the latch itself.
The latch that comes with this latch won't work in this situation, but it's fairly easy to make your own using a 1/8" piece of aluminum angle. This is what ours looks like.
You can slide it from left to right to adjust the snap point, and it also doubles as a doorstop so the door isn't too far in your closet space. Remember to order two more allen screws and t-nuts if using this type of lock.
Attachment to delivery truck
We have an L-rail on the floor and wall of our van, so we installed 1/8″ aluminum angle brackets to attach the 80/20 to the L-rail.
It's pretty easy to think of many different ways to attach these things to your van depending on what finishes you have. Rivnuts, L-Track or just floor and wall screws would do the trick.
Remember to purchase additional nuts and bolts for each mount you wish to add. In case you forgot thenAmazon carries them too.
finished closet
The cabinet is very light, robust, beautiful, has a lot of storage space for its size and even has space for three people on the bench.
Even better, it's fully detachable as we attach it to our L-Bar. This allows us to change our configuration at any time.