There wasn’t a lot to do today because of the lack of material, but I did put in a little less than three hours on the shelving above the electronics cabinet. I cut out the six pieces of wood that will make up these shelves – two are the shelves themselves and four are the sides. The back of the shelves will be the van wall and the front will be a cargo net, so nothing for me to do for the back or front of the shelves.
The six pieces of wood I created were a little bit of a challenge. The shelves needed to be notched out for the fastener hardware. So, they were in and out of the van a few times to get the right location for the notches. The sides were not square, because the van walls slope in towards the center of the van. So, I originally cut these pieces square, then used a jigsaw to cut the angles. I think I got pretty close. Then I had to use the jigsaw to create the notches for the extrusion hardware. Finally, I coated all the boards with Minwax paste.
I don’t have all the hardware that I need to assemble everything together, but I’m going down to the Grainger warehouse tomorrow to pick up what I need. I was tired of waiting for my other suppliers, so I’m paying a little bit of a premium to pick it up from Grainger. If I have time tomorrow after I pick up the hardware, I’ll finish assembling these shelves. If not, it will be Saturday.
Here is what they look like with the boards all fit together.
And here is a view from the back of the van, so you can see how much space it takes up. The shelves are 4 feet wide and 21″ deep at the bottom. A good sized storage space, and it covers up the exposed electronics in the cabinet below it.
