Microwave Removal in T#G XL

Lightningdon

We decided to remove the microwave in our T@G as we rarely use shore power when camping. Also wanted more storage space in the galley. Ordered a set of doors from Elsie. Right around $40 for the doors, pulls, and hinges. Also includes a spacer strip to be mounted on the left hand side of the opening. The opening is slightly larger than the doors will cover. Also, when the doors under the sink are open, the right side door will interfere with the new doors. So use the spacer that will come with the new doors.

Finished product:

Michigan_Mike

Looks very nice and the added space will be a bonus too. Microwaves are nice, but I could never justify having one full time as it just doesn't get the use. At least for me that is... 😉

Lightningdon

And the extra storage space perfectly accommodated all my kitchen/dining items that otherwise would have to be put in a tote. One less thing to load when heading out. The only drawback is you can see the spacer strip on the left side of the new left hand door. Look closely and you will see what I mean.

LuckyJ

@Lightningdon yep, when we take time to look closely, we can see it, but the main thing we see are the doors. If others comment, they take too much time inspecting, and not enough enjoying life.

If it realy bothers you, have someone make two new sets with the right type of wood and nucamp should be able to provide you with a varnish number to coat them.

And hey, this is a question, anybody knows what is the brand and color number of the vanish they use?

OutdoorEd

I'm preparing to make this change, too. Thanks for sharing your experience and pics. For some reason, they're charging me $55 instead of the $40 you mention, and with shipping the total comes to around $75.

Lightningdon

It may have been a bit more than I quoted. I ordered several other things from Elsie at the same time. When you do the mod, feel free to reach out if you have questions.

WilliamA

One of the things I am doing during my long-term maintenance is getting rid of the microwave. I've pulled it out and will be ordering the door kit. I called NuCamp on Friday to order it, but Elsie is on leave (vacation for some) until next week so I'll email my order in and wait. In the meantime I'm building a full-height drawer to go in there so I can get to the cabinet contents without digging. I want to make the drawer with full-height sides and back so I can put a cutting board on top. I'll take some pics...

WilliamA

Lightningdon

Maybe use the door kit as the drawer front, rather than as functioning doors? Interested in what you do with this. Right now I am using an old grocery hand basket that fits perfectly inside the cabinet, that I pull out with all our tableware. I just haven't figured out how I want to best configure the space yet.

WilliamA

Don,
I just picked up all the stuff I need to make my full-size slide out drawer with cutting board top. I will be getting on the project this week. Stay tuned...

WilliamA

WilliamA

I got my drawer roughed up. There is still lots of finish work to do but it works well mechanically and is really strong. I made it out of 1/2" birch plywood. The full-pull drawer slides are 14". I will be attaching the filler piece to the cabinets and the door fronts to the drawer. Other than some trimming with a sabersaw to make a cerf for the propane line (it hits a tiny bit on the back of the drawer when all the way in) and a ton of sanding, I am happy. I'll wait to do the finish work until I get the door fronts. I've designed it so I can either hang the doors or attach them to the drawer face. I'll see how I like them first before deciding.

The drawer sits flush to the outside of the cabinets when closed. I may run into some interference with the hinges so we'll see how it goes. I made clearance for the hinges on the sides but don't know how flush they fit on the door inside faces.

Once I get the doors and have them hung, I'll disassemble the whole drawer and glue all the joints. Then sanding for days and stain. I want to make a cutting board the is routed to sit on the open drawer. I have some ideas for that but can't get too far ahead of myself until the doors are on.

WilliamA

BBsGarage

Is there room on the side for the filler piece?

WilliamA

Yep. It looks weird with the space there. I got my finish opening numbers off the left cabinet opening. In the event I need to move right or left, I can move the shims I ripped to hold the slides. No glue-up until the doors arrive.

WilliamA

Fourman110

@WilliamA said:
I got my drawer roughed up. There is still lots of finish work to do but it works well mechanically and is really strong. I made it out of 1/2" birch plywood. The full-pull drawer slides are 14". I will be attaching the filler piece to the cabinets and the door fronts to the drawer. Other than some trimming with a sabersaw to make a cerf for the propane line (it hits a tiny bit on the back of the drawer when all the way in) and a ton of sanding, I am happy. I'll wait to do the finish work until I get the door fronts. I've designed it so I can either hang the doors or attach them to the drawer face. I'll see how I like them first before deciding.

The drawer sits flush to the outside of the cabinets when closed. I may run into some interference with the hinges so we'll see how it goes. I made clearance for the hinges on the sides but don't know how flush they fit on the door inside faces.

Once I get the doors and have them hung, I'll disassemble the whole drawer and glue all the joints. Then sanding for days and stain. I want to make a cutting board the is routed to sit on the open drawer. I have some ideas for that but can't get too far ahead of myself until the doors are on.

WilliamA

That’s a great mod. Wish they came out of the factory like that all prettied up. Far more functional for a tiny space.

LuckyJ

@WilliamA
Good job! My goal is to do the same in a similar way with the fridge drawer. We mostly use oir arb fridge/freezer that we like to keep in the TV, so no real used for the egg smasher that sit in the back on the TD.

So will make a dry food crate/box a bit like the counter top bred box with a chopping block on top. Want to be able to switch between fridge and box if needed.

Scotty49

This thread has been very helpful. I ordered my cabinet doors from the factory today. ~ $76 ($26 was for shipping).
I will be following the drawer build out with interest. Great ideas.

BBsGarage

@WilliamA said:
Yep. It looks weird with the space there. I got my finish opening numbers off the left cabinet opening. In the event I need to move right or left, I can move the shims I ripped to hold the slides. No glue-up until the doors arrive.

WilliamA

Ya, cant really see the left side in these pictures.

WilliamA

I did a bit more work on the drawer this morning. I cut out some slots for the front and rear and radiused the sides on the rear as well. I did a bit of sanding to start things on the road to smoothness. As requested, here are a couple of photos:

I did a radiused cutout on the front of the drawer so I can have a pull if I decide to hang the doors in the conventional manner. I still haven't decided yet how to hang the doors but I am leaning toward using the hinges rather than attaching the doors to the drawer. The drawer is quite solid and fits well so I don't anticipate any movement of it, but in any case, I'll just wait until I get the doors before making that decision. There may be interference problems with the hinges that I can't anticipate.
You can see the offset to the right here. The large space on the left is where the filler panel goes. (If I did my math right, that is...)

The propane line for the stove is back in there and interferes with the drawer. Rather than reroute the line, I just made the drawer to go around it. Had I moved the gas line, I could have squeezed an extra inch in the back, plus moved the back piece of the drawer to the back edge making a bit more room in the drawer. That said, I'm a big fan of the "don't fix it if it ain't broke" school of engineering. Moving the Propane line meant a lot of work that I didn't want to do for the tiny amount of additional space I'd have gained. Also, in this photo, you can see that I've radiused the side drawer panels at the top rear for no other reason than they look a bit nicer.

The drawer could have been 1/4" taller overall. I've got it up 1/2" from the bottom and have a 1/4" of clearance at the top. I may yet drop it down 3/8". I want to make a cutting board with routed edges that will sit on top of the drawer and hold it open as well as provide some additional work space but that must wait until it's all assembled and the up/down is finalized. I also have thought about making the drawer an inch shorter by cutting that much off the top, then making a cutting board that attaches to the drawer so I will lift up and lock when the drawer is open. I have drawings of the mechanics of it and it would work but again, everything depends upon how and where the doors will attach.

So it's coming along nicely. I've really gone about as far as I can until I get the remaining parts. I'll use the time between now and then to do some finish sanding and glue everything together. I'm confident enough in what's there that I can do the finish work on the drawer.

WilliamA

BBsGarage

I figured you did something like that for the spacer pc, just couldnt see it. Nice job ! We've been thinking about removing the microwave but the wife does use it to heat up her tea every once in a while so she needs to think it over.

WilliamA

Bill,
It was a long time coming for me to snatch it out of there. I liked the idea of it and also think it looks great in there but for me, I've used it once in 10,000 miles of camping. As I carry lots of dry goods in the galley, it just didn't make sense at the end of the day to be fishing around inside my TV or trailer to get supplies that I could have right next to the stove where I actually want and need them. I haven't gotten rid of the microwave and also designed everything so it can be retrofitted back in, but it was getting to the point that I could use the space better for other things. If I were to camp more where 110V plug-in is more available, I'd probably have kept it. I'm also pulling my A/C out for the same reason.... It's heavy, takes up a lot of room and rarely gets used. Come to think of it, I've never used my A/C. To each his or her own. If I lived down south, I'd probably re-think the A/C removal.

WilliamA

TomD

I don’t use my AC much either. However, I did need it in Utah one year when some freak weather visited the state and it was marvelous. I’d never remove mine just because of that experience.

Lightningdon

Love the drawer. Looks like you accounted for all the clearances. I may steal this drawer idea for my own T@G. Looks much nicer than my hand basket!

WilliamA

Don,
Once I make sure of the door fit I'll post my dimensions.

WilliamA

I just ordered my doors and hardware today. It should ship in the next day or so.
While I was at it, I decided to pull the A/C and build a cabinet to fill the space. I got that fabbed up this morning and fitted. A bit more detail work and then finish (which I'll do as I finish the pull-out drawer) but it works well so far. Now I have room for a weeks worth of clothes.

I'll do a more detailed write-up when I pull the enclosure to finish it but for now I'm happy.

WilliamA

WilliamA

Well, my door kit came in the post today so I set about putting it together. As it turns out, my dimensions were spot on and all that was needed was a bit of drilling and screws. I did have to make a couple of modifications, not to the pieces but where they screw into. Rather than use the hidden screws for the filler panel, I face-drilled it and put in two screws from the side. I couldn't access the bottom rear screw without completely removing the drawer slide on the left side so I took the low road and drilled new ones. Here's what I got:

Here's what came in the box:

Here's how it fit in. I was able to fit the doors and filler panel by simply removing the sliding drawer within.

Here's the open doors with drawer closed.

Drawer pulled out and ready to fill....or perhaps ready to put some finish on, then fill....

If there's interest, I'll get some detailed measurements and post them up.

Sorry about the sketchy photos. I just got a new phone and am going through the trevails of learning a new device.
WilliamA

BBsGarage

Looks great !

Lightningdon

WIlliam, do the doors touch the drawer front when closed? May want a couple rubber pads on the back of the doors to prevent any contact that may result in scratches.

OldFatDog

Nicely done! I think we'll do the same thing. But I might take that thin piece of wood intended to separate the doors, cut it down a bit, and attach it to the inside of one of the doors. That way when the doors are closed, the strip will hide the drawer, and visually it will match the other set of doors.

I'll need to recess the drawer about 1/2" to accommodate the strip but it should work.

WilliamA

Don,
Yeah, the door edges touch the drawer face. I just picked up a couple of different plastic door bumpers and will attach them to the doors. I'm focusing on doing the stain and finish first and might attach the bumpers to the front of the drawer instead so they don't snag on the drawer when I pull them out.

OFD,
That would work but there will be a pretty wide gap in the middle. The filler is something like an inch wide, so the gap will move to the middle. Also, the gap on my new doors is a bit wider than the gap on the sink doors. It's not enough to bother me but it's there. I'll stain the drawer face the same color as the doors. That'll be close enough for me. I'm really happy with it.

Another thing: the microwave front gnawed at the cabinet face frame so there is some rubbing damage I need to deal with along with filling screw holes. I'll get a "crayon kit" from menards to do a bit of detail filling. It'll be fine and look great. If you look closely at the photos you'll see the scratching on the corners of the face frame where it rubbed. No problem... Ya gotta break a few eggs sometimes.
WilliamA

Lightningdon

FatDog, problem with not using the provided strip on the left edge is that the left hand door will interfere with the right hand sink cabinet door if you try to open both at the same time. I was planning to do the same mod you illustrated, but this interference made me change my mind.

WilliamA

Good catch Don! I missed that one. Talk about looking for fly poop and missing the fly!

I stained my drawer with Watco (love that stuff!) natural finish oil. It isn't as dark as I'd like but I had some. I really am turning into my dad... It looks great and is as much as done! I'm really happy with it.
WilliamA

Fourman110

I’m contemplating doing the mod by affixing the doors directly to the drawer (ie looks like cabinet doors but is just a facade to the drawer).

Great mod Lightningdon. I really appreciate the info.