New kitchen countertop extension

WilliamA

I've been mulling this one over for a long time. We finally got a small hole in the cold (it's 30 degrees today) so I thought I'd put the parts I've been saving to use. I'll not say this was complex, but it was a bit tricky. There's little room between the clamshell and the counter at its narrowest point so I had to think it through a bit. In addition, the landing leg for the countertop didn't offer many places to fold down into. Have a look:

The new top is made from 3/4" Aspen glue-up. I got a piece 18x48x3/4" from Fleet Farm for $22 bucks. Add another $15 for the nickel-plated piano hinge (1 1/2" open width x 48") and that's what I've got in it so far.

Finish size is 41" wide x 18" deep at its deepest point. Right corner is cut to 45 degrees, then rounded to a radius equal to a roll of masking tape, whatever that is. Large inside radius in front of the sink is.....aaaahhh... curiously, it's exactly the same curve as a ceramic kiln shelf.... Just a coincidence....

It folds up nicely inside the top of the kitchen. 18" is about all the depth you can squeeze into it and still clear the hatch. The fold-out leg is screwed to the bottom of the counter with the leftover piece of piano hinge and folds tightly to the bottom of the counter when raised. In the stowed position, there's about 7/16" of clearance between the folded up counter and the hatch inside. That distance is tightest right at the edge of the O.E. countertop. The clearance gets larger as you go up from the edge of the countertop. I back-cut the fold-down leg where it goes between the cabinet doors so the width narrows to 3/8" and widens over 3" of run. A tricky hand cut with my skilsaw. Use a sharp blade!

In this photo you can see the way the support knife-edges down to 3/8" where it contacts the space between the cabinet doors. That's not to fit between the cabinet doors. It's to clear the hatch when you close the kitchen lid! It's tight. To get my depth for that, (it's nearly impossible to get a good measurement with the rubber seals etc) I put a wide strip of duct tape on the bottom face of the folded up countertop, then rolled out a 1/2" rope of ceramic clay and stuck it on the tape (the tape was just so the clay wouldn't stain the wood), then closed the hatch and pressed it down good and tight. When I opened the hatch, the clay was squeezed out into the exact minimum space between my new countertop edge and the hatch inside face. It's tight, but workable. One of the problems was I needed to overhang the leg so it folded down and about 1/2" behind the face of the countertop in order to sit flat on the cabinet face. A bit of head-scratching took care of it. In the photo below you can see how far the leg hangs down past the edge of the countertop. Without that, the new countertop would have a 6 degree pitch outward to it. I wanted it level.

I got my exact target for the landing leg between the doors by simply folding the countertop down (before I put the landing leg on) then opened both cabinet doors and drew a line where they opened to. That gave me a handy target for where the leg needed to be when unfolded. There's no particular reason why it folds to the left. It could have folded either way without any problem.

I can still access my big dry-goods drawer by simply grabbing the edge of the countertop and rotating it up a bit. I also have a small drawer in the sink cabinet and it's accessible in the same way.

A bonus that I hadn't really thought through but works well is with the leg cut to a knife-edge, when I fold the countertop out, the leg simply folds down and goes where it needs to be without touching it. Didn't see that one coming, but I'm takin credit for it......

I had actually wanted the countertop to swing down to fold. I had a cool spring-leg holder designed and wanted to use that, but for many reasons, most of which should be obvious, folding up was just much simpler. I could have sourced a double-piano hinge, but in addition to being upwards of $100 bucks, it also had a number of additional problems that would have made things more difficult.

I will now take it all apart and sand the whole thing down, drill the screwholes for 1" deep x 3/8" hardwood dowels and use longer, finish screws in place of the 1/2" jobs that came with the hinge. The tiny little screws it came with won't hold in that uber-soft Aspen softwood for long. I could also inject a bit of CA or wood glue into each hole but think the hardwood dowels will be simple to install, drill and put together. Once in, they'll be atomically strong. I also plan to drill the face of the O.E. countertop and put the same dowels in. The stock countertop is pretty cheesy and didn't take much effort to drill. I'm sure it's just formica covered particle board. I will also add a strip of some soft stick-on material where the leg contacts the cabinet face just to be kind to the cabinet.

Most of the rest of the work can be done in the house so if it gets cold again (IF?) I will have a nice inside project. Once it's all drilled, glued sanded and edges routed, I'll stain it, then put a layer of clear epoxy over it to add a bit of longevity.

Fun stuff. Can't wait to give it a test drive.....

WilliamA

BBsGarage

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Seems a long way to reach for the stove.

HikinMike

Ingenious design and placement of the landing leg.

WilliamA

https://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/6939#Comment_6939

Understandable. It's not for everyone, but at 6'5", I have to get into a wrestler's crouch anywhere forward of the galley light to avoid whacking my noggin on the hatch. I've come round to the "long-arm" cooking technique as a self-preservation to prevent knocking myself out. Damned Hobbit architects. As if being tall isn't penance enough, I am also left-handed.....and my last name starts with "A".

There was no end of the fun in the military....

"If you're taller than the man in front of you, move forward. Left face. If you are taller than the man in front.......etc, etc......

Sigh.....

WilliamA

WilliamA

https://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/6940#Comment_6940

Thanks Mike,

But I can say with some certainty that any specific correlation to the term "genius" or it's various subrique's is purely coincidental. I like to think of my technique as closer to:. "Hmmmm, this should work".

WilliamA

WilliamA

I spent the afternoon doing the detail work on the countertop and got it stained, then reinstalled with much stronger fasteners. I still need to put some sort of coating on the stain but that can wait. It's too cold to spread any clearcoat out in the shed and besides, the stain needs a few days to properly vent. It's done and on for now.

The stain turned out nice and though I don't have a router to do the edges and didn't want to trudge over to my brother's to do the work, I think it looks pretty acceptable. Like most of my trailer, it's a workspace and not made to take to the prom. It'll do fine. There are a couple of white streaks on the edges that show up where the glue lines are and they can't be sanded out because of the angle to which I cut the top. It's fine enough for me. A bit of character....

After mulling it over for the day, I thought I might address my methodology for fitting it and why it is the size it is. First, there's my description of how it fit before as I penned above. Here's a photo of how far it sticks out compared to how far the fridge hangs off. It's only an inch or so beyond the edge of the fridge. With the two of them deployed, it gives me a full-width worktop upon which to create my culinary repasts. I re-checked the access to the under-counter pullout dry goods drawer and it's easy as can be with all that's going on there. That's to say it's fully functional and not an issue. The only issue under there is the clashing of the doors. The door pulls on the cabinets are nice and I like them, but if you pull the right side sink drawer open and at the same time have the (microwave space) left door open, the two door pulls clash and won't allow me to pull out both the dry goods drawer and the silverware drawer under the sink at the same time. I have to close one of them or the other. That was the way it was before I put the countertop extension on so nothing is lost there by its addition.

And last, don't forget this shin mangler. This baby sticks out 11 plus inches past the rear face of the countertop already. By adding 18" of extra countertop, I'm actually only making the reach to the hardware 7" deeper than the usable distance as it was. In spite of what I've been saying about not much planning, I actually put a good deal of thought into this whole affair so far as not only fit, but function. The moon I've cut out of the corner of the countertop is for fitting in to do the dishes and also get closer to the stove. I tried it tonight and it's just as functional as it was pre-modification. In fact, I rather like the idea of having a guard there so I am not constantly bashing my head or my shins. It feels pretty good in there now and the countertop looks like a veritable sea of workspace compared to the tiny rectangle it was before. I'm super pleased with how it came out.

WilliamA

BBsGarage

Looks really good all finished!

GigHarborTom

Masterful piece of Engineering

HikinMike

I may need to do a version of that. Maybe 6-8 inches with a few adjustments since my T@G is a 5 wide.

SueBHunny

@WilliamA said:
It's not for everyone, but at 6'5", I have to get into a wrestler's crouch anywhere forward of the galley light to avoid whacking my noggin on the hatch.

The T@G seems to be the one place where short girl problems work to my benefit! I tend to forget about tall guys in small places (like airplanes and T@Gs). Now I understand your counter extension. It had me baffled.

And could you please come live in my kitchen and reach things off the top shelves for me?

WilliamA

@SueBHunny said:

@WilliamA said:
It's not for everyone, but at 6'5", I have to get into a wrestler's crouch anywhere forward of the galley light to avoid whacking my noggin on the hatch.

The T@G seems to be the one place where short girl problems work to my benefit! I tend to forget about tall guys in small places (like airplanes and T@Gs). Now I understand your counter extension. It had me baffled.

And could you please come live in my kitchen and reach things off the top shelves for me?

Sue,
I used to worry about my poor noggin getting bashed around daily, but my age is moving my focus downward to my feet which seldom share the same bed and blankets as the rest of me. Sigh.... It's one end or the other....not both.... Such is life.

As to your kitchen, have you heard about the little red stool? They're plastic now!

Having traveled many thousands of miles back and forth to "the continent", we won't discuss tall people and air travel. If the Marquee de Sade were around today to watch me fold into a coach class airline seat, he'd probably get teared up just a little bit.....

From The Princess Bride:
"and remember, this is for posterity so, be honest".
Quiet weeping follows.......

WilliamA

WilliamA

https://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/6956#Comment_6956

HikinMike,

Might I suggest if you try it that you start at full (15-18") width. Put it in and see how it feels to you. If it's too deep, you can zip off a few inches with a skill saw. You don't even have to remove it to cut some off. It looks enormous in the photos but is actually quite easy to get used to. Not just for us treebeard sized guys either.

Just a thought...

WilliamA

HikinMike

Point well taken. The 5 wide has very limited counter space so for now I have a Table-in-a-bag that I use.

WilliamA

I've discovered in my forays that anything that reduces bags, boxes and bungees is well worth the effort!

WilliamA