Saturday, January 15, 2011

BBQ Slide -- No It's Not a Dance

Well, I tackled a project today that I've been wanting to do, a 3' x 3' slide-out shelf in Voyager's bay.  My reasoning is to make it easier to pull out my common items and provide a BBQ platform under the awning for those rainy days or when a table isn't available.  Total project cost was roughly $40.  

3/4 OSB (only used half):  $8
4 Sets of casters:  $10
Angle brackets:  Had them already
Screws:  Had them already
Shelf liner:  $6
Spray glue:  $4
6' Aluminum angle:  $13

Need a drill, drill bits, jigsaw to cut metal, circular saw to cut OSB.  I might have missed something, but the pics below should be clear enough to notice.

Before Pic:


The rails:  Two 3', 2x4s mounted with casters.  To keep the casters from swiveling, I drilled a hole through the moving parts and screwed in 1 screw on each caster.  This keeps the casters from moving in a circular fashion and proivdes a moving track for the angle "iron" on the shelf to ride on.  In the front of the pic, you can see two brackets.  Their purpose is to keep the shelf from falling.  Although not in this picture, I cut them back so they would not interfere with the contents on the shelf.  See below.


This is the bottom of the shelf.  The aluminum angle is at top and bottom, with cut 2x4s roughly 2x2s (not perfect) to keep the OSB from sagging.  OSB stands for oriented strand board--the wafter looking board that is the shelf.  As you can see on the right side, I cut out a wooden handle and attached it.  Later (see below pic), I removed it and painted it silver, a color I had sitting around.
 

In this pic below, I am attaching the shelf lining product.  It's a semi-spongy, waterproof, and somewhat rugged material found in the household area of Wal-Mart.  Really cheap.  Also purchased a small can of spray glue.  To keep the edges from pulling up, I screwed in some really small screws if you look closely.


In the pic below, you can see what it looks like after shelf is installed and all items are in storage.


In this pic, the grilll is out and hooked up.  I know what you're thinking.  The grill smoke is going to go all into the bay and smell up everything.  Well, I can assure you that the bay door closes on top of the shelf enough so there's little chance of that.  Plus, can open the other side and let it waft out if needed.

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