Saturday, November 29, 2014

Stuck Up!

The refrigerator at home is communications central, covered with magnets collected during our travels as well as pictures of family and friends. A surface for magnets is one of the few things missing from the Scamp. I'd toyed with adding sheet metal to the refrigerator door, but liked the poster treatment better.

We decided that the door above the closet was the candidate for this simple mod. It's near eye level, and visible as you enter the trailer.

I picked up a piece of 24 gauge sheet metal to use. Cutting it was more of a challenge. I have access to a shear, but only for cutting aluminum. I could have cut it with hand shears, but didn't want the wavy edge that would result. I could have found a sheet metal shop, but... I ended up cutting it with an abrasive disc in the Skilsaw. Very easy!


After filing the edges, I painted both faces with Rustoleum primer, and then sprayed the finished face with gloss black.

Five pieces of VHB tape went on the back side

and then it was stuck to the panel portion of the door. I have a short stack of rare earth magnets left over from a boat project that will work for hanging up photos or notes until we can collect a few more decorative magnets.

Now if you want to ride along, just send us a photo and you, too, can be stuck up!

6 comments:

  1. I like that project simple and it will be fun to fill it with photos and magnets!

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    1. I'm pleased with it, and it's much better solution than taping stuff to the fridge door like we did before.

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  2. What a cool project! I bet it adds to the wonderful "home" feeling when you stop at the end of the day and open the door to the Scamp.

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    1. I like it. I found the black of the metal tended to draw my eye to the door and then I'd focus on the pictures. It will be fun to see how its personality changes as more stuff gets added.

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  3. Beautiful job. You can get paint with metal in it. My grson has a huge square of it on his wall and magnets stick nicely.

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    1. I toyed with magnetic paint and I thought about painting one or more door panels with chalkboard paint, but decided to go this direction because it's easily reversible if we decide we don't like it.

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