Finishing touches......

8:47 am - Friday - January 8th - Seal Rock, OR - 43° F, 87% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the north.  Partly sunny today with a forecast high of 49° F.  On this date in 2019 we visited Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island, FL with very good friends Roscoe and Geni.........↴

Deep in the bowels of Fort Clinch State Park

We had rain most of Wednesday night, and into the early morning hours Thursday.  Normally we would have cleaned the septic filters at the WDS plant on Tuesday, but it was raining, and I was called off work, so it fell to us to complete this task Thursday morning.  Terry asked Blake and I to meet him at the WDS plant at 9 am, which we did.  I fully expected to continue working after we cleaned the filters, but it was clearly way too wet to do anything, so Terry sent us home at 9:30 am.....

.....this actually worked out quite well for our unfinished fridge project.  As I wrote yesterday, FedEx delivered the new door panels for the Dometic Americana II absorption refrigerator a day early, and I was anxious to get them installed, and work on finishing the installation I began a week ago.  

First up I needed to cut a piece of wood to fit in the gap left by the old Dometic at the top of the refrigerator compartment.  The LED control panel for the old Dometic sat on top of the refrigerator, while the new LED control panel is located inside the freezer compartment, which gives the new Dometic a lower profile.  When we installed the old Dometic back in February of 2012 I had to cut this piece out to fit in the control panel.  Now I have to fill it back in, but how to do that, and make it look seamless is a little beyond my wood working skills.......

My Craftsman convertible drill

This jigsaw attachment

Jigsaw attached

.....in order to create a template for the wood insert I cut out the blue tape with which I had covered the gap temporarily, affixed it to a piece of cardboard, and then placed that template on a piece of wood tracing the pattern on the wood.  I used my Craftsman jigsaw to cut the piece, then inserted it in the space (see above).  As you can see, my skill set is lacking, but it does fill the space, so how to finish it so it looks seamless?  Well, I'm still working out that part, but I've got couple of ideas, which I will share after I complete the installation Friday......

....next up I needed to find a place to run the drain hose on the back of the fridge.  The old Dometic had a pan which collected condensation from the refrigerator, which we rarely, if ever, had to dump.  The new fridge does a better job of removing condensation from the fridge interior, and requires a place to run the drain hose.  The Splendide washer/dryer sits in a pan which will collect any water which might leak from the washer and dumps it into the gray tank.  The simplest way to dispose of the fridge condensation was to cut a hole through the wall separating the fridge and the washer/dryer and run the drain hose into that pan......

.....I used a hole saw to cut through the ¾" plywood, and the pushed the hose through the wall.....

....my final task before pushing the fridge back into its cubbyhole was to reinstall the temp sensor in the fridge compartment.  Having a sensor in fridge allows us to check the internal temperature in the fridge without opening the door......

.....I first drilled a hole inside the refrigerator in which to run the wire to the backside of the fridge so I could reconnect it to the wire which leads to the temp gauge inside the Newell......

.....now we can once again check the temperature without opening the fridge door........

Using this selector we can check outside temps, water bay temps, Dometic refrigerator temps, Norcold temps, and the inside temp

The temp inside the Dometic fridge compartment is around 36° F at this time

The Dometic Americana II is pushed back into its cubbyhole awaiting the finishing touches

....I had barely finished all of this when TLE arrived home from her two hour office shift.  While I cleaned up my mess she headed into Waldport to pick up some adult beverages to restock our supplies, and some grocery items.  She returned just as I was sitting down in my recliner to take a break.

The skies unexpectedly cleared late afternoon resulting in a beautiful sunset....a very nice way to end a very productive day.....

Thanks for stopping by!

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