I spent yesterday starting on cabinetry for the galley and the bench/berths. Here’s just the galley:

And of course everything I do starts with a meticulous plan:

All of my wood stock is 3/4″ maple plywood, sanded nicely on both sides. This comes in 24″ widths and either 48″ or 96″ lengths, and all dimensions are actual — not nominal:

This stock is cabinet quality but not marine grade. In other words, the glue between the plies is water-resistant but not waterproof. However, it will technically be indoors and I’ll be sealing every surface with polyurethane anyway. So in theory, no humidity should get in or out of this wood when I’m done.

I’m going with gray on these pieces, since there’s plenty of black, white and red elsewhere. Two or three coats of this Varathane should do the trick, and I’ll be testing it on scraps first:

Update: This stuff sucks. I won’t be using it.

I bought a Diablo 80-tooth fine finish blade for my Craftsman table saw, and it cuts like butter. The only problem is the fence on my table saw. It has to be carefully calibrated for each cut in order to stay on line. Very frustrating.

Each piece will include its own solid base, which will later integrate flush with the rest of the RETROvan’s floor. I’m making things modular for structural strength, for maintenance purposes, and to provide a nice finished interior for each accessible storage space under the galley and the benches.

The top is not yet attached in this photo because the galley base isn’t sanded, stained and sealed yet. But if you look closely you can see a pair of pocket screw holes on the middle support piece.

The Kreg pocket screw jig system is amazing. I can’t imagine joining cabinet pieces any other way. Once I got that jig set up for a 3/4″ material thickness, everything started coming together quickly and professionally using Kreg’s #10 1-1/4 screws.