Saturday Project

[DriVer]

We took delivery of our motorhome in March 2003 and since then I have always missed not having a light directly over the dinning room table without turning on all the ceiling fluorescent lights. Well it took this long to get it done but this Saturday I took the initiative to install our new ceiling light fixture.

What preceded this effort was "My DW's" need to replace our 2003 Black & Decker coffee maker which she said was making lousy tasting coffee. It was my opinion that our coffee pot had taken on a "certain flavor" which was earned however I lost that argument. Our good friends Marty and Joan gave us their unused coffee pot out of their new fifth wheel so the writing was on the wall. When I tell you this thing was brand new the carafe was still in the plastic bag and there were shipping tapes and cardboard inserts that I had to remove. A free coffee maker is always a nice thing. We received the coffee maker while we were staying in Silver Springs, FL earlier this year.


Gustafson 12V Ceiling Mounted Fixture // B&D Under Counter Carafe Coffee Maker

Changing out the coffee makers was pretty straight forward. You write to an expert and ask for help, he replies and you're good to go! In the recess above the coffee maker there are 2 luan paneling covers which basically just sit there unfastened. I removed the rail ornament however you don't really have to remove it. I started by using a sharp screw driver and working the front of the bottom panel upward. Once I got a finger in there the panel came out pretty easily. The back panel came out by using the same driver and leveraging the bottom of the panel out until I was able to get a finger on it to facilitate the movement of the panel.

I took a look around in the opening and looky here! A nice and totally unused 12 volt pair of wires. I confirmed this by checking with my test lamp. When I saw that pair of wires I'm thinking I can kill two birds with one stone.

The old coffee maker was dismounted from it's rails. I reused the mounting hardware from the old coffee maker. There are 4 bolts, 4 square nuts and 4 - 3/8" high plastic spacers. The old coffee maker was a much wider unit and the new coffee maker is about 4 inches narrower. I had to re-drill the holes that held the new coffee maker since the mounting style was different. The old unit had 2 rails the new unit has a slide in single piece top. What was important was to get at least a couple of holes drilled through the framing in the overhead. The front two holes are only drilled through the luan paneling however I backed them up using large fender washers.

Getting the new unit measured on center and the first holes drilled took me about an hour. Measure 10 times and drill once. Once I got the new holder in place and secured all I needed to do was slide in the new coffee maker and plug it in. The mounting plate appears to be very sturdily mounted.

There is one new feature I noticed on the new coffee pot, the carafe, is that there is a push button coffee dispenser built into the handle. You can see the button at the bottom of the handle. There's a small plate that flips up and a push button is then exposed. I don't expect that we'll use that feature very often.

I think that it'll take a bit of time to allow our new coffee pot to acquire a character but the new coffee maker is in.

Installing the ceiling fixture was also pretty easy. I used a pair of Scotch blocks and and ran a pair of #16 wires to the fixture through a piece of wire mold. I had to notch the rim so I could get the wires into the fixture and for this I used a rat tail file. It worked great. I crimped on my stake on connectors to the fixture, put it in place at the end of the Wiremold and sank in 3 screws into the overhead panel.

The Wiremold is held in place by a single screw which I toed in at a 45 degree angle on the end that connects to the fixture. I used a 3/4" long #6 wood screw. The other end of the conduit is held in place by the wires coming through the back framing. I did have to drill a 3/8" hole up high on the framing to get the pair of wires through. I slipped the pair of wires in the conduit from the back and the hole being where it is holds the conduit in place pretty much on its own.

I installed 3 - 1141 bulbs of some 57 Watts in total lighting. The lens went up and was secured and the power applied! TaDa!


New Overhead Fixture Providing Effects and Lighting On The Table.

With just the over head fixture on, the light is almost crystalline in nature as the light refracts off the facets in the globe. In our opinion it presents a very nice lighting effect and the most important thing is that it does indeed meet our need to put light directly on our dinette.

[KIX]

Nice job!!

[smlranger]

Nice job Mike. The configuration of the overheads with the coffee maker look identical to that in our Journey. We are still using the original B & D coffee machine and I've heard there is no perfect fit replacement for it. That one looks very nice. I'd prefer to have a coffee maker that drips the brew into an insulated carafe with no 'hotplate.'

[Petro]

Mike;

You did a great job with the light. I am impressed with your wiring job. I am sure Colleen will love you for that.

Don

[Izzyblueye]

DRIVER: Looks great, can a dimmer switch be installed in line. Would not always want full illumination.

[Captain Bud]

Thanks a lot Mike, Ruthie saw your post and said "what a great idea", now the "why can't you do that to ours" harping starts..LOL it was a gteat job, and a Bravo Zulu to you...

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally posted by Homer: DRIVER: Looks great, can a dimmer switch be installed in line. Would not always want full illumination.

Homer, If you can find a 12 volt dimmer that will integrate into the base of the fixture then all that would be required would be to drill an addiitonal hole in the base of the fixture. The dimmer would go inline with the ( + ) hot leg. Sounds easy to me. I'm just glad having the light! When it's the only light lit, it didn't seem to be that bright due to the dome lens that's on the fixture.

Beau (DepChief) came over to day for an inspection tour.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally posted by Captain Bud: ... a Bravo Zulu to you ...

Cap, That means a lot to me coming from you. Thanks.

[NeilV]

Nice job on both installs!

I have the same coffee maker and have found a few problems with it when compared to the old model.

Over time the mounting base gets loose and when traversing uneven roads the side to side motion can cause the entire unit to slide out of its plastic mount and fly accross the RV.

I used TvGrips to latch the coffee maker to the mounting bracket using the provided adhesive pads and flathead #6 screws in the center of each mount.

http://www.campingworld.com/sh...tv-grips-white/18637

I also got an extension strap and mounted another set of TvGrips to keep the carafe in place while traveling. Again using #6 screws to keep the mounts in place as the adhesive pads tend to creep on the white plastic.

Over time the coffee basket tends to start creeping out while brewing so I modified a white plastic bin door catch and mounted it on the left side of the unit to keep the basket in place while brewing and traveling.

http://www.campingworld.com/sh...tic-door-catch/11666

The replacement carafes cost more than the coffee maker so safeguard that carafe. I have a new 12 cup sitting in the shop right now that I am still looking for an economical replacement thermal carafe for. I have temporarily mounted the smaller 8 cup model in its place which suffers the same issues described above as the 12 however the carafe pours better.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally posted by NeilV: I have the same coffee maker and have found a few problems with it when compared to the old model.

NeilV, A picture is worth a thousand words.

I am planning on reducing the mass of the coffee maker by "not" traveling with the carafe in place. Make sense to you?

[smlranger]

Trying to be proactive (anticipating that my OEM coffee maker will eventually fail), I have tried to locate Driver's unit with the insulated carafe. Apparently, it has been discontinued and replaced with a model with a glass carafe and hot plate. I've tried Walmart, Target, Amazon.com, Kohl's, and the B & D website. Anyone who might know of a source, it would be appreciated.

There are few 'under counter' coffee makers generally available.

[codgerbill]

Black & Decker still makes the under counter mount coffee maker. It is not an exact replacement for the original. I bought one and looked at the mounting and I will have to do some work yo get it to fit. I will make some moulding in my work shop when the time comes to replace the original. I Bought the coffee maker at a Black & Decker store at a discount mall.

[DriVer]

Hey Gary! Here it is ..... it's not exactly like mine but very close. I have more stainless stuff on the coffee maker itself.



This is from the B&D website.

Click on the picture.

[NeilV]

Quote:

Originally posted by DriVer: <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by NeilV: I have the same coffee maker and have found a few problems with it when compared to the old model.

NeilV, A picture is worth a thousand words.

I am planning on reducing the mass of the coffee maker by "not" traveling with the carafe in place. Make sense to you? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I had the carafe in the sink and the basket started creeping out so that joined the carafe in the sink then the whole assembly came off the mount somewhere up in the Catskills. They also had some pouring problems with the early thermal carafes (made in China).

I'll take some photos next time I am in the rig.