I used a length of brass chain and panhead wood screws. I chose a chain that could be secured without additional washers or grommets. Typically, each door used 8 to 10 inches of chain and two screws.
Al Chabot, F371218, Merrimack, New Hampshire
Editor’s note: A plastic sleeve over the chain would prevent scratches. When purchasing the hardware, be sure not to buy screws that are too long. Also, predrill the holes to avoid splitting the wood.
Safer wine glass storage
In order to prevent the wine glasses from “clinking” while traveling, I devised a method to keep them upside down and spaced slightly apart.
I took a piece of 3/4-inch plywood and traced a large “W” across it with, with the four straight lines of the letter slightly longer than twice the width of one of our wine glasses. I drilled a 3/4-inch hole halfway through the plywood in five locations at the ends of each of the straight lines. With a saber saw, I enlarged one of the end holes so that it’s large enough to accept the wine glass base. I then cut a narrow channel to connect to the centers of each of the remaining holes, making the channel just wide enough to allow the stems to pass through.
To store the four inverted wine glasses, simply feed them base up through the large hole on the one end and pass them to the locations that have the 3/4-inch recesses, thereby spacing each glass along the zig-zag channel.
Now the glasses stay clean, and they won’t make noise en route.
Frank Woythal, F291956, Andover, New York
Screen door handle
Have you ever tried grabbing the door-opening handle or plastic slide to keep the screen door from slamming against the side of the motorhome on a windy day? I devised this screen door handle to help solve the problem, and it also provides something other than the screen for the kids to push when they’re opening the door.
Measure the width of the screen to determine the length of the handle. Add 1/4-inch to your screen width measurement so that the finished handle will extend 1/8-inch past each side of the screen. Select a piece of 1-inch-by-2-inch wood to match your motorhome’s interior and cut it to your screen door width measurement, plus the additional 1/4 inch. To form the handle, measure 2 inches in on each side and scroll cut the backside of the wood approximately 1-inch deep. Use a pair of wood screws to secure a 2 ½-inch-long aluminum plate onto each end of the handle, then use two more screws on each side to secure the aluminum plate to the screen door.
Another benefit of this project is that it will make the screen door stiffer and more stable.
Bob Frauenzimmer, F186610, San Clemente, California
Interior windshield coverings
We travel with two big dogs that love to lie up in the front dash area when we are parked. Instead of drawing the curtains at night, we hang decorative flags to cover the windshield. Our flags measure approximately 2 feet wide and 4 feet long, and we’ve found that three of them will extend the width of the window.
To temporarily attach the flags for this purpose, they can be hung a couple of ways. Our ceiling is carpeted, so I’ve sewn 1/2-inch-square pieces of the rough side of hook-and-loop fastening material to the tops of the flags, making it easy to put them up and even easier to take them down. A long extension rod also can be laced through the tops of the flags.
The dogs are happy surveying the view and our motorhome looks quite festive, especially when we have back light illuminating the flag designs. These types of flags are sold in garden and other specialty shops and fold nicely for travel.
Elaine Raines, F140791, Salt Lake City, Utah
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