Ok, following on from yesterday, today I wanted to make some more progress on the side door blind. Hopefully, if I get that done, maybe make a start on something else.
So the day started with a trip to Screwfix, where I bought some decking screws, and 3 lengths of electrical cable trunking. The screws for the furniture, when I make the framework up, and the trunking is for the LED strip lights I'm going to make as downlights above the blinds. I then went on to Wickes where I bought a piece of 34mm x 44mm wood that I want to use on top of the angle bracket above the side door window to attach the frame that I made yesterday to.
Once back home, that was my first job, cut it down to size and screw through the angle metal. I also had to curve the ends to match the frame. I realised that to attach the frame at the bottom, I was going to need to fix a length of wood along the bottom too. Luckily I had a suitable piece in the shed, 34mm x 18mm, ideal, it still left enough of a drop behind the frame for the blind to drop in to once it was pulled down.
These are the two pieces fitted, ready for the frame, top and bottom...
Next job was to fit the brackets that the blind fits to up under the wood and angle metal and fit the frame over the top of it all...
I had to trim the left side down a little, as the door was jamming shut with it. Only had to take a few mm off and it opened and shut fine.
Either side of the frame is a gap still where the side door curves in slightly, I'm not entirely sure what to do about it yet, so am going to wait until I start lining the walls with the sandy carpet, and see about filling the gaps then.
As you can see from the following couple of photos, the gap at the sides of the frame, and the clearance against the body, when the door is open, I'm fairly sure that once lined with the carpet, the carpet will rub against the body outside slightly.
Next job was to fit the blind into the brackets and see what it looked like ! :)
Starting to look cosy now :). I'm really pleased this job is out the way for now, I really wasn't sure how to go about it, and I'm quite pleased the way it turned out. I was worried about whether I could get it to match the middle window next to it, and luckily it all lines up and looks just fine :).
When I bought these blinds so cheap from B&Q, I had no idea just how nice they would look, or how well they would work, I'm very pleased with them and they have turned out to be a real bargain, the whole lot finished to this stage, has cost about the price of one proper motorhome blind, and that includes the wood, angle metal and screws etc. :).
So, still lots of time left before dark, what to do next ?
For weeks, I have been designing seating and beds in my big camper scrap book come doodle book where I write down or draw all my ideas. Its what I did last time with Scooby and I found it so useful to go back to this time. I am still unsure about the converting part of the seat that makes it into a bed, but was pretty much there with the static seat box. It needed to have 2/3 storage, and 1/3 a cupboard that will house the chemical toilet, or Porta Potti. The design needs to be very precise as the finished seat needs to measure 2ft x 4ft by 18" high. You have to take into account the thickness of the wood you use too. Last time in Scooby, I used some very heavy duty wood, as it would need to take my heavy weight, but this makes the camper weigh more too, and to save on fuel, especially with Nina, as she has quite a thirsty 2.8 diesel engine, its a good idea to reduce weight where possible. As long as the design is efficient to spread load properly, its surprising how much less heavy duty it needs to be. Very important where the uprights are and that you put them in the right places. So anyway, this time I decided to use 34mm x 34mm timber, its relatively cheap, and thick enough to receive screws etc to fix it all together. When designing on paper, its easy to work out how many meters you will need per seat, and I worked out I would need just under two packs of 2.1m x 4 lengths. Approx £20. A pack of decking screws (I like to use deckings screws as they dont tend to split the wood and come in reasonably long lengths. The ones I bought were 4.0x 75mm. They cost £3.49 from Screwfix for 100. Using 2 screws per join, I ended up using 62 screws just on the one seat. So its fixed together very well ! :).
When doing a project like this, its a good idea to organise yourself, once you have worked out what size lengths you need for every part of the seat, the next thing is to cut all the wood to size in one go.
This is what a seat, or the framework for a seat, looks like in flatpack form :P.
With all that cut, it was time to pre-drill holes for every single join, 62 screws, means 62 holes drilled ! With that done, I like to start the screws off in all the holes, so I'm not trying to do three jobs at the same time, hold the woid together, put the screws in and drill/screw them up. I put two screws into each joint, when holding the wood together, if you havent drilled a completely straight hole, the screw will go in at a slight angle, this will move the joint and make it move out of square, so I find it best to screw one in slightly, then the other until both screws are registering into the wood firmly, then you can go ahead and screw them both up tight. This has to be done on every joint to ensure the finished seat frame is square.
This is the top frame, next to built the bottom frame, then join the two together with the smaller lengths of wood that are the struts, or uprights.
Ta-da ! One finished seat frame ! You will notice on the right hand side of this pic at the bottom, I've left a length of wood off. This was done on purpose ! :)
Best to show you why with this pic. This is where the seat is going to be fixed in Nina. The missing wood end is closest to the camera. This is going to be the cupboard for the chemical toilet, the door will go on the end here, and I've left the bottom piece of wood off so that the toilet can be slid in and out easily. The seat is divided into thirds, and the toilet compartment uses one third, leaving two thirds for normal storage which will be accessed from the top.
The converting seatframe will be identical in size to this one, and will form an L shape along the wall underneath the windows. I'm struggling slightly for a design for that one, because as well as pulling out to form a 6ft x 4ft bed, it still needs to be used for storage as well. I have an idea for it, and will build it, but it may turn out to be just an experiment if it doesnt work the way I want it to and I will have to go back to the drawing board, or my note pad :P.
I'm very pleased with the way this seat turned out, I hope I'm as pleased with the other one !
Yay ! Guess what ! My first piece of furniture has been made ! Well, started, it still needs lining with ply and a seat board putting on, not to mention the huge expense of the L shaped seat cushions (£250!) to finish off, but yay ! :).
Hopefully, I'll have some news on the window situation this week, and maybe if I get the chance, finish off this seat. If we aren't doing anything next weekend, I'm hoping to build the second seat to see if it works, hope I dont waste the wood ! :P.
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Location:Gloucester
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