I'm getting more and more confident with woodwork! I've read a lot of tutorials and articles about how to make things strong yet lightweight and I think I'm really starting to get the hang of it!
Here's what I've done over the last week or so:
Bed (1st section)
This section slides across and bolts onto the other section to lock it into place and support it. The clever bit is that when it's put back into a seat, you are able to lift the entire lid to get underneath.
Bed (2nd section)
This section is slightly different in that it doesn't have anything to lock onto for support. It will therefore have legs to support the slide out section. Annoyingly this meant altering the dimensions of the frame in order to compensate for the extra legs. I haven't actually fitted this section in place yet as I need to fit the water heater first but here it is so far:
The above shows how the legs will slide out. This section will also have a hinged lid but the legs will need to be lift up aswell.
Overhead Cupboards (Bed side)
There will be 3 overhead cupboards above the bed. I have started off by making the front frame for theses:
Overhead Cupboards (Kitchen side)
There will be 2 cupboards above the seating area and then 2 bigger cupboard above the kitchen. Again, I started off by making the front frame:
Kitchen
I had to measure all of this meticulously as it all needs to line up with the bed, the water tank and the battens. Once I was happy with all my measurements I began making the front frame:
The left bottom section will be a cupboard, the top blanked off (sink).
The water tank section will be a cupboard with a drawer above it.
The thin section will be open shelves with the top blocked off (hob).
The last section will be blocked off entirely (gas locker).
Next was to fit the water tank. The water tank I bought came with it's own fixings. It's basically four bolts that hold the water tank into place. I had to fit these bolts to battens and then fit the battens to the wall. This proved quite awkward as there was metal behind where the battens needed to go! I had to pull part of the wall out a bit and drill some holes for the nuts to sit in. I got there in the end and it feels quite secure. I will however re-enforce these with some side battens, to stop it going anywhere if I brake suddenly!
Didn't do anything last weekend due to going to visit my sister in London and meet my new niece Amber. So made a big effort to crack on with things this week!
The first job was fitting the electric hookup. This will be used when we are on a camp site or have some other access to a mains electricity supply. I practised wiring it up before I put it into the van, so I was sure how to do it. It's basically the same as a household plug (live, neutral, earth).
Once I was happy with the wiring it was time to fit it to the van! This was scary stuff, cutting a hole in the side of the van! I had to cut away some of the insulation for where it was going to go. Once I had that done, I started by drilling a very small hole in what would be the centre of the inlet.
I then added masking tape all around this hole. This was to draw the template on and also to protect the paint work from the jigsaw.
I used cardboard to draw round the bit on the inlet that would be going into the van and then cut it out so I could use it as a template. This was then drawn round onto the masking tape.
I put 4 big drill holes in each of the corners (enough to fit the jigsaw blade in) and then went round the line with the jigsaw.
Because I was rather cautious, I actually cut the hole slightly small. So I used a file to make the bits I needed to, slightly wider. I painted round the edges with metal paint to protect from rust. I then wired the inlet up with a small bit of wire, put it into position and fitted the back housing.
I had to secure it in place with 4 thick screws in each corner. These are on the inside of the inlet so you can't see them. Before I screwed it all the way in, I added a thin layer of mastic tape around all the edges. This was to make it water tight. Once I was happy with it I screwed them in tight and cut away any overlapping mastic.
I gave it 24 hours and then cut away more mastic that had seeped out the sides. Then I went round the entire thing with a bead of sikaflex. This was just to make it extra water tight. I used masking tape to get the edges of the sikaflex nice and straight.
A while ago I bought my lights for the van. I got some flush fitting LED downlights from a company off ebay. These are 2.6w each, so power drain should be quite low. They should produce a warm light.
Anyway, the came with some weird connectors on the end, so I had to email the suppliers and ask what I needed to hook them up to. Turns out they are sold as mains lights as well as 12v system lights, hence the adapters. All I had to do was cut the adapter off and wire them straight in.
I have 6 lights to use and I wanted to use 2 lights per light switch. Here is a diagram of my lighting system. The lights will be wired in parallel in order for each light to be the same brightness and use the same amount of power:
I had no idea how to attach to wires together but a bit of research and somebody informed me of "wago" lever connectors. These are the easiest things to use!! Basically, you get them in 2, 3 and 5 terminals. All you have to do with these is strip the wire at the end, pop it into the hole and push the lever down! You then put whatever other wires you need into the other holes and hey presto! So I am using these to connect the 2 light +ve and -ve cables to a bigger 2.5mm2 cable that will go to the switch and back to the fuse box.
In order to fit the lights, I needed to cut a hole in the cladding that was 57mm diameter. This meant I needed a 57mm holesaw! I asked about on facebook to see if I could borrow one from anybody. It was my birthday in a couple of days and we had gone to see my friends Jay and Loys. They gave me an early present... a 57mm holesaw!! haha thanks guys!
So I started picking where the lights were going to go and got to cutting the holes. The LEDs just clamp into the holes so nothing to fit really. Once the holes were cut, I used a home made "cardboard" tool, to feed the wires to either side behind the cladding. I then attached the relevant leads to a wago connector and taped them to the wall until I get the switch etc.
Here's some pics of me working and the outcome:
Working out where the lights needed to go (holding bathroom wall!)
So it was time to try and get the ceiling in. This wasn't to hard of a job, the only hard bit was getting around the rooflight. This proved quite tricky!
I cut all the cladding to size, making sure each of the joins lined up with the roof battens each side.
I then marked, drilled and counter sunk all the screw holes.
The starting from the left side of the roof light, I fitted the first batten as straight as I possibly could and went from there. I cut 2 very fiddly bits out to fit around the rooflight, I had to do this with a jigsaw, which with the cladding being very thin, proved rather difficult!!
Here's where I got to:
I then fit a couple more pieces of cladding on each side, up to where the cupboards are going to be.
Then the entire ceiling was sealed with a single coat of danish oil.
Has been a tough few days trying to get my head around how to build the first seat box.
I made several mistakes along the way but I think I got there in the end.
So I started off with a basic design using simple butt joints. These would all sit round 4 or 5 thick, solid "legs". There was so much to think about when designing the beds though. The main two things were A) How high the bed and frame would be and B) the depth from the wall.
Each of these had several things within them to think about. I'll start off with the depth:
The width of the van is 173cm from wall to wall (at the bottom). Now the drivers side is going to be where the main bed is. This is going to extend to make one massive bed. Therefore, when making both seats, you need to think of what size gap you are leaving in between. You also need to think of how wide a bed should be and how wide a seat should be! I did several different calculations and came up with what I thought would be manageable. I then, got to dining chairs and sat them facing each other at the exact same distance apart as I wanted to check leg room. So I got my dad to sit on the one opposite me and it was ok. So each seat will be 67.5cm wide and the gap will be 38cm.
The height was an absolute ball ache to work out and I completely messed it up the first time.
I got all my calculations done, including mattress depth, cushions, everything. I was that confident I even went ahead and cut all the legs to size. It was only when I went to put the legs in the van that I realised my seat base didn't even go over the wheel arch!!! MAJOR ERROR!!
So I had to completely scrap plans and start again. I worked out all the measurements again. Taking into account the height of the wheel arch, the height from floor to window, the mattress depth, the "gap" mattress (which will be against the wall when unused and therefore comes into height calculations). It took me a while but I got there in the end.
I started cutting the wood and was confident enough to start fitting it out:
The batten lengthways across the middle is screwed into the floor. This will give strength to the frame whilst also making it square. At this point only that batten was actually screwed to the van. The rest of the frame is loose. The reason for this was because I needed to add the cladding at the end. I wouldn't be able to get to it to screw it in if it was already in place.
Cladding added, was getting late, so called it a night here. Was relatively happy with what I'd done.
I set about adding the front cladding the next day.
Starting to look quite smart now!!
I added another strengthening batten behind the front frame. This is also screwed to the floor and should stop the front going anywhere!
I then started cutting the frame and slats for the lid:
Then I made my second big mistake. I had cut the lid frame using just a front batten and a back batten, which would be attached with the slats on top. I went and got some hinges and screwed the back one to the frame. Luckily before I started adding all the slats and attaching it to the front, I realised you wouldn't be able to lift the lid!! I had attached the back batten vertically, so it folded up and down fine but when the slats were added to the top of it, there wasn't enough room for it to go anywhere!!! DOH!!
I unscrewed it all and headed to Wickes to pick up a wider piece of wood for the back. I cut that to size and attached it. I then had to go over all the slats again and cut off a bit at the end and re-drill them all.. urgh!!
I added another bit of supporting leg for the wider bit of wood to sit on and then started screwing the slats in. 3rd mistake!! I only used one screw for each slat. This was just stupid, the lid could pivot on the screws and was seriously wobbly and all over the place. So I unscrewed all of them again! and re-drilled 2 holes in each end. I then attached them all back on again. What a ball ache!!!
Anyway, I fixed the original back section under the slats to add extra support and was finished!!
I went over all the rough edges with 320 grit sandpaper and then Kim went over it all with Danish Oil for me whilst I worked on other things. Here is the final piece:
New thing, a song per post.. This week has mostly been this:
Ok, so controversially, I have decided to change the vans name.
Teabag just wasn't sticking with me and Kim didn't like it. It also didn't really follow on from my old van very well (Arthur). Me and Greaves named Arthur after a guy we met when we did our coast to coast walk. He was an absolute legend and didn't stop going on about campervans and Green and Blacks chocolate. So we thought it was fitting to name the van after him.
Well I thought I would carry on in that same vein and rename Van number 2 after another absolute legend.
I therefore would like to formally introduce:
REGINALD
Named after my late Grandpa, who was quite simply, awesome.
We nipped to Screwfix and Homebase to pick up some varnish and a couple of other bits.
The wood needed sealing in order to protect it. So I used a water based varnish on all the ply, I'm not bothered how this looks because it won't be seen, it's purely for protection.
I then bought some natural Danish oil for the cladding after reading up some info about it. I'll apply one coat of this to seal it, then sand it smooth and then add Antique Pine Danish oil until I get the colour I want.
Anyway, first thing today was to put the wall in behind the drivers side. There's a slight gap on the end due to the size of the ply, I have more ply cut to fit this but wont put it in yet because of wiring.
Once the wall was in, me and Kim got down to varnishing! We started with the floor using brushes and varnishing along the grain of the wood. We left this to dry and then I went down to seal the cladding. I used a cotton t-shirt and basically just rubbed the Danish oil into the wood.
