68 Deluxe - Back to full height

[ZedBed]

Ha-ha - not looking "nice" yet Andy, but...

I've mocked up the basic parts now. Still a long way to go, but after all the hours of hinge malarky I wanted to satisfy myself that it would operate as easily as I'd designed it to!

Where's the :smug-git: smiley?

Wood and hinge in perfect balance all the way down. Pretty heavy stuff this birch faced plywood so I didn't want it to be a struggle that would stress all the fixings opening and shutting it. This is so, so easy to operate I couldn't be happier. Let the pictures do the talking...

:smug-git: :smug-git:

 

[gninnam]

Need to see the video :mrgreen:

Looking good dude and well pleased for you

 

[ZedBed]

No vid, but you can have a go if I ever meet you.

Here we go again...
This woodworking thing is not to be underestimated. If you want something square you must work to tiny fractions of a mm. 1 mm gets to look quite big when you're lining up the edge of the router blade with a line probably 0.2mm thick. Which side to cut? etc etc etc...

And Oak? It's not cheap. So it takes some time to be sure you're making the right cut in the right place. That's why it's taken rather a long time to build this damned Kitchen cabinet.

I re-designed the spice rack bit so I can have some tall things, some medium things and some short things. Then I added in the box in the top for the roller blind. In hindsight, maybe this isn't such a great idea as it's taken up a fair bit of space and it sticks out each side of the unit to span the van.

It takes me such a long time to make each part allowing for all the joints so you end up with something that has no visible fastenings. Also I have to allow for oak trim that I'm covering all the ply ends with. I've stuck a few bits on as you can see in the next pictures. If things look a bit out of line, the reason is that I've allowed for trim that I haven't fitted yet. And some is fitted but needs trimming.

Here's the pics then.

As usual, nothing but the slivers of trim is fixed. It's all jointed with tongues and plough grooves and pressed together. It holds pretty well without glue and so it should - I might have mentioned this has taken days to make the shelves and blind thing. :shock:

The blind box has to open in case it goes wrong or I want to change the material one day. This was a bit of a baffler. It's got to be strong and keep it's shape, but has to have a slot right across for the blind to come out of and I've got to be able to get into it. I reasoned access would be best though the front, but I couldn't figure a way of doing this neatly without any fixings on show so went for the top. I've hinged the top at the front and I'll screw through from the cab area behind the seats at the other side.

What a palaver! I still have to work out exactly how I'll cap the ends of the blind box.

Here it is with the flap up. It'll have 4" foam on the seat and 1" on the back so won't look quite so much like a church pew!

That's it for the foreseeable. Back to proper work next week. A long way to go with this. I still have to make drawers, runners, curved gas door, fit the blind and cap the ends, upholster seat and back, make and fit stainless cover on work surface, finish all the wood and panel behind the cooker. I'm thinking of building in mid and tweeter speakers either side of the seat back, under the blind box. and bass to the left lower down, but space for bass is limited here.

 

[sparkywig]

8)

 

[Barkafer]

arty0021: arty0021: arty0021: 8)

 

[justcruzin]

Wow, that is awesome. Wish I had some skills like that!! Can't wait to see more pics!!

 

[gninnam]

Looking good dude 8) :mrgreen:

 

[ZedBed]

Wow, that is awesome. Wish I had some skills like that!! Can't wait to see more pics!!

No great skills JC, just (almost) endless patience. It took me 8 hours, yes 8 hours! just to suss and make 4 bits of oak for the blind box. I am SLOW, but oak and decent ply are expensive... I'll get there in the end. I have got better whikle doing this, so much so that when I look at the rear units I feel like starting again and doing them better. I won't though - too much other stuff to get through.

Hmmm - I think I also need to attach a Westy style fold out table to the sliding door side of the seat - that would be handy and quite easy for a change.

 

[ZedBed]

I hadn't noticed until I put it away in the van, but I've muffed it up somewhere and designed/made the thing 150mm narrower than I intended.
The good news is that for the sake of symmetry it can now fit in the centre and I can use some of the space each side for speakers perhaps.
The bad news is I didn't make the unit symmetrical but if it's going in the middle it seems it should be. Or more symmetrical than it is.

I'll keep the insides like they are, but I'll have one central drawer and round the other end of the seat. It won't end up like this. :?

...or this, but it would be nice if it did. I've lost my way a bit though as there isn't enough cohesion between the front and rear furniture. Oh well - never mind.

 

[gninnam]

Sorry for you miss-calculation with the width
Be careful with the speakers on the sides, if they are too deep they may get in the way of the interior door handle.

I like the new design though
Have you got plans for the hood and sides for the cooker??

 

[ZedBed]

The cooker should swing/lift towars you and be well clear of the woodwork for cooking, but I might line with s/s anyway.

Yup already considered the slider thanks, which is why the whole cabinet was going to be over to the other side. Just going for tweeter/mid in these cabs, with big bass somewhere else - maybe behind a false curved bottom bit on the left.

 

[67panel]

You could "get away" with having the one end square by puting a base box on the end with a small cushion to make up seat base ,reason being makes sense for it to be curved by side door for access.dont need to be symetrical.so dont think it would look wrong 8) still its your bus

 

[Merlydog]

The cooker should swing/lift towars you and be well clear of the woodwork for cooking, but I might line with s/s anyway.

Yup already considered the slider thanks, which is why the whole cabinet was going to be over to the other side. Just going for tweeter/mid in these cabs, with big bass somewhere else - maybe behind a false curved bottom bit on the left.

Zed's party bus!! 8) arty0023:

 

[ZedBed]

The cooker should swing/lift towars you and be well clear of the woodwork for cooking, but I might line with s/s anyway.

Yup already considered the slider thanks, which is why the whole cabinet was going to be over to the other side. Just going for tweeter/mid in these cabs, with big bass somewhere else - maybe behind a false curved bottom bit on the left.

Zed's party bus!! 8) arty0023:

Zed's chill-out bus.

 

[ZedBed]

You may have noticed I've built a non-walk-through unit for a walk-through bus?

I've had a fair few buses and I can honestly say I rarely walk through the gap.

I like symmetry (ish), so no side units.

Many of you will know from experience that rear seatbelts can get rather tangled in the R&R bed so I'm not having rear seatbelts. Also they look "well messy".

So I need another front seat. A double passenger seat fits the bill.

I'm in two minds about it as I'd prefer a whole width seat, but I'm going to see how these new MOT seat rules play out first so I elected to fit it without welding the bus or making too many holes. I thought you might be interested in my lash-up It will all get tidied up before permanent fitting honest. :lol:

To provide support underneath I spanned the walk-through with some angle-iron brackets.

The front one uses existing holes in the van which have captive nuts already installed - I couldn't resist them so I designed around them. The "tabs are the same each side and pick up the same holes.

The rear one also uses some existing threaded holes, but it order to get it in, I made the tab on the side you can't see face forwards so I could twist the whole thing clockwise into position. I welded some more angle to the back and bolted on the bracket that catches the back corner of the seat.

The top I ummed and arred about for a while. I didn't want to weld to the van.
So I made this.

The raised bit on the right is for the seat plastic knob thing to rest on and the bracket I nicked from a non-walk-through van, then added another bit to the back to bring it up to the correct height. Here it is slotted into place.

I'll rivet through the tabs at the bottom to prevent it lifting, but it's already as solid as a rock.

I toyed with filling in the whole gap, but in the end I won't see any of it so I thought I'd leave it for the next sucker to turn back into a walk-through. It's a bit bodgy but none of it will be seen apart from the top of the top tube.

 

[roland]

Nice work on the walkthrough thing!

 

[dubscum]

:shock: 8)

 

[gninnam]

Looking good. 8)
Will the angle-iron be OK with the weight of the seat and passengers??

 

[ZedBed]

Looking good. 8)
Will the angle-iron be OK with the weight of the seat and passengers??

Yes mate. It's not flimsy folded stuff, it's 3mm rolled steel angle. Everything I've done seat-wise is over-engineered. All the steel is up a thickness (or two) from the surrounding. The rear top plate is 2mm, bracket plates 1.6mm. In an accident, the passengers are held by the belts and the seat fittings just have to catch the seat which is nowhere near as heavy.

I'll provide a lap belt for the middle, but TBH I wouldn't fancy it myself. :msn4: More than likely it'll rarely get used. 3 in the front and the tyres will rub the arches.

 

[67panel]

got my stereo in a movable housing inbetween my front seats cos didnt want to cut the dash,non working period radio indash 8) prob is its still prototype mdf :msn4: good job hope to see this for real one day