stuartrx7
Well-known member
love it.
Stuart
Stuart
How I built my Interior units for my '72 Bay. FINISHED!!!
- Thread starter Hotrod
- Start date
Help Support Early Bay Forum:
Thanks once again for the kind words.
With regards to getting good straight straight or curved edges... If I was doing the curve I'd take a piece of lining paper, take the total length I need for my curve and then work out half the length of the curve and then cut the curve up to the half way point and then fold over to the other side and complete the curve. Then transfer onto some MDF. Then I'd cut out with the jigsaw, I'd hold the jigsaw with my right hand and use my left hand to guide the base plate by using a finger and thumb at either end of the base plate. Cut your curve approximately 2mm away from the line then you clean it back to the line using a small block plane until you've got your curve perfect and then sand with a block until your profile is exactly spot on with no bumps or wavy edges. You can get a good idea of this by looking down the curve of your line to check it's flat and when you're happy with that then rough cut a piece of your finished material and clamp it on top of your MDF template then you use a twin flute straight cutter with a bearing at the bottom. Set the bearing to run onto your MDF and then just profile cut with the router going from the left to the right so the cutter is turning in a clockwise direction and you'll get a nice machine perfect finish.
Hope this helps to answer your question. If you need anymore information please ask.
As for the Devon trim, you can buy it from Coolair but they only do a 2m length which is approximately £20 but I purchased it from Camper Interiors who are on http://www.camperinteriors.co.uk or TEL: 01709578727 and they charged £23 for a 4m length.
Once again thanks for looking
Regards
Steve.
With regards to getting good straight straight or curved edges... If I was doing the curve I'd take a piece of lining paper, take the total length I need for my curve and then work out half the length of the curve and then cut the curve up to the half way point and then fold over to the other side and complete the curve. Then transfer onto some MDF. Then I'd cut out with the jigsaw, I'd hold the jigsaw with my right hand and use my left hand to guide the base plate by using a finger and thumb at either end of the base plate. Cut your curve approximately 2mm away from the line then you clean it back to the line using a small block plane until you've got your curve perfect and then sand with a block until your profile is exactly spot on with no bumps or wavy edges. You can get a good idea of this by looking down the curve of your line to check it's flat and when you're happy with that then rough cut a piece of your finished material and clamp it on top of your MDF template then you use a twin flute straight cutter with a bearing at the bottom. Set the bearing to run onto your MDF and then just profile cut with the router going from the left to the right so the cutter is turning in a clockwise direction and you'll get a nice machine perfect finish.
Hope this helps to answer your question. If you need anymore information please ask.
As for the Devon trim, you can buy it from Coolair but they only do a 2m length which is approximately £20 but I purchased it from Camper Interiors who are on http://www.camperinteriors.co.uk or TEL: 01709578727 and they charged £23 for a 4m length.
Once again thanks for looking
Regards
Steve.
surfbus
Well-known member
GOOD JOB Steve! You can start your own bussines!! :mrgreen:
rockandrollcamper
Well-known member
Thanks for the reply steve - what about your laminate?
What type cutters you using on your router? as in brand?
What type cutters you using on your router? as in brand?
Justin & Muttley
Well-known member
I have to say that as far as introductions by new members, yours is a cracker!!
That is fantastic work you're doing there - you're plainly a very skilled man - I also think it's very generous of you to share so much detail with us, thank you!!
I can't wait to see the next installment - I think the black laminate is inspired! 8) 8)
Juss
That is fantastic work you're doing there - you're plainly a very skilled man - I also think it's very generous of you to share so much detail with us, thank you!!
I can't wait to see the next installment - I think the black laminate is inspired! 8) 8)
Juss
BO JANGLES
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- May 12, 2008
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Beautiful work Steve, it's nice to see what you're up, to while Carl's got your van.
two benders steve
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top bloke and a top job , you have inspired me to get on with my new cooker/fridge unit, well done
cotswoldiver
Well-known member
Great to see some detail work on interiors from the beginning. I love following the body work resto thread's but this is a wee bit different. Hats off to you for wonderful attention and care to detail. Look forward to seeing it all finally in place
Hi everybody,
Here's another update. I've been busy again this week making the removable top for the Devon reproduction Caravette unit.
Last week I explained how to glue two pieces of ply together to give me the thickness that I required for laminating. This week I'll show you how I constructed it and show you step by step how to fit the Devon trim.
This is a corner section of two pieces ply glued together which gives me approximately 15mm.
The next stage after that is to put your Formica on. First cut your Formica leaving approximately 4mm all around. Now I'll show you an easy method of sticking it to the ply. First coat both surfaces with your contact adhesive and then leave for approximately 10-15 minutes until it is touch dry on both surfaces so you make think this has dried too much but this is how it should be. Then lay sticks across the top of your ply (See below), then lay your Formica on top of the sticks. You can then look around the edges to make sure you've got your 4mm oversail. When you're happy with this, remove the first stick and just iron the laminate across with the palm of your hand, then remove the second stick and so on until the sticks are removed. By using this method there will be no chance of misalignment. Then turn the job over and repeat on the other side.
The next stage is to clean off the surplus Formica. For this I used the Router with the profile cutter. The make that I used are Titman. These are the professional range but they're not cheap, approximately £35 each but you can buy cheaper sets of Router cutters including this type of cutter in places like Screwfix or Machine Mart which you can buy for a fraction of the cost which are ideal for the average DIY use.
This is how I cleaned off the Surplus Formica. Place a line down both ends of one edge. Clamp this along a straight piece of MDF, then I run the profile cutter through this edge and it will give a clean finish. If you've got more than 3mm to take off, just do this in 2/3 passes because you don't want to take off too much material in one go as it will blunt the cutter and put stress on the router. 3mm is the maximum to take off in one pass.
To set the depth up, simply put the bearing of the cutter roughly in the centre of your MDF straight edge
No we're ready to start machining.
This is a couple of passes in. Make sure you're stood behind the Router pulling it towards you. This then tells you that the cutter is going in the right direction which is clockwise which is in theory scooping the material out as it's coming towards you. I stopped the router to show you what it'll look like. This is 2/3 passes in.
Once you're finished, you can then square off for your next line. If you haven't got a large square, you can do this by measurements which is what we call 3-4-5. To do this method, with your finished edge in front of you, draw a mark on your left hand side which is roughly machine back to, then measure from that mark across from left to right and mark 9". Then come from the bottom left hand corner and mark upwards 12" and draw a little line about 25mm across the board. Put a tape starting on an inch mark, put that on the line that you put your 9" mark. We start with an inch so it's more accurate than working from the end of the tape. Now stretch the tape across to the left hand corner top mark which you marked as 12" until you reach the 16" mark. That gives you exactly 90 degrees so then draw a line from that point down to your first mark and continue the line onto the edges then you're ready to repeat process but make sure you have enough size for your top still. See diagram below.
Once you're happy with all this then machine the edge. It's not a bad idea to practise doing this with the router switched off to get used to the technique and you're not wobbling with the router and keep the base of the machine on the job, it's not rocket science.
To square the rest of the sides up just measure parallel off of the two machined edges and that will give you your 90 degrees for the remaining sides. Once you've got it marked, just as a final check, measure from corner to corner and you should have the same dimensions.
This is the finished article.
The next stage is to then round off the corners for the Devon trim. The way to do this is normally with a compass with a piece of card but if you don't have a compass then you can use the technique shown in the photos below quite easily. Start by cutting a strip of cardboard from a cornflake box roughly 20mm wide, then strike two marks across at 15mm apart and punch two small pin holes through each mark at the center of the card.
Then cut another piece of cardboard approximately 6" square with one square corner on and mark up 15mm from the corner and square across. The put another pin hole through there.
Then pin your strip through one of the holes with the longest end on it through to the hole on the 6" piece of card. Then put a ball point pen through the remaining hole on the strip and draw an arc (This is a really good method for marking out the speaker holes in your door cards. If you had a speaker which required a 6" hole, cut your strip of cardboard again and measure out two points 3" apart and place a drawing pin through one hole and pin it into your door card then put a biro in the other end and swing a complete circle giving your 6" diameter hole).
Back to the job in hand... Now trim the corner round on the cardboard. You can fine tune this with a piece of fine sand paper on a block if necessary.
When you're happy, lay the cardboard template on top of each corner and draw around with a pencil. Repeat this on all four corners and on both sides. Once this is done then trim off the corners. You don't have to do this with a jigsaw, you can do this with a small tenon saw. Once you've done this, clean back to your line with a piece of sand paper on a block making sure that it's nice and square through the thickness of the material as this is really important because your Devon trim won't fit neatly underneath. This is how it should look when you're finished.
Then lay your top face up flat on top of your workbench with your front edge towards you and then measure across your back edge and mark the centre because this is where you'll start your Devon trim from. Then start by laying on some masking tape all around the edges, once you've done this, strike your centre line on the masking tape and then put a mark in the center of each rounded corner and come back approximately 30mm from the corner mark. Then with your centre line come back approximately 15mm either side and then divide roughly every 3" between then centre line and corners. I like to have a screw roughly every 3" apart. Repeat marking your screws all the way around onto the masking tape.
Then square up one end of your Devon trim making sure it's perfectly square. When you're happy with this, carefully peel off your masking tape and transfer onto your Devon trim, starting with your center line on the end of your Devon trim. Now you can mark on to the edge of your trim the lines where your screws are going to be. Once you've done this you can peel your tape off.
Then drill down the center of your channel on your trim 3mm holes where your pencil marks are. Make sure you're in the center of the channel as this is crucial. Always use a new 3mm bit for this. Once all the holes are drilled, then counter sink making sure you use a small counter sink as not to damage the two edges where the black trim sits in. I always use a 3/4 4 screw for fixing this trim. Try one of the screws into your counter sunk hole to make sure it is flush. If you don't pay attention to this, you can find when you put your black trim in place it will reflect all the screws through the black trim.
Once you've done this then turn to the back side of the trim and flush off any burrs with a file. This may seem in excess of all the screws but believe me you'll need them to get a nice job.
You're now ready to fit the trim. Cut the trim approximately 30mm longer than the masking tape was. To fit the trim you'll require the help from an extra pair of hands because we're working with no vice to clamp the top in. Start with the back edge of the board facing upwards and the underside of the board towards you. Put your trim edge that you have filed square on to your center line then place your pilot bit through the first hole putting the edge of the drill on the edge of the hole nearest to you and then pilot drill the first hole (I use a 2mm bit for this and drill to a depth of approximately 5mm), the reason for doing this is as the screw is screwed in, when the head reaches the counter sunk area it will naturally pull the trim tighter down onto the edge. Then move along to the next hole and repeat the same process but making sure the trim is pulled tight down onto the face of the Formica on the face side, keep checking this. Work your way to the first corner then with the palm of your hand tightly work the trim around the corner, this is quite hard on a tight corner like this so don't rush it and eventually it will go. When you're halfway around the corner you can then put your screw in the corner and then carry on working it around to the bend with the palm of your hand to get it tight. When you're happy you've got your corner right, if you have a sash cramp then place if across with two small pieces of timber which will fit into the groove where your black trim sits. If you haven't got a cramp then don't worry. Once you're happy with the corner repeat the screws again and continue to the next corner repeating the process making sure the trim is tight to the face. Keep working around the edge until you get back to the center line again. You should end up with approximately 25mm extra over hanging which needs to be trimmed off. First mark where the overhang needs to be trimmed off and square this across then slide a small piece of timber approximately 5mm thick underneath the overhang so as when you cut the excess off you don't hit the work top or trim underneath. Trim off with a junior hacksaw with approximately 2mm left on then slide another small piece on top of the other one but just push back beyond where your cut is so now your trim is standing off the first piece of wood by a couple of mm. Then carefully file your excess off but keep removing the wood and try it in until you get a hairline joint, don't be tempted to force the joint together, just keep filling away until you're happy. Once complete then screw the join together.
Your finished joint should look like this.
Then start your trim by squaring it one end and approximately 5mm away from the join and start working along with your finger and thumb working it into place whilst making sure not to stretch it until you get all the way around. When you get down to the last 25mm mark your cut off and allow a couple of mm extra. Once you've got your end cut nice and square then push the last section in.
This is the finished article on top of the unit so far.
Now onto the draw with the scraps of oak which are left.
This is all I had left which is suitable to make the draw from.
I started to prepare the draw front by routering out the OG moulding which you can see in the pictures. Once this was removed it left me with a rebate section. I held this in place by placing thin strips of wood around and pinning it to my bench top.
I then routered out using a straight twin flute cutter which has no bearing on the bottom. This is the finished article after rebating.
The next stage is to glue in another piece of scrap timber to fill the rebate. To do this coat both sections with glue, then put the patched section in and rub the joint backwards and forwards to exit surplus glue and allow suction on the joint. Then wipe off the surplus glue and cramp up overnight.
This morning I removed the cramps, cleaned off the surplus timber on the bench saw and planed it and then hand sanded it. This is the finished article with the patched piece on the right hand side.
I tried to match the grain as close as I could.
Then I moved onto the sides. This timber is approximately 12mm thick. As I only require the sides to be about 9mm thick I run them through the bench saw. The next stage was to shoot the edges straight, for this I used my forplane. Here is an easy method of cramping the timber whilst you're planing it without the use of a vice.
Just cramp a piece of scrap timber to your bench top then put the piece you want to plane to the side of it and cramp one end making sure the cramp is not in the way of you planing.
Once I had planed all the edges up and was happy there was no gaps. Here they are ready to be glued and cramped
I then laid them all together and glued them and cramped them up.
I made sure I put some paper underneath the timber running across the top so as not to glue it to the oak.
When this is dry I will remove the cramps and flatten off with the plane and then sand and then run through the bench saw to the dimensions I need.
This is as far as I've got at the moment. As far as the finish on the oak units, I was going to send them off and have them professionally sprayed but this would cost me more than it's cost me to built the units and so I looked for an alternative method. I used a Waxed oil finish which is what is used on hardwood floors. This is an absolutely amazing product. Once you've got your oak sanded and prepared you simply brush this on with a paintbrush, for this I used a 2" nylon brush and just brushed it on as if painting and then brushed out your brush marks all in one direction and leave for 10 hours as it say's on the tin then give it a very light rub with a piece of wet and dry paper with no more pressure than if you was stroking an animal. This just takes off any imperfections of dust which are in the atmosphere. They recommend giving two coats but I gave three flattening off inbetween with the wet and dry. After the final coat I just gave it a light waxing with Bry wax as this gives a satin finish which is absolutely amazing as you see no brush marks and looks like a proper professional finish. This is so simple to do, you don't have to be good at painting.
Here's a picture of the product. You can get it from any good hardware flooring shop. The beauty of this product is, if it gets a scratch you can just give it a light rubbing down and give it another coat and it's as good as new. If it's hard enough to walk on then it's good enough for your units.
The only part I'm stuck on is trying to locate some Carravette handles for the units. The are a black inserted type handle. I need three in total so if anyone could help me out with them at all then it would be much appreciated.
Next weekend I will be in Devon to see the progress with the Camper. It's still in the infancy stage at the moment which is etch primer. The theme of the bus will be a Hotrod. It will be lowered all round, uprated brake system, 2007cc motor with twin Dellortos, 911 replica wheels, smoothed off dash, all new gauges from autometer, black velor headlining throughout and black and shammy coloured interior. External colour will be an extremely dark Red wine colour in metallic with the roof and Devon pop top done in a Black metallic with red fleck with matching bumpers.
If everything goes to plan this bus will be completed early summer and will be in the show and shine area at Vanfest.
Thanks for your time and hope you like what you see again. I've put a lot of detail in this time because people seem to like that. Any questions feel free to ask.
Regards
Steve
Here's another update. I've been busy again this week making the removable top for the Devon reproduction Caravette unit.
Last week I explained how to glue two pieces of ply together to give me the thickness that I required for laminating. This week I'll show you how I constructed it and show you step by step how to fit the Devon trim.
This is a corner section of two pieces ply glued together which gives me approximately 15mm.
The next stage after that is to put your Formica on. First cut your Formica leaving approximately 4mm all around. Now I'll show you an easy method of sticking it to the ply. First coat both surfaces with your contact adhesive and then leave for approximately 10-15 minutes until it is touch dry on both surfaces so you make think this has dried too much but this is how it should be. Then lay sticks across the top of your ply (See below), then lay your Formica on top of the sticks. You can then look around the edges to make sure you've got your 4mm oversail. When you're happy with this, remove the first stick and just iron the laminate across with the palm of your hand, then remove the second stick and so on until the sticks are removed. By using this method there will be no chance of misalignment. Then turn the job over and repeat on the other side.
The next stage is to clean off the surplus Formica. For this I used the Router with the profile cutter. The make that I used are Titman. These are the professional range but they're not cheap, approximately £35 each but you can buy cheaper sets of Router cutters including this type of cutter in places like Screwfix or Machine Mart which you can buy for a fraction of the cost which are ideal for the average DIY use.
This is how I cleaned off the Surplus Formica. Place a line down both ends of one edge. Clamp this along a straight piece of MDF, then I run the profile cutter through this edge and it will give a clean finish. If you've got more than 3mm to take off, just do this in 2/3 passes because you don't want to take off too much material in one go as it will blunt the cutter and put stress on the router. 3mm is the maximum to take off in one pass.
To set the depth up, simply put the bearing of the cutter roughly in the centre of your MDF straight edge
No we're ready to start machining.
This is a couple of passes in. Make sure you're stood behind the Router pulling it towards you. This then tells you that the cutter is going in the right direction which is clockwise which is in theory scooping the material out as it's coming towards you. I stopped the router to show you what it'll look like. This is 2/3 passes in.
Once you're finished, you can then square off for your next line. If you haven't got a large square, you can do this by measurements which is what we call 3-4-5. To do this method, with your finished edge in front of you, draw a mark on your left hand side which is roughly machine back to, then measure from that mark across from left to right and mark 9". Then come from the bottom left hand corner and mark upwards 12" and draw a little line about 25mm across the board. Put a tape starting on an inch mark, put that on the line that you put your 9" mark. We start with an inch so it's more accurate than working from the end of the tape. Now stretch the tape across to the left hand corner top mark which you marked as 12" until you reach the 16" mark. That gives you exactly 90 degrees so then draw a line from that point down to your first mark and continue the line onto the edges then you're ready to repeat process but make sure you have enough size for your top still. See diagram below.
Once you're happy with all this then machine the edge. It's not a bad idea to practise doing this with the router switched off to get used to the technique and you're not wobbling with the router and keep the base of the machine on the job, it's not rocket science.
To square the rest of the sides up just measure parallel off of the two machined edges and that will give you your 90 degrees for the remaining sides. Once you've got it marked, just as a final check, measure from corner to corner and you should have the same dimensions.
This is the finished article.
The next stage is to then round off the corners for the Devon trim. The way to do this is normally with a compass with a piece of card but if you don't have a compass then you can use the technique shown in the photos below quite easily. Start by cutting a strip of cardboard from a cornflake box roughly 20mm wide, then strike two marks across at 15mm apart and punch two small pin holes through each mark at the center of the card.
Then cut another piece of cardboard approximately 6" square with one square corner on and mark up 15mm from the corner and square across. The put another pin hole through there.
Then pin your strip through one of the holes with the longest end on it through to the hole on the 6" piece of card. Then put a ball point pen through the remaining hole on the strip and draw an arc (This is a really good method for marking out the speaker holes in your door cards. If you had a speaker which required a 6" hole, cut your strip of cardboard again and measure out two points 3" apart and place a drawing pin through one hole and pin it into your door card then put a biro in the other end and swing a complete circle giving your 6" diameter hole).
Back to the job in hand... Now trim the corner round on the cardboard. You can fine tune this with a piece of fine sand paper on a block if necessary.
When you're happy, lay the cardboard template on top of each corner and draw around with a pencil. Repeat this on all four corners and on both sides. Once this is done then trim off the corners. You don't have to do this with a jigsaw, you can do this with a small tenon saw. Once you've done this, clean back to your line with a piece of sand paper on a block making sure that it's nice and square through the thickness of the material as this is really important because your Devon trim won't fit neatly underneath. This is how it should look when you're finished.
Then lay your top face up flat on top of your workbench with your front edge towards you and then measure across your back edge and mark the centre because this is where you'll start your Devon trim from. Then start by laying on some masking tape all around the edges, once you've done this, strike your centre line on the masking tape and then put a mark in the center of each rounded corner and come back approximately 30mm from the corner mark. Then with your centre line come back approximately 15mm either side and then divide roughly every 3" between then centre line and corners. I like to have a screw roughly every 3" apart. Repeat marking your screws all the way around onto the masking tape.
Then square up one end of your Devon trim making sure it's perfectly square. When you're happy with this, carefully peel off your masking tape and transfer onto your Devon trim, starting with your center line on the end of your Devon trim. Now you can mark on to the edge of your trim the lines where your screws are going to be. Once you've done this you can peel your tape off.
Then drill down the center of your channel on your trim 3mm holes where your pencil marks are. Make sure you're in the center of the channel as this is crucial. Always use a new 3mm bit for this. Once all the holes are drilled, then counter sink making sure you use a small counter sink as not to damage the two edges where the black trim sits in. I always use a 3/4 4 screw for fixing this trim. Try one of the screws into your counter sunk hole to make sure it is flush. If you don't pay attention to this, you can find when you put your black trim in place it will reflect all the screws through the black trim.
Once you've done this then turn to the back side of the trim and flush off any burrs with a file. This may seem in excess of all the screws but believe me you'll need them to get a nice job.
You're now ready to fit the trim. Cut the trim approximately 30mm longer than the masking tape was. To fit the trim you'll require the help from an extra pair of hands because we're working with no vice to clamp the top in. Start with the back edge of the board facing upwards and the underside of the board towards you. Put your trim edge that you have filed square on to your center line then place your pilot bit through the first hole putting the edge of the drill on the edge of the hole nearest to you and then pilot drill the first hole (I use a 2mm bit for this and drill to a depth of approximately 5mm), the reason for doing this is as the screw is screwed in, when the head reaches the counter sunk area it will naturally pull the trim tighter down onto the edge. Then move along to the next hole and repeat the same process but making sure the trim is pulled tight down onto the face of the Formica on the face side, keep checking this. Work your way to the first corner then with the palm of your hand tightly work the trim around the corner, this is quite hard on a tight corner like this so don't rush it and eventually it will go. When you're halfway around the corner you can then put your screw in the corner and then carry on working it around to the bend with the palm of your hand to get it tight. When you're happy you've got your corner right, if you have a sash cramp then place if across with two small pieces of timber which will fit into the groove where your black trim sits. If you haven't got a cramp then don't worry. Once you're happy with the corner repeat the screws again and continue to the next corner repeating the process making sure the trim is tight to the face. Keep working around the edge until you get back to the center line again. You should end up with approximately 25mm extra over hanging which needs to be trimmed off. First mark where the overhang needs to be trimmed off and square this across then slide a small piece of timber approximately 5mm thick underneath the overhang so as when you cut the excess off you don't hit the work top or trim underneath. Trim off with a junior hacksaw with approximately 2mm left on then slide another small piece on top of the other one but just push back beyond where your cut is so now your trim is standing off the first piece of wood by a couple of mm. Then carefully file your excess off but keep removing the wood and try it in until you get a hairline joint, don't be tempted to force the joint together, just keep filling away until you're happy. Once complete then screw the join together.
Your finished joint should look like this.
Then start your trim by squaring it one end and approximately 5mm away from the join and start working along with your finger and thumb working it into place whilst making sure not to stretch it until you get all the way around. When you get down to the last 25mm mark your cut off and allow a couple of mm extra. Once you've got your end cut nice and square then push the last section in.
This is the finished article on top of the unit so far.
Now onto the draw with the scraps of oak which are left.
This is all I had left which is suitable to make the draw from.
I started to prepare the draw front by routering out the OG moulding which you can see in the pictures. Once this was removed it left me with a rebate section. I held this in place by placing thin strips of wood around and pinning it to my bench top.
I then routered out using a straight twin flute cutter which has no bearing on the bottom. This is the finished article after rebating.
The next stage is to glue in another piece of scrap timber to fill the rebate. To do this coat both sections with glue, then put the patched section in and rub the joint backwards and forwards to exit surplus glue and allow suction on the joint. Then wipe off the surplus glue and cramp up overnight.
This morning I removed the cramps, cleaned off the surplus timber on the bench saw and planed it and then hand sanded it. This is the finished article with the patched piece on the right hand side.
I tried to match the grain as close as I could.
Then I moved onto the sides. This timber is approximately 12mm thick. As I only require the sides to be about 9mm thick I run them through the bench saw. The next stage was to shoot the edges straight, for this I used my forplane. Here is an easy method of cramping the timber whilst you're planing it without the use of a vice.
Just cramp a piece of scrap timber to your bench top then put the piece you want to plane to the side of it and cramp one end making sure the cramp is not in the way of you planing.
Once I had planed all the edges up and was happy there was no gaps. Here they are ready to be glued and cramped
I then laid them all together and glued them and cramped them up.
I made sure I put some paper underneath the timber running across the top so as not to glue it to the oak.
When this is dry I will remove the cramps and flatten off with the plane and then sand and then run through the bench saw to the dimensions I need.
This is as far as I've got at the moment. As far as the finish on the oak units, I was going to send them off and have them professionally sprayed but this would cost me more than it's cost me to built the units and so I looked for an alternative method. I used a Waxed oil finish which is what is used on hardwood floors. This is an absolutely amazing product. Once you've got your oak sanded and prepared you simply brush this on with a paintbrush, for this I used a 2" nylon brush and just brushed it on as if painting and then brushed out your brush marks all in one direction and leave for 10 hours as it say's on the tin then give it a very light rub with a piece of wet and dry paper with no more pressure than if you was stroking an animal. This just takes off any imperfections of dust which are in the atmosphere. They recommend giving two coats but I gave three flattening off inbetween with the wet and dry. After the final coat I just gave it a light waxing with Bry wax as this gives a satin finish which is absolutely amazing as you see no brush marks and looks like a proper professional finish. This is so simple to do, you don't have to be good at painting.
Here's a picture of the product. You can get it from any good hardware flooring shop. The beauty of this product is, if it gets a scratch you can just give it a light rubbing down and give it another coat and it's as good as new. If it's hard enough to walk on then it's good enough for your units.
The only part I'm stuck on is trying to locate some Carravette handles for the units. The are a black inserted type handle. I need three in total so if anyone could help me out with them at all then it would be much appreciated.
Next weekend I will be in Devon to see the progress with the Camper. It's still in the infancy stage at the moment which is etch primer. The theme of the bus will be a Hotrod. It will be lowered all round, uprated brake system, 2007cc motor with twin Dellortos, 911 replica wheels, smoothed off dash, all new gauges from autometer, black velor headlining throughout and black and shammy coloured interior. External colour will be an extremely dark Red wine colour in metallic with the roof and Devon pop top done in a Black metallic with red fleck with matching bumpers.
If everything goes to plan this bus will be completed early summer and will be in the show and shine area at Vanfest.
Thanks for your time and hope you like what you see again. I've put a lot of detail in this time because people seem to like that. Any questions feel free to ask.
Regards
Steve
Justin & Muttley
Well-known member
Lovely neat work as ever - keep it coming...
rockandrollcamper
Well-known member
Another great post Steve. Your right about the detail. We love it. Get some pictures of your van up after the weekend.
Nigel
Nigel
Hi guys, another update. I'll carry on with the drawer first...
This is the two sides and the back after I'd cut the timber up which I'd glued together last week. As you can see, it's all planed nice and flat.
Look closely, can you see the joins?
Now we're onto setting out the Dovetails. Once I had them set out, I shaded in the areas to be removed for you to see clearly.
I then put the two together and squared down the end and then used my bevel to mark the second one so that both sides are exactly the same.
First I cut down the waste side of the line with my tenon saw.
Here you can see where I've been cutting...
Here I'm removing 90% of the waste with my copping saw.
Here I am paring off the remaining timber back to the shoulder line. You must make sure that you scribe across all the shoulders with a stanley knife then you pare back to that line and you get a clean cut. For this you need a razor sharp chisel.
The next stage is to lay the side onto the end of the draw front making sure that your shoulder line is a thou in front of the back of the draw front (I'll explain why in a moment). Then go round with a stanley knife around the tails and then remove and shade in so you don't chop out the wrong bit by mistake.
To remove the waste, chop downwards and inwards removing approximately 1mm each time, take your time and don't rush this stage.
This is how it should look when it is all finished.
This is how you fit the back panel, you put a plough groove across the back approximately 12mm from the end of your desired draw length.
Then run two plough grooves down the inside edges of the bottom to take the ply for the bottom of the draw, I used 6mm ply. Then also plough groove across the inside bottom of the front which I plunged in and plunged out so that I didn't plough through the end of my front and show a groove at either end.
Now I'm ready to glue it all together.
First make sure your back is longer than the front by the depth of the two plough grooves where the back is housed in. I had a 4mm deep plough groove so I made my back 8mm longer to allow it to sit in.
Here it is ready to be glued.
I put masking tape around the ends of the draw front and sides to keep surplus glue off the oak.
Start to tap the joint together as seen in the picture using a block across the top of your dovetails and just gently tap it backwards and forwards. Now the reason you set your dovetails in a thou into the draw front is when you put the joint together, it will pull the joint tight (Little trick there for you)
Now you can fit the bottom making sure that the ply is dead parrallel and snuggly fit between the two grooves in the sides and that the ply is square across the front as this will square your draw up. Put a small amount of glue in the grooves.
The back just drops in on top of the bottom with some glue on the bottom edges and two ends and then it's just pinned through your sides and up through the bottom of your ply. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this.
This is how it should look when it's all cleaned up after shooting excessive material left on the front off and sanding.
This shot is looking from the draw front to the back.
The next stage is to fit the draw to the unit and adding pieces of oak for the draw to run on.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9388/img2202q.jpg[/img
[img]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1411/img2203v.jpg
The next stage of the draw to be done will be to build the inside divisions for the knives, forks and spoons. This will be next weeks project.
Sorry to have turned this project into a joinery lesson but I really wanted to show you all how it's done and what can be achieved at home with a little know how and some sharp tools. If you need any advice then please feel free to ask.
Tomorrow I will be adding some pictures of the bus after this weekends visit and will tell you the story of how I came to own the bus and what has been so far.
Once again thanks for all your kind comments, they're really appreciated.
Regards
Steve.
This is the two sides and the back after I'd cut the timber up which I'd glued together last week. As you can see, it's all planed nice and flat.
Look closely, can you see the joins?
Now we're onto setting out the Dovetails. Once I had them set out, I shaded in the areas to be removed for you to see clearly.
I then put the two together and squared down the end and then used my bevel to mark the second one so that both sides are exactly the same.
First I cut down the waste side of the line with my tenon saw.
Here you can see where I've been cutting...
Here I'm removing 90% of the waste with my copping saw.
Here I am paring off the remaining timber back to the shoulder line. You must make sure that you scribe across all the shoulders with a stanley knife then you pare back to that line and you get a clean cut. For this you need a razor sharp chisel.
The next stage is to lay the side onto the end of the draw front making sure that your shoulder line is a thou in front of the back of the draw front (I'll explain why in a moment). Then go round with a stanley knife around the tails and then remove and shade in so you don't chop out the wrong bit by mistake.
To remove the waste, chop downwards and inwards removing approximately 1mm each time, take your time and don't rush this stage.
This is how it should look when it is all finished.
This is how you fit the back panel, you put a plough groove across the back approximately 12mm from the end of your desired draw length.
Then run two plough grooves down the inside edges of the bottom to take the ply for the bottom of the draw, I used 6mm ply. Then also plough groove across the inside bottom of the front which I plunged in and plunged out so that I didn't plough through the end of my front and show a groove at either end.
Now I'm ready to glue it all together.
First make sure your back is longer than the front by the depth of the two plough grooves where the back is housed in. I had a 4mm deep plough groove so I made my back 8mm longer to allow it to sit in.
Here it is ready to be glued.
I put masking tape around the ends of the draw front and sides to keep surplus glue off the oak.
Start to tap the joint together as seen in the picture using a block across the top of your dovetails and just gently tap it backwards and forwards. Now the reason you set your dovetails in a thou into the draw front is when you put the joint together, it will pull the joint tight (Little trick there for you)
Now you can fit the bottom making sure that the ply is dead parrallel and snuggly fit between the two grooves in the sides and that the ply is square across the front as this will square your draw up. Put a small amount of glue in the grooves.
The back just drops in on top of the bottom with some glue on the bottom edges and two ends and then it's just pinned through your sides and up through the bottom of your ply. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this.
This is how it should look when it's all cleaned up after shooting excessive material left on the front off and sanding.
This shot is looking from the draw front to the back.
The next stage is to fit the draw to the unit and adding pieces of oak for the draw to run on.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9388/img2202q.jpg[/img
[img]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1411/img2203v.jpg
The next stage of the draw to be done will be to build the inside divisions for the knives, forks and spoons. This will be next weeks project.
Sorry to have turned this project into a joinery lesson but I really wanted to show you all how it's done and what can be achieved at home with a little know how and some sharp tools. If you need any advice then please feel free to ask.
Tomorrow I will be adding some pictures of the bus after this weekends visit and will tell you the story of how I came to own the bus and what has been so far.
Once again thanks for all your kind comments, they're really appreciated.
Regards
Steve.
dubdubz
Well-known member
amazing :shock:
froggy
Well-known member
Agreed 8)dubdubz said:
Justin & Muttley
Well-known member
Fantastic work again!!
Is this thread a sticky yet?
Is this thread a sticky yet?
davebug
Well-known member
Jesus mate you have patience,quality job,id have had the no nails out ages ago !!!!!!!
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