Step one. Bought the van.

Sofa-bed continued:

I've constructed the seat frame this way since I'm planning on having "hatches" to access the area under the sofa.


I copied the same design for the back frame but the hatch part won't be hinged.

Before I assemble the frame pieces I want to route out a lip so the plywood hatches will sit partially recessed. Here's my router attached to the router table.


Like other power tools the router can put a put a good bit of hurt on you if you're not careful when using it. It uses a sharp bit spinning at very high speed and the wood has to be held tight against the bit as it is moved across the table. All kinds of chances to make a unfortunate slip.

In operation there is one noticeable difference between a router and other power tools, like a saw for instance. A saw takes one piece of wood and then produces two pieces of wood and some sawdust. With a router you start and stop with one piece of wood but the amount of sawdust that is produced seems exponentially larger than the amount wood that was removed. I think of it more as a sawdust production machine than as a router. Because of the sawdust problem I always attach my shopvac to the router table. The table has a fitting just for this.


Problem is that once you start both the router and shopvac the amount of noise the two of them make in a small garage is not to be believed. I've never stuck my head inside the exhaust of a spinning jet engine but I bet I know how it might sound. I make a point of not using my power tools later that 9:00pm so my kindly neighbours won't be tempted to host a necktie party in my honor.

Here is the router bit I've installed on the router. It's a double fluted carbide tipped straight bit. It's used to make square edged cuts. I'm going to make the recess cut 3/4" wide. I could explain why this is the best possible size for this application but in reality it's just the widest bit I have.


The boards I'm routing are 3/4" thick so I'm setting the bit to cut 1/4" deep (1/3 the thickness). Use the caliper to set the router bit depth (height?).


After making changes to the router bit I always do a test cut with a piece of scrap wood to check the settings.


Here's how you'd use the depth probe on the cailpers to check the cut.




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