Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Sofa-bed continued:
First up a picture of some of my latest toys, I mean tools, from Harbor Freight. REAL center punches to replace the big nail I've been using, which as you can see from the photo is starting to get bent from use/abuse.
On with the build. I've created a new Center Support and painted it white. Here it is laying on the original Center Support after first having removed all the slider hardware.
Arrange the slide hardware on the new support and drill and bolt everything in it's proper place.
One advantage of redoing the support is I can correct some earlier problems. One is the bracing I installed to stop the actuator from moving off center. In the first go around I wasn't too happy with the amount of the "L" bracket that was under the edge of the metal "Z" angle. I want to increase that so first I make a all new "L" bracket. You can see the old one to the left of the new one.
The hole for the locking pin in now lower on the new "L" bracket.
With the new "L" bracket I must realign the actuator.
Try to make it so it's a straight "draw".
The new alignment puts the mounting hole for the actuator base close to the edge of the wood.
To reinforce the mounting hole cut off two piece of aluminum flat stock.
Then drill a new hole to hold the reinforcements in place.
Next problem. When I go to mount the actuator I find the head from the bolt securing the reinforcements piece sticks up too high so I have to grind it down.
Bolt the actuator base into place.
In this picture you can just see that I've added lock washers to the bolts that secure the square tube to the metal angle.
On the old support I bolted two metal angles to form a "Z" shaped assembly which restricted the movement of the "L" bracket so to stop it from swing off center. I'm chucking that design and doing something different.
Use a piece of the U-channel I bought for the home-made slider and a piece of flat stock. The u-channel raises up the flat stock just enough so it fits just inside the edge of the "L" bracket. Due to the way the "L" bracket is constructed the lower side, in this picture, is longer that the top side. So this gives more surface area for the metal stock piece to contact if the actuator starts to go off center.
I'm happier with this design.
Use the angle grinder I bought for the paint work. Put on a metal cutting wheel and take off the excess threads from the bolts on the opposite side of the Center Support. I'm removing the threads so I can mount the Back Platform lifter closer to the middle of the sofa-bed. This will come later.
A quick note on the newspaper in this picture. Using either the grinder or the cutting wheel produces a gritty powder. I try and set the newspaper like a backstop to catch as much of this grit as I can.
A side note. When I bought my house it came with a stack of old yellowed papers. You not supposed to recycle yellowed paper so I've been using them up other ways over the years. The problem when using them is that they are such a interesting time capsule I sometimes get distracted from the job at hand.
Looks like stamps are going all the way up to 15 cents!
Hey! Isn't that Tom Selleck selling Salems?
That finishes work on the new Center Support.
continued -
First up a picture of some of my latest toys, I mean tools, from Harbor Freight. REAL center punches to replace the big nail I've been using, which as you can see from the photo is starting to get bent from use/abuse.
On with the build. I've created a new Center Support and painted it white. Here it is laying on the original Center Support after first having removed all the slider hardware.
Arrange the slide hardware on the new support and drill and bolt everything in it's proper place.
One advantage of redoing the support is I can correct some earlier problems. One is the bracing I installed to stop the actuator from moving off center. In the first go around I wasn't too happy with the amount of the "L" bracket that was under the edge of the metal "Z" angle. I want to increase that so first I make a all new "L" bracket. You can see the old one to the left of the new one.
The hole for the locking pin in now lower on the new "L" bracket.
With the new "L" bracket I must realign the actuator.
Try to make it so it's a straight "draw".
The new alignment puts the mounting hole for the actuator base close to the edge of the wood.
To reinforce the mounting hole cut off two piece of aluminum flat stock.
Then drill a new hole to hold the reinforcements in place.
Next problem. When I go to mount the actuator I find the head from the bolt securing the reinforcements piece sticks up too high so I have to grind it down.
Bolt the actuator base into place.
In this picture you can just see that I've added lock washers to the bolts that secure the square tube to the metal angle.
On the old support I bolted two metal angles to form a "Z" shaped assembly which restricted the movement of the "L" bracket so to stop it from swing off center. I'm chucking that design and doing something different.
Use a piece of the U-channel I bought for the home-made slider and a piece of flat stock. The u-channel raises up the flat stock just enough so it fits just inside the edge of the "L" bracket. Due to the way the "L" bracket is constructed the lower side, in this picture, is longer that the top side. So this gives more surface area for the metal stock piece to contact if the actuator starts to go off center.
I'm happier with this design.
Use the angle grinder I bought for the paint work. Put on a metal cutting wheel and take off the excess threads from the bolts on the opposite side of the Center Support. I'm removing the threads so I can mount the Back Platform lifter closer to the middle of the sofa-bed. This will come later.
A quick note on the newspaper in this picture. Using either the grinder or the cutting wheel produces a gritty powder. I try and set the newspaper like a backstop to catch as much of this grit as I can.
A side note. When I bought my house it came with a stack of old yellowed papers. You not supposed to recycle yellowed paper so I've been using them up other ways over the years. The problem when using them is that they are such a interesting time capsule I sometimes get distracted from the job at hand.
Looks like stamps are going all the way up to 15 cents!
Hey! Isn't that Tom Selleck selling Salems?
That finishes work on the new Center Support.
continued -
