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:
Going to start writing about the drive mechanism for the sofa-bed. I'm be describing the construction in a lot of detail. Will come in handy if I have to do it again since I have a bad habit of forget such things.
First up is to remake the Center Support. I didn't consider the part that overhangs the Kick Board when I cut the original one. More wood for the bone pile.
New Center Support with a notch penciled in.
A test fit of the Kick Board (vertical in this picture) and the Center Support.
I need to construct something that will both slide the Seat Platform out 12" from the front of the sofa-bed but also proved plenty of support once it's in that position. In the original plan each end of the platform will be supported by the metal angles and U-channel. The middle will be supported using a 1-1/4" square perforated steel tube.
I'll use 1-1/2" aluminum angles to guide the square tube and counterbalance the platform weight once extended. Attach the first angle to the top of the Center Support. It will look like this when done.
Position the angle so it's the thickness of the angle above the edge of the Center Support. This is so the platform bottom in the center will line up with the angles attached to the End Pieces.
Clamp the angle onto the board.
The angle will be held to the Center Support with 1/4" bolts. The heads of the bolts will be on the side of the angle that the square tube slides along. So the square tube will be rubbing against the bolt heads. I want to position the bolts so the heads aren't lined up with the perforations in the steel tube. There's a kind of a Ka-chunk Ka-chunk feeling if the heads and the holes line up as the tube slides.
Place a bolt between the center and edge of the square tube.
Use the calipers to measure the distance between the center of the bolt head and the inside edge of the angle.
Figure out where along the length of the angle I'm going to place the bolts. Then place the depth probe end of the calipers against the inside edge of the angle. Trace along the end of the calipers on each side of the depth probe.
After removing the caliper you'll have two lines that show where to center the drill hole for each bolt.
Drill away.
continued -
Going to start writing about the drive mechanism for the sofa-bed. I'm be describing the construction in a lot of detail. Will come in handy if I have to do it again since I have a bad habit of forget such things.
First up is to remake the Center Support. I didn't consider the part that overhangs the Kick Board when I cut the original one. More wood for the bone pile.
New Center Support with a notch penciled in.
A test fit of the Kick Board (vertical in this picture) and the Center Support.
I need to construct something that will both slide the Seat Platform out 12" from the front of the sofa-bed but also proved plenty of support once it's in that position. In the original plan each end of the platform will be supported by the metal angles and U-channel. The middle will be supported using a 1-1/4" square perforated steel tube.
I'll use 1-1/2" aluminum angles to guide the square tube and counterbalance the platform weight once extended. Attach the first angle to the top of the Center Support. It will look like this when done.
Position the angle so it's the thickness of the angle above the edge of the Center Support. This is so the platform bottom in the center will line up with the angles attached to the End Pieces.
Clamp the angle onto the board.
The angle will be held to the Center Support with 1/4" bolts. The heads of the bolts will be on the side of the angle that the square tube slides along. So the square tube will be rubbing against the bolt heads. I want to position the bolts so the heads aren't lined up with the perforations in the steel tube. There's a kind of a Ka-chunk Ka-chunk feeling if the heads and the holes line up as the tube slides.
Place a bolt between the center and edge of the square tube.
Use the calipers to measure the distance between the center of the bolt head and the inside edge of the angle.
Figure out where along the length of the angle I'm going to place the bolts. Then place the depth probe end of the calipers against the inside edge of the angle. Trace along the end of the calipers on each side of the depth probe.
After removing the caliper you'll have two lines that show where to center the drill hole for each bolt.
Drill away.
continued -
