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.
Drove it home today.
1999 Ford E-250, 6 cylinder, 125K miles.
Was a home builders work van. Some slight surface rust.
Cargo doors a bit dinged up.
I'm planning on doing a full conversion. Most of the work I'll do myself but some will be beyond my abilities. I'm giving myself a deadline of no later than spring. Van won't fit into my small garage so that will affect how/when I can work on it.
I've been reading this and other conversion forums for a few weeks. It's been a huge help so far. Learned quite a lot already but there's still a lot I don't know. Counting on the pros who frequent this forum for some advice.
Advice like: The previous owner drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the floor for bolted down shelving. Whats the best way to cover these holes from underneath? Should I treat the metal edges of the holes before I start?
Thanks for your time, now and in the future.
WVvan
P.S. I'm thinking of call it "HAL the Van".
Why HAL? Well since my name is Dave....
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
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.
Drove it home today.
1999 Ford E-250, 6 cylinder, 125K miles.
Was a home builders work van. Some slight surface rust.
Cargo doors a bit dinged up.
I'm planning on doing a full conversion. Most of the work I'll do myself but some will be beyond my abilities. I'm giving myself a deadline of no later than spring. Van won't fit into my small garage so that will affect how/when I can work on it.
I've been reading this and other conversion forums for a few weeks. It's been a huge help so far. Learned quite a lot already but there's still a lot I don't know. Counting on the pros who frequent this forum for some advice.
Advice like: The previous owner drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the floor for bolted down shelving. Whats the best way to cover these holes from underneath? Should I treat the metal edges of the holes before I start?
Thanks for your time, now and in the future.
WVvan
P.S. I'm thinking of call it "HAL the Van".
Why HAL? Well since my name is Dave....
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Time to take a break from the van conversion for a Road Trip!
Blackwater Falls State Park
Blackwater Canyon Trail
Douglas Falls.
Today's biking tip.
Let's say you're about to start a long ride and when you go to put on your only pair of gloves you find they are both left handed.
Turn one of them inside out and you now have a right and a left.
Not that this would ever happen to me.
OK, OK, OK, I have a drawer full of biking gloves. It's a easy mistake to make.
PS.
Waking up this morning in the van with the bird songs and the sun shining through the Penthouse Top made every little frustration I've ever had on this project well worth it.
Blackwater Falls State Park
Blackwater Canyon Trail
Douglas Falls.
Today's biking tip.
Let's say you're about to start a long ride and when you go to put on your only pair of gloves you find they are both left handed.
Turn one of them inside out and you now have a right and a left.
Not that this would ever happen to me.
OK, OK, OK, I have a drawer full of biking gloves. It's a easy mistake to make.
PS.
Waking up this morning in the van with the bird songs and the sun shining through the Penthouse Top made every little frustration I've ever had on this project well worth it.
Thanks Landyacht318,
As always, excellent advice.
After my last posting about using a aluminum bar to make cuts with a circular saw I was sent this link to a even better idea. It looks like what you're talking about.
How to Build a Simple Circular Saw Guide for Straighter Cuts
I'll be making one of these for myself.
Sofa-bed continued:
In the last posting I had finished gluing the 19/32 plywood pieces together to make the new End Pieces. I need to round off the top front corner of each End Piece. To do this I first must draw an arc. There are a bunch of ways to do this. I picked the easiest.
Find the biggest round thing you have. In my case that would be a garbage can.
Place the garbage can on the End Piece and line it up with the edge. Then trace out your arc.
Use the arc as a guide for the saber saw to trim off the edge.
To smooth out the arc I clamped the End Piece to my workbench using one of the vices.
Then used a belt sander to do the smoothing.
Did the same for both End Pieces. That finished work on the End Pieces for the time being. Start to work on both the Seat and Back Platforms.
When I routed the boards that make up the frame of the Platforms I left the rounded corner.
Time to fix that with hammer, wood chisel and two paws. Use the hammer and chisel to square off the inside corner.
From 19/32 plywood cut two panels that fit into the routed out sections on the Back Platform.
Once I was sure it was a good fit, put down a bead of wood glue on the routed edge.
Drill countersink holes for the screw heads then hand screw the panel into place.
I'm using square headed screws for this project. Just started using them. Really like them for two reasons. They resist "cam-out". Cam-out is when the end of the screwdriver slips out of the head of the screw as you turn it. This is both frustrating and can chew up the end of the screw driver and head of the screw. Since there is less cam-out I'm able to reuse the same screws. Since there has been a fair amount of assemble/disassemble on this project the square drive as definitely saved me on screws.
Back Platform done.
The rest of the photos in the posting are in strict chronological order. You'll soon see why I'm mentioning this.
On the Seat Platform the 19/32 panels are going to be hinged so I can access the area under the seat. The hinge works best if it sits flat with both surfaces even.
The edge of the panel does not sit even with the edge of the Seat Platform frame. I could either notch down the panel or raise the edge of the Platform. Notching the panel would leave the wood too thin so I'll raise the edge of the Platform by adding small plywood blocks.
In this picture you can see the three different heights. On the right is the plywood panel that will be the hatch. On the left is the plywood block that will be used to raise up the level of the platform which is in the foreground.
Since the block and the plywood are both 19/32 thick, their difference in elevation corresponds to the depth of the edge I routed out on the Platform.
Set the table saw to the needed width (depth) and run the plywood block through it.
Cut the block into four equal sizes. One for each hinge.
Figure out where to position the blocks.
Can you see what's wrong with this picture??? I didn't catch it.
Glue and clamp the blocks into place. Let it set.
I'm getting ready to start on the the second set of blocks when Quality Control Engineer Bob comes into the garage to make one of her inspection tours.
She takes one look around and then starts raising a fuss.
I don't know what she's complaining about but she keeps at until it suddenly dawns on me what she's saying.
She's saying "Wroooooonnnnggg".
Wrong? What's wrong? Then I take a look at what I was just working on.
D'OH!!! I've glued the blocks to the WRONG side of the Seat Platform!
I quickly unclamp the two blocks then try to pry them off the Seat Platform. I was just able to get them off the Platform. In another minute or two I think the glue would have set and it would have been too late. Needless to say I wasn't taking any pictures of this operation. No time.
Move the blocks to the correct position on the opposite side of the Platform then clamp and glue into place. Here you can see the blocks are on the same side as the hinge marks for where the Seat Platform is joined to the Back Platform. That's what I missed in the previous picture. The main hinge marks.
Glue on the second set of hinge blocks.
Wait till the glue sets up then add the hinges and try it out.
Add a finger hole to be used to hold and raise the hatch.
All done.
Watch Bob take a victory lap in the van.
continued -
As always, excellent advice.
After my last posting about using a aluminum bar to make cuts with a circular saw I was sent this link to a even better idea. It looks like what you're talking about.
How to Build a Simple Circular Saw Guide for Straighter Cuts
I'll be making one of these for myself.
Sofa-bed continued:
In the last posting I had finished gluing the 19/32 plywood pieces together to make the new End Pieces. I need to round off the top front corner of each End Piece. To do this I first must draw an arc. There are a bunch of ways to do this. I picked the easiest.
Find the biggest round thing you have. In my case that would be a garbage can.
Place the garbage can on the End Piece and line it up with the edge. Then trace out your arc.
Use the arc as a guide for the saber saw to trim off the edge.
To smooth out the arc I clamped the End Piece to my workbench using one of the vices.
Then used a belt sander to do the smoothing.
Did the same for both End Pieces. That finished work on the End Pieces for the time being. Start to work on both the Seat and Back Platforms.
When I routed the boards that make up the frame of the Platforms I left the rounded corner.
Time to fix that with hammer, wood chisel and two paws. Use the hammer and chisel to square off the inside corner.
From 19/32 plywood cut two panels that fit into the routed out sections on the Back Platform.
Once I was sure it was a good fit, put down a bead of wood glue on the routed edge.
Drill countersink holes for the screw heads then hand screw the panel into place.
I'm using square headed screws for this project. Just started using them. Really like them for two reasons. They resist "cam-out". Cam-out is when the end of the screwdriver slips out of the head of the screw as you turn it. This is both frustrating and can chew up the end of the screw driver and head of the screw. Since there is less cam-out I'm able to reuse the same screws. Since there has been a fair amount of assemble/disassemble on this project the square drive as definitely saved me on screws.
Back Platform done.
The rest of the photos in the posting are in strict chronological order. You'll soon see why I'm mentioning this.
On the Seat Platform the 19/32 panels are going to be hinged so I can access the area under the seat. The hinge works best if it sits flat with both surfaces even.
The edge of the panel does not sit even with the edge of the Seat Platform frame. I could either notch down the panel or raise the edge of the Platform. Notching the panel would leave the wood too thin so I'll raise the edge of the Platform by adding small plywood blocks.
In this picture you can see the three different heights. On the right is the plywood panel that will be the hatch. On the left is the plywood block that will be used to raise up the level of the platform which is in the foreground.
Since the block and the plywood are both 19/32 thick, their difference in elevation corresponds to the depth of the edge I routed out on the Platform.
Set the table saw to the needed width (depth) and run the plywood block through it.
Cut the block into four equal sizes. One for each hinge.
Figure out where to position the blocks.
Can you see what's wrong with this picture??? I didn't catch it.
Glue and clamp the blocks into place. Let it set.
I'm getting ready to start on the the second set of blocks when Quality Control Engineer Bob comes into the garage to make one of her inspection tours.
She takes one look around and then starts raising a fuss.
I don't know what she's complaining about but she keeps at until it suddenly dawns on me what she's saying.
She's saying "Wroooooonnnnggg".
Wrong? What's wrong? Then I take a look at what I was just working on.
D'OH!!! I've glued the blocks to the WRONG side of the Seat Platform!
I quickly unclamp the two blocks then try to pry them off the Seat Platform. I was just able to get them off the Platform. In another minute or two I think the glue would have set and it would have been too late. Needless to say I wasn't taking any pictures of this operation. No time.
Move the blocks to the correct position on the opposite side of the Platform then clamp and glue into place. Here you can see the blocks are on the same side as the hinge marks for where the Seat Platform is joined to the Back Platform. That's what I missed in the previous picture. The main hinge marks.
Glue on the second set of hinge blocks.
Wait till the glue sets up then add the hinges and try it out.
Add a finger hole to be used to hold and raise the hatch.
All done.
Watch Bob take a victory lap in the van.
continued -
Sofa-bed continued:
After having assembled/disassembled the sofa-bed several times I felt that the 19/32 plywood the End Pieces were made of wasn't sturdy enough.
I looked at 23/32 thick plywood at Lowe's but decided to double up the 19/32 plywood instead. One reason was that a 4' x 8' sheet of the 23/32 plywood was just too heavy for me to comfortably carry around.
Working with plywood sheets means I'll be using my circular saw instead of the table saw. It's too unwieldy to try and maneuver a full sized plywood sheet on the small table saw I own.
When using the circular saw I usually draw a line then follow it using the guide on the front of the saw.
The problem with a circular saw is that when I'm done the cut is never dead straight. No matter how careful I cut there are always minor variations. Then if I measure the next cut off this edge the error is just compounded. Before I started I wanted to see if I could come up with a better method.
This is what I came up with. It does take extra time setting it up but I think the results are worth it.
When I was at Lowe's buying metal stock for the sofa-bed I bought this.
It's an aluminum bar that's 1" wide by a 1/4" thick and 4' long. I ended up not using it in the build but I found it really handy for use with the circular saw. It's fairly rigid but not very heavy.
First figure out where you want to make your cut.
Next measure the distance from the outside edge of the circular saw blade to the edge of the saw's base plate.
On my saw it's 1-9/16". Of course this might be different for other brands of saws.
Now's where it gets interesting. You want to set the aluminum bar so it will act as a straight edge for the saw. But you have to plan the cut so the short side of the saw's base plate is in contact with aluminum bar. This means that on some cuts you have to figure in the width of the saw blade. In my case that's a difference of 1/16". So sometimes the bar is offset 1-9/16" and other times it 1-5/8".
Hopefully this will make it clearer:
After you have figured out the bar offset, stop and do it again. It's easy to make a mistake at this step. After you've done that twice go ahead and measure then clamp the aluminum bar into position.
Using the circular saw with the aluminum bar as a guide is so much easier than having to concentrate on trying to following a line. It's more of a hassle to set up but after I made that first cut I could kick myself for not having come up with this before. You can just breeze through a 4' long cut. When you set the clamps don't let the ends overhang the edge of the bar so that they would interfere with the saw base plate.
Woodworking tip. A garbage can can double as a saw horse. The hand saw is to help clean up the plywood which can splinter at the end of a cut.
Pretty soon that 4' x 8' sheet of plywood has gotten a lot smaller. Make the final cuts for the new end pieces.
Here is the new Left End Piece with the original.
Clamp the two pieces together. Before I removed the hardware from the original piece I marked their position so I'd know which holes to duplicate in the new plywood and which to ignore. Drill those holes now.
Remove the clamps and squeeze wood glue all over one of the Left End Pieces.
Use a brush to spread it around.
Clamp the two Left End Pieces together. Put bolts through the common holes and with nuts and washer screw together.
I let it set for a day before removing all the clamps and hardware. Then I did all the same steps again for the two pieces that will make up the Right End.
continued -
After having assembled/disassembled the sofa-bed several times I felt that the 19/32 plywood the End Pieces were made of wasn't sturdy enough.
I looked at 23/32 thick plywood at Lowe's but decided to double up the 19/32 plywood instead. One reason was that a 4' x 8' sheet of the 23/32 plywood was just too heavy for me to comfortably carry around.
Working with plywood sheets means I'll be using my circular saw instead of the table saw. It's too unwieldy to try and maneuver a full sized plywood sheet on the small table saw I own.
When using the circular saw I usually draw a line then follow it using the guide on the front of the saw.
The problem with a circular saw is that when I'm done the cut is never dead straight. No matter how careful I cut there are always minor variations. Then if I measure the next cut off this edge the error is just compounded. Before I started I wanted to see if I could come up with a better method.
This is what I came up with. It does take extra time setting it up but I think the results are worth it.
When I was at Lowe's buying metal stock for the sofa-bed I bought this.
It's an aluminum bar that's 1" wide by a 1/4" thick and 4' long. I ended up not using it in the build but I found it really handy for use with the circular saw. It's fairly rigid but not very heavy.
First figure out where you want to make your cut.
Next measure the distance from the outside edge of the circular saw blade to the edge of the saw's base plate.
On my saw it's 1-9/16". Of course this might be different for other brands of saws.
Now's where it gets interesting. You want to set the aluminum bar so it will act as a straight edge for the saw. But you have to plan the cut so the short side of the saw's base plate is in contact with aluminum bar. This means that on some cuts you have to figure in the width of the saw blade. In my case that's a difference of 1/16". So sometimes the bar is offset 1-9/16" and other times it 1-5/8".
Hopefully this will make it clearer:
After you have figured out the bar offset, stop and do it again. It's easy to make a mistake at this step. After you've done that twice go ahead and measure then clamp the aluminum bar into position.
Using the circular saw with the aluminum bar as a guide is so much easier than having to concentrate on trying to following a line. It's more of a hassle to set up but after I made that first cut I could kick myself for not having come up with this before. You can just breeze through a 4' long cut. When you set the clamps don't let the ends overhang the edge of the bar so that they would interfere with the saw base plate.
Woodworking tip. A garbage can can double as a saw horse. The hand saw is to help clean up the plywood which can splinter at the end of a cut.
Pretty soon that 4' x 8' sheet of plywood has gotten a lot smaller. Make the final cuts for the new end pieces.
Here is the new Left End Piece with the original.
Clamp the two pieces together. Before I removed the hardware from the original piece I marked their position so I'd know which holes to duplicate in the new plywood and which to ignore. Drill those holes now.
Remove the clamps and squeeze wood glue all over one of the Left End Pieces.
Use a brush to spread it around.
Clamp the two Left End Pieces together. Put bolts through the common holes and with nuts and washer screw together.
I let it set for a day before removing all the clamps and hardware. Then I did all the same steps again for the two pieces that will make up the Right End.
continued -
Sofa-bed continued:
I'd mentioned in the previous post about how as the length of the bolt increases the length of the part of the bolt that isn't threaded increases. Here's a bolt comparison to show what I mean.
Reinstall the Center Support while Tiger checks alignment of the Middle Brace.
Put the Seat and Back Platforms in place.
Use the clamps to hold the Seat Platform to the metal angles on the End Pieces and the angle on the Center Support that will drive the platform forward and backward.
Hook the electric actuator up to the battery and use it to drive the platform back and forth to check it's alignment as it moves. I had to shave a little off each end of both the Seat and Back Platforms so everything moves smoothly.
Adjust everything until the alignments are just right. Then start to drill holes for the bolts that will join the Seat Platform to the metal angles.
Insert bolts through all the new holes. Don't bother with nuts since this is all coming apart again. Inserting all the bolts is just to check for alignment. Run the platform back and forth a few times when done.
Now that's done disassemble the sofa-bed and move parts of the frame into the van for the first time. Place it near where it will be installed
The Left End Piece has to be cut to fit over the driver's side rear wheel well.
Measure the height and width needed for the cutout.
Mark out where to cut. I'll be using a circular saw and the drawer slide and it's hardware is in the way.
Because of the failed attempt with my home made sliders there are extra holes in the End Piece. Mark the holes that are still used before removing the hardware.
Make the cuts. Due to the nature of a circular saw it makes an angular cut. To make a nice square inside corner it's best to cut close to the corner with the circular saw then finish the cut with a hand saw.
Reassemble the frame in the van and check the fit of the newly cut Left End Piece.
I'm going to pat myself on the back just this once by pointing out how close the fit is between the Middle Brace and the wheel well. That was not by accident. It's reassuring to see one thing I planned out ahead of time actually worked.
continued -
I'd mentioned in the previous post about how as the length of the bolt increases the length of the part of the bolt that isn't threaded increases. Here's a bolt comparison to show what I mean.
Reinstall the Center Support while Tiger checks alignment of the Middle Brace.
Put the Seat and Back Platforms in place.
Use the clamps to hold the Seat Platform to the metal angles on the End Pieces and the angle on the Center Support that will drive the platform forward and backward.
Hook the electric actuator up to the battery and use it to drive the platform back and forth to check it's alignment as it moves. I had to shave a little off each end of both the Seat and Back Platforms so everything moves smoothly.
Adjust everything until the alignments are just right. Then start to drill holes for the bolts that will join the Seat Platform to the metal angles.
Insert bolts through all the new holes. Don't bother with nuts since this is all coming apart again. Inserting all the bolts is just to check for alignment. Run the platform back and forth a few times when done.
Now that's done disassemble the sofa-bed and move parts of the frame into the van for the first time. Place it near where it will be installed
The Left End Piece has to be cut to fit over the driver's side rear wheel well.
Measure the height and width needed for the cutout.
Mark out where to cut. I'll be using a circular saw and the drawer slide and it's hardware is in the way.
Because of the failed attempt with my home made sliders there are extra holes in the End Piece. Mark the holes that are still used before removing the hardware.
Make the cuts. Due to the nature of a circular saw it makes an angular cut. To make a nice square inside corner it's best to cut close to the corner with the circular saw then finish the cut with a hand saw.
Reassemble the frame in the van and check the fit of the newly cut Left End Piece.
I'm going to pat myself on the back just this once by pointing out how close the fit is between the Middle Brace and the wheel well. That was not by accident. It's reassuring to see one thing I planned out ahead of time actually worked.
continued -
Sofa-bed continued:
After assembling the sofa-bed frame I noticed the square tube under the Seat Platform. It was built to be even with the front of the Center Support and I just didn't like the way it looked.
So remove the Center Support and take it back to the work bench.
I think I'll cut it back an inch.
Also cut back the angle guides to match the shorter tube.
Due to the number of nuts and bolts this will take a little more work.
Shortened angles.
Since I was already messing with the Center Support, time to make some adjustments to the actuator mounting. The mounting hole on the end of the actuator is 1/4" wide. I'm using a 1/4" bolt to secure the base to the Center Support. The longer the bolt is the longer is the part of the bolt that isn't threaded. By using a bolt that's much longer than I need I can get one where the mounting hole stays on the unthreaded part.
That will require cutting down the bolt. Notice that here I'm doing it the right way, not like before, by having a nut between the head and the part of the bolt I'm about to cut.
Take a 1/4" nylon spacer and cut it to fit the gap between the actuator mounting base and the Center Support.
Install the spacer. I'm using two nuts tightened against each other as a lock.
Then put it all back together again.
continued -
After assembling the sofa-bed frame I noticed the square tube under the Seat Platform. It was built to be even with the front of the Center Support and I just didn't like the way it looked.
So remove the Center Support and take it back to the work bench.
I think I'll cut it back an inch.
Also cut back the angle guides to match the shorter tube.
Due to the number of nuts and bolts this will take a little more work.
Shortened angles.
Since I was already messing with the Center Support, time to make some adjustments to the actuator mounting. The mounting hole on the end of the actuator is 1/4" wide. I'm using a 1/4" bolt to secure the base to the Center Support. The longer the bolt is the longer is the part of the bolt that isn't threaded. By using a bolt that's much longer than I need I can get one where the mounting hole stays on the unthreaded part.
That will require cutting down the bolt. Notice that here I'm doing it the right way, not like before, by having a nut between the head and the part of the bolt I'm about to cut.
Take a 1/4" nylon spacer and cut it to fit the gap between the actuator mounting base and the Center Support.
Install the spacer. I'm using two nuts tightened against each other as a lock.
Then put it all back together again.
continued -
Sofa-bed side trip:
At this point in the build I started working on a mechanism to raise the Back Platform as the sofa-bed moved from the bed to the sofa position. This was to be powered by the movement of the Seat Platform. It didn't work as planned so I moved on to a design using a second actuator. I spend so much time and effort on creating the lifter and trying to get it to work I didn't want to move on without mentioning it. And I do mean A LOT OF TIME. As usual I took a bunch of pictures.
The lifter did work. Just not good enough. Here is a 6 Mb avi file of the lifter in operation.
Lifter in operation
I still think I could get this to work if I spend more time on it. I just have a lot more work to do on the van at the moment.
continued -
At this point in the build I started working on a mechanism to raise the Back Platform as the sofa-bed moved from the bed to the sofa position. This was to be powered by the movement of the Seat Platform. It didn't work as planned so I moved on to a design using a second actuator. I spend so much time and effort on creating the lifter and trying to get it to work I didn't want to move on without mentioning it. And I do mean A LOT OF TIME. As usual I took a bunch of pictures.
The lifter did work. Just not good enough. Here is a 6 Mb avi file of the lifter in operation.
Lifter in operation
I still think I could get this to work if I spend more time on it. I just have a lot more work to do on the van at the moment.
continued -
Sofa-bed continued:
Assemble the different pieces to see how everything works together. I took care to make sure the sofa-bed was square as I bolted it together. The best way for me is to measure diagonally from each corner.
If the measurements are the same then everything is square.
As I tighten up the bolts I would continue to re-check the square.
Did some testing with just the Seat Platform but I'll need to attach the two Platforms together to move farther along on the testing
Line up the two Platforms.
I'm using four hinges to join the two Platforms. I choose this style hinge because I happened to have them laying around. This picture shows that the hinge doesn't lay flat. There is more than one way to deal with this but the method I've chosen is to create a gap between the two Platforms. This gap wasn't in the original plan but it's not going to create any problems.
With this hinge the perfect gap happens to match the thickness of a piece of 19/32" plywood. Clamp a scrap plywood piece between the two Platforms to hold them in place.
Measure and mark out the positions of hinges.
Separate the two platforms. Using the marks and a clamp, line up one hinge. Then drill holes for the 1/4" bolts I'll be using to secure the hinges.
Do this for all the hinges on both platforms.
Bolt the two Platforms together and place on the sofa-bed frame. Use clamps to hold the Seat Platform to the metal angles on the end slides and the Center Support.
One of the first things I did with the Seat and Back Platforms joined and in place was to figure out what the optimum angle for the Back Platform should be while in the sofa position. Use clamps to hold the Back Platform at different angles. Kept changing it until I found what was most comfortable.
I like 112 degrees from the Seat Platform. I'm hoping this will still be OK once I install padding.
continued -
Assemble the different pieces to see how everything works together. I took care to make sure the sofa-bed was square as I bolted it together. The best way for me is to measure diagonally from each corner.
If the measurements are the same then everything is square.
As I tighten up the bolts I would continue to re-check the square.
Did some testing with just the Seat Platform but I'll need to attach the two Platforms together to move farther along on the testing
Line up the two Platforms.
I'm using four hinges to join the two Platforms. I choose this style hinge because I happened to have them laying around. This picture shows that the hinge doesn't lay flat. There is more than one way to deal with this but the method I've chosen is to create a gap between the two Platforms. This gap wasn't in the original plan but it's not going to create any problems.
With this hinge the perfect gap happens to match the thickness of a piece of 19/32" plywood. Clamp a scrap plywood piece between the two Platforms to hold them in place.
Measure and mark out the positions of hinges.
Separate the two platforms. Using the marks and a clamp, line up one hinge. Then drill holes for the 1/4" bolts I'll be using to secure the hinges.
Do this for all the hinges on both platforms.
Bolt the two Platforms together and place on the sofa-bed frame. Use clamps to hold the Seat Platform to the metal angles on the end slides and the Center Support.
One of the first things I did with the Seat and Back Platforms joined and in place was to figure out what the optimum angle for the Back Platform should be while in the sofa position. Use clamps to hold the Back Platform at different angles. Kept changing it until I found what was most comfortable.
I like 112 degrees from the Seat Platform. I'm hoping this will still be OK once I install padding.
continued -
Sofa-bed continued:
I've fixed the first design problem by replacing my home-made slides with drawer hardware. Now to tackle the other issue with the drive mechanism.
The drive mechanism can move off of center as the picture shows. This can cause the Seat Platform to jam at an angle.
Bolt two different angled pieces together so they look something like a backwards "Z".
Attach the backwards "Z" to the Center Support so it acts as a guide for the bottom edge of the "L" bracket. The "Z" will keep the "L" bracket, and the drive mechanism, from swinging off center.
The "Z angle is installed along the length of the "L" bracket travel.
There is not enough of the "L" bracket under the "Z" angle for me to be totally happy with this design. I'll revisit it in the future.
Funny thing. Just in typing up this posting I've come up with a similar but better plan. That will have to be in a different posting since I haven't tried it yet.
continued -
I've fixed the first design problem by replacing my home-made slides with drawer hardware. Now to tackle the other issue with the drive mechanism.
The drive mechanism can move off of center as the picture shows. This can cause the Seat Platform to jam at an angle.
Bolt two different angled pieces together so they look something like a backwards "Z".
Attach the backwards "Z" to the Center Support so it acts as a guide for the bottom edge of the "L" bracket. The "Z" will keep the "L" bracket, and the drive mechanism, from swinging off center.
The "Z angle is installed along the length of the "L" bracket travel.
There is not enough of the "L" bracket under the "Z" angle for me to be totally happy with this design. I'll revisit it in the future.
Funny thing. Just in typing up this posting I've come up with a similar but better plan. That will have to be in a different posting since I haven't tried it yet.
continued -
