Brooks' 5x10 Barrett's Mountain Build

[pchast]

Hmm. Dust collection.
Box construction....

It might be a good idea to reinforce the bottom seams with PMF
or the real stuff. A 6 to 8"tape glued to the outside of the bottom
and side would stiffen things.

( I guess I 'm a belt and suspenders guy. )

[brx017]

Yes, I'll be doing some seam sealing before I paint the bottom. I'll probably do something similar to what I did on my lauan boat, the SS Booger. I did PMF with fiberglass resin on the the outer edges, and PL400 on the inside. Is that what you meant by 6-8" tape?



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[brx017]

Time to start working on my sofa bed. I simplified the design, eliminating the need for a slot being cut out of the rail. Here's a picture of my proof of concept prototype so you know what I mean.



The new design will slide on a support rail below the folding platform. It should operate smoother, be easier to build and support more weight too.

I have worked out all my geometry in AutoCAD, so now it's time to build. First, I have to draw and cut out my parts. I started with a circular a saw, then the tablesaw, and finished on the band saw.







I have three moving parts on each side. In sofa mode they are the seat, inside back, and outside back. Once I had all three parts cut for one side, I used them as a template to cut a matching pair for the other side. This should keep things symmetrical, and eliminate any binding when folding from bed to sofa.

After cutting them out, I clamped the pairs of parts together and sanded them to match exactly.



Then it was over to the drill press to drill out my holes for the pivot points.



With that all done, it's time for installation.

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[brx017]

Since all the "loud" stuff was done, I was able to get some help from my lovely assistant Delia.







She is so excited that we are building HER a camper. She even requests to watch "camper building movies" on YouTube with me, haha. She's been telling me exactly what she wants in it and how she's going to decorate it.

We got the pivot point marked, so it's time to do some drilling. Once I had the three pieces bolted together with Delia's help, I clamped them flush to the top edge of the box and screwed the support rail in place. It is 1" thick and 3" tall, and will bear the weight in sofa mode. I will be going back and bolting this to the box.





Here you can see it going through the range of motion.















It works pretty smoothly. The outside back acts as a mechanical stop just as it gets to the proper back pitch. You can see here that it actually lines up correctly with my frame too.





Plus, I can fold it up to access the storage space underneath the seat.



It's working as planned, so now I just need to repeat the process on the other side.

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[hartk1213]

That is so cool I love the retractable bed ..nice job can't wait to see it finished

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[brx017]

That is so cool I love the retractable bed ..nice job can't wait to see it finished

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Thanks, I'm having a lot of fun building it. I'm trying to decide if I want to go ahead and add a gas strut to it, to make converting it easier. I guess I'll just wait and see how much effort it takes once it's built and has the mattress/cushions on it.

I got a piece of 8/4 lumber of some unknown domestic lightweight hardwood from work. It might be some kind of Aspen or Ash or something? I'll post pictures once I plane it down to see if any of you can identify it. The guy that gave it to me couldn't remember what it was. Anyway, I am going to cut my seat rails out of it. It's about the weight of Pine or Fir, but should be stiffer.

Also, I haven't decided if I want to recut my "hinge" pieces out of Poplar or something similar, or just leave them in the Pine ply and add something to it for reinforcement and for attaching my plywood decking to. For now I'll go with what I've got so I can continue with the floor build.

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[Mushin]

Pretty slick!

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[pchast]

Yes, I'll be doing some seam sealing before I paint the bottom. I'll probably do something similar to what I did on my lauan boat, the SS Booger. I did PMF with fiberglass resin on the the outer edges, and PL400 on the inside. Is that what you meant by 6-8" tape?

\

Yes a sealant and a reinforcement.

[brx017]

Pretty slick!

Thanks Mushin.

I worked a little tonight on the sofa bed. First, I bolted up the hinge parts on the passenger side.



Excuse the mess, please. My Father-in-law is in very poor health, and he asked that I clean out his outbuildings and bring anything valuable to my house. He's afraid someone will steal his stuff once they figure out he's at the hospital / nursing home. His wife said I could have one of their buildings, but until I move it to my house I'm afraid I'm just going to be tripping over his stuff. The building is steel, 9'6" x 13'6" x 8' tall. Not sure how I'm gonna move it, but I'll figure something out.

Anyhow, once both hinges were in place I could do some cipherin', and figure out how I wanted to do my seat rails. I have this piece of 8/4 I got from work to cut them from. I'm not sure, but I think it may be Birch. Here a few pictures, can yall tell what it might be?





Here it is after I ripped it down and planed it.







Once it was cut to size, I went back and cut a bevel on the top edge on the tablesaw. This will let it sit flat on the support rail on the bottom edge, and still be flush with the hinge on the top edge.



After that rail was in place I took the offcut and ripped and planed it down. It was just about the perfect size. I would have preferred it to be thicker, but it'll do fine. Got it screwed into place too.







I slapped a scrap of plywood across there and tested it out. I like the way it sits. I might try to bring home a scrap of poly home from work tomorrow you give it a better sit test.

That's it for progress tonight. I'll try to make some more teardrop time tomorrow, and maybe I can get the rest of the rails in the sofa, so I can get the plywood down!

Nite nite...

-Brooks

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[aggie79]

Very nice work!

I am intrigued by your design. for the bed/sofa. I've been trying to design something similar for use in a cargo trailer conversion but can get my mind around how to do it. Thank you for posting the details of your design and build.

[brx017]

Very nice work!

I am intrigued by your design. for the bed/sofa. I've been trying to design something similar for use in a cargo trailer conversion but can get my mind around how to do it. Thank you for posting the details of your design and build.

Thanks Tom, that means a lot coming from you. Your Silver Beatle has been one of my favorite build threads to read.

I would be glad to share my CAD files if it will help you. Or I can convert them to another format, draw it up in SketchUp, or whatever.

As far as the geometry goes, I started with the dimensions of a comfortable chair from where I work and went from there. Having a known comfortable seat and back pitch, as well as seat depth helped a lot. I used those angles as my constraints. From there it was a matter of figuring out how much room I had to work with inside the trailer. I built my floor box basically as big as I could. It is as wide as I could fit between the trailer tongue. I had to figure out how far forward I could go and not have my head in the ceiling also. Once that was worked out I knew where my pivot point needed to be. I only have from that pivot point back to my axle as the working length of my folding portion of the bed. Then I had to tweak my design a little to keep it under that length. I think I took out an inch of seat depth and around an inch of inback height, but I maintained the seat and back pitch I started my design with. So it should hopefully sit pretty much as comfortably as the chair I based my original design on.

I know that sounds like a lot, but really it's just about picking what measurements are most important to you and locking them in, then tweaking the layout to fit the design restrictions you might run into. With a cargo trailer you've got more room to work with, which means less restrictions. If you didn't want to fool with the recessed floor box you could possibly build it as a raised platform box, with storage drawers underneath.

As far as drawing it out to figure out the motion, I just drew a lot of circles and connected a lot of lines.

I would be more than happy to help you or anyone else on here work out a design. I love doing this kind of stuff. It's the least I could do to pay back for all the great info I've gleaned from here.

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[brx017]

Tonight I finished cutting and installing the rails and blocks for my sofa.

I took what was left of the mystery board (I'm calling it Birch) and ripped it down on the tablesaw, then with a little help planed them down.



After that it was just a matter of lining them up where I needed them, clamping, predrilling and screwing them in place. Here's the final result.



For the outside back, I couldn't run a top rail across, since it scissors and overlaps the inside back. To still have some support and an attachment point for the plywood, I decided to add blocking on the hinge link itself. I had to cut these as a wedge shaped to clear the other link when folded up into the sofa.





These are glued and screwed into place.

Finally, here is the entire mechanism going through the full range of motion again. Please note though, the plywood decking will overhang the sides, so the seat portion will not droop down when laying flat as seen in these pictures.















Now I'm ready for some plywood, and we'll have a functional sofa!

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[brx017]

Well, I had a lot going on this weekend so I didn't really get anything directly related to the 'drop done, but I did pick up something that should help things going forward.

I found this baby on Craigslist about 40 minutes from my house:



It's a Ridgid TS3650 Contractor's Tablesaw. I picked it up for $200. Except for the rusty top is in really good shape. Looks like it's done more sitting than sawing. Once I get it cleaned up I think it'll be a nice saw again.

I started by hitting the high spots with a paint scraper.





After that, I coated the top in 3-in-1 oil and let it sit overnight.





Last night I came back and soaked it heavy in PB Blaster. After a few hours, I got out the belt sander and went over it with 80 grit on low speed. I kept it wet with PB Blaster as I sanded.



After I finished going over it with 80, I hit the pitted spots with a wire cup brush in the cordless drill until I got what discoloration out of it that I could. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I just didn't want to deal with taking off the greasy gloves that often.

After that, I switched to 120 grit in the belt sander and wet-sanded with PB again at about half speed.



Starting to look decent at this point. Hit the discolored spots some more with the wire cup brush, then wet 120 on high speed.



Finally, I switched to a sanding block with 180 grit, and wet sanded it for probably 10 minutes. Here's where I stand after last night's efforts.



Looks decent, and it's actually very smooth. 180 is the highest grit I had, except for my palm sander. Didn't want to go that route, as I only want to sand directionally front to back. I'll try to grab something like 240 and 400 today and see if I can finish it up tonight.

I still need to sand the T-slots also, then degrease the whole saw after making a terrible mess wet sanding. After that, a good coat of Paste Wax and I think she'll be good to go... At least good enough to start tuning it up.

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[hartk1213]

Awesome nice job on the saw..I have I think the newer model and I love it they are great saw ..next step you should do if your not already going to do is make a cross cut sled they are so helpful

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[brx017]

Awesome nice job on the saw..I have I think the newer model and I love it they are great saw ..next step you should do if your not already going to do is make a cross cut sled they are so helpful

Thanks, and yeah I've got a new sheet of 3/4" hardwood plywood and 3/4" MDF on the ready to start making some jigs! First thing will be a crosscut sled for sure. That was the biggest reason I wanted to step up to a better saw. My little 12" capacity Skil has funky little t-slots with "ears" that stick out, so its not jig friendly. About the only things you can use with it is the crappy miter gauge it came with (it flops around in the slots itself), and the rip fence that skews when you clamp it down.

Since you have a similar saw, I've got a question for you. Do you find 36" capacity is enough? The reason I ask is I can shift the fence system to the right and have as much as 50" capacity. Maybe I'll just leave it alone, but it could see it being useful when cutting up plywood. Of course then I would need one heck of an outfeed table!