Laminex - A Sticky Business

For me,  the most dreaded job is finally done, and it turned out OK which is even better. I was very unsure about not only cutting the Laminex but also glueing it down.  I decided that today was the day and went to it.  My first try at cutting the laminate a couple of weeks ago was a disaster,  but I bit the bullet and bought a Laminate cutter which made all the difference.  Today the cuts were clean and easy.

The glue was of course contact adhesive and this was the other worry.  Contact means contact and the moment the two glued surfaces touch,  that's it.  Of course the laminate breaks really easy to getting it into the right position before the surfaces touch is essential.  As susggested,  I used some thinn pieces of pine to hold the laminate off the other glued surface.  I then started at one end and used a piece of timber and a hammer to make sure that the surfaces were in contact and stuck.

I started with the kitchen bench, and then realised that I only had just enough laminate to do the job.  On the weekend I used a piece in the front of the fridge.  This meant that to finish the bench,  the small bench and the table,  I needed to use the pieces I cut out of the bench where the sink and cooktop go.

Anyway, just enough to do the job.  Once everything was stuck down,  I used a 9mm trimmer bit in the router and trimmed all the edges to size.  I also used this to cut out the sink and stovetop pieces.  After they were all trimmed,  I changed the router bit to the more decorative one and did all the edges.

Once that was done,  I had enough time to stain all of the edges to match.  The whole job looks really good and the Laminex makes a huge difference to the look of the conversion.  I have taken the following pics to show the finished job and put the sink and cooktop in for effect.

The pic above is the small bench next to the dinette where the radio will go.

This is the kitchen bench looking from the back of the vehicle.  The colour of the Laminate is difiicult to see, but if you click on the pic it will expand to make it easier.

This is view from the front near the dinette seats.  The bench cupboard doors are not hung yet,  just standing there for effect at this point.  I ran out of screws to fit them.

Another view of the Kitchen bench.  The doors will look OK I think once they are varnished.  That's it for today.  This coming weekend,  I have to get the water tanks in and mounting for the shower taps so that Peter can do the plumbing for me on 5 February.  Thanks for reading.

Cupboard Doors Stained & Fitted

As promised some pics of the cupboard doors stained and fitted.  I managed to finish all of the cupboard doors on Sunday, sanded, stained and hung them. I didn't get to hang the doors on the kitchen bench yet,  but that won't take too long.

As you can see,  the doors are all made, routed off, and stained.  I put them in the vehicle to dry, seemed to be the best bet considering the dust that was blowing araound.  The Feast Watson stain takes awhile to dry, but the finish is worth it.  I chose the lightest plywood that I could, but there was some variation in colour.  The stain fixed that though.  They have all come up looking very similar.

While I was wating for the stain to dry,  I hade my first (successful) attempt at cutting the Laminex.  My first attempt was done without the use of the proper scribing tool.  It made a bit of a mess but I salvaged enough to cut to fit into the front of the fridge.  The following pic is of the Laminex panel in the front of the fridge all mounted in place in the Vehicle.  You can get a good idea of the colour in this pic.

Next came time for hanging the overhead cupboard doors.  The hinges at caravan type in brass finish and supplied by Camec.  I think the brass look goes with the Baltic pine finish quite well.  The hanging became a little difficult on my own with the rear cupboards because the tolerances between the back and side cupboards is very fine.  I may have to reduce the size of the back cupboard door yet.

Above.  Front doors on.  These are the only ones that I have made side-opening.  The idea is that I can use the shelf to put a TV on with the doors open.

This one is of course the side cupboards.  I managed to get them all the same height and pretty straight too.

This is the back cupboard doors. You can see the tall cupbaord on the right.  Now all I've got to do is finish hanging the ones on the kitchen beck, varnish and fit knobs and catches.  I've ordered the ctaches from the Award RV Superstore in Fern Tree Gully.  http://www.awardrv.com.au/  Have a look lots of stuff.

Cushions Are Here

Hi again.  As promised by Foamland in Hobart,  the upholstered foam seats/beds are done.  I brought them home on Friday night and I must say that I am pleased with the way they look.  The only reservation that I have is the thickness of the foam.  When I ordered them,  they told me that there was a distinct difference between foam for seats and foam for beds.  I really had to make a choice and the compromise was to go for foam suitable for beds and make it just a little thicker so that it wouldn't flatten out too much when you were sitting on it.  The consequnce was cushions which are quite thick.  This is not a problem except that it reduces the headroom under the overhead cupboards.  I can still sit up straight with my head hitting the underside of the cupboards, just.

Anyway some pics to follow of the cushions in place on Saturday.  I will have to take them out again of course because the second coat of varish and other work has to be done.

This pic shows the cusions in place at the back of the vehicle.  This section converts into a bed, so instead of going to the expense of having cusions made for along the back,  I had some lumbar rolls which came off a lounge suite recovered.  They look OK and can still be used as back supports,  or a pillow if you want to have a bit of a nap and the bed isn't made up.  This was a lot cheaper that having seat back cushions made too.

Another view of the back bed/lounge.

This one is of course the dinette at the front of the vehicle.  The back cushions just like the ones at the back are used to make the bed.

Next post will be the cupboard doors.

Cupboard Doors Underway

At long last I've made a start on the cupboard doors.  All of the overhead ones are done at least to the point where they now need to be sanded stained and varnished.  Sometime ago on this blog,  I said that it was my intention to have side hinged cupboards because they're easier to hold open.  Well once again Murphy has intervened and I find that I have not left enough room on the rear overhead cupboards for them to open sideways.  There you go, another plan foiled.  So, all of the overhead cupboards with the exception of the front one over the cab now open from the bottom.  Here are some pics of the construction and completed doors.

This is the frame for one of the front cupboards.  As you can see the trusty Kreg pocket hole jig has been used here again.  I don't know if it really needs two holes on each joint because its being held together with ply as well.

These are the doors which I have obviously completed the frames of and covered in plywood.  I used at least one straight edge of the sheet and didn't worry too much about the ply being oversize.  After I'd glued and used 15mm brads to fix the ply to the frame, I used the router (trimmer) bit to cut all of the plywood to size.

This is one of the ply being sized with the trimmer router bit.  I then used the decorative bit which  cuts a curved edge and cuts away the ply and into the the pine.  The doors all came out pretty good considering.  They are light and strong.

The pic above shows the finished doors.  I just have to sand them off.  You can see where Ive used filler to cover the brad holes.  They look quite chunky but of course are very light.

This pic is the one and only door for the kitchen cupboard that I've finished.  I ran out of ply so the rest will have to wait.  The bits of wood on the bottom are just holding it up off the floor to show how it  will sit on the cupboard.  I'm beginning to think that maybe the doors look a bit plain.  I'll have a think about how I can dress them up a bit.  Maybe some trim or a router groove on the face.  Not sure.  Thanks for reading.

The Heaters Are Out - First Coat of Varnish Done

I have decided to stop calling the Bus a Bus,  because it is just not a Bus anymore.  I will call it a motorhome from now on.  Someone asked me the other day what I called the 'Bus' and truthfully I haven't decided yet.  From the inside all you can see is wood and its meant to rescue me from life generally,  so I though maybe the Ark might be appropriate.The only problem with that is the aminals went in two by two and of course there's just me.  Maybe 'Far-Kin-Off" because I have family so far away in WA,  but then again that might be misconstrued by some.  If you have any ideas,  I'd be pleased to hear them.

Well on to the progress today.  Lucy, a friend of mine took time away from her make-up and shopping for shoes to come up and give me a hand removing the bus heater units of which there were two.  They've been sitting there under the seats for ages.  Of course removing the heater units also meant removing the heater hoses that ran the full length of the bus from the radiator and back again.  The process involved climbing under the 'motorhome' and undoing nuts, which Lucy was very good at indeed.  I did make the mistake of climbing into the driver's seat while she was under the front of the 'motorhome' and very nearly crushed one of her 'chests'.  It was lucky because I might have popped the silicone if she hadn't been so quick of the mark and turned to prevent injury.  Anyway after much grunting and some cursing,  she managed to loosen the nuts, cut the hoses and I was able to pull out the heaters.  The pics below don't show much,  just the holes in the floor.

Removing thes heaters will not only provide more room,  but because of the amount of hose that we removed from the bus,  there is much less chance of heating problems.

Lucy also helped me measure the brackets for the water tanks.  We had intended to install them,  but as usual nothing is that simple.  I bought 40mm x 5xmm flat steel but it was too difficult to to bend so we decided to put the tanks into place and measure the size of the brackets which I'll get fabricated.  It all went well,  but I will have to get the tail pipe of the exhaust moved a little. Another job I'll have to pay for.  Lets hope its not too expensive.  The brackets will run avross the length of the tank not across as I first thought.  The best laid plans....

VARNISH

The first coat of varnish is is done on all of the woodwork, and it does look good even if I do say so myself.  I now have to rub the whole lot down with 240 grit paper and give it another coat.  That should be enough,  but if there is a need,  I'll do a third coat.

This one gives a good idea of how the whole thing looks now.  You can see the gloss even after one coat.  Tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to start on the cupboard doors.  I have a plan in my head on how to make them,  we'll see how it goes.  I'll do another post tomorow night.

The Colour Scheme

Back again.  I have finally (with some assistance) decided upon the colour scheme for the bus.  I should really say up front that colours are not my strength so I've been worrying about it for ages.  The whole problem was solved in about 1 hours last Saturday with a vitis to a fabric shop shop and the foam shop.

I have to say that I though the I'd paid out the most expensive bits already,  but shock horror the cushions and the covering totalled $1400.00 but what can you do.  As someone said to me today,  it's always the things that you can't do yourself that cost the most.

Anyway,  the pics below show the colour scheme as it relates to the varnished timber.  The cushion fabric is the blue stuff.  The fabrics are next to the laminex and the timber for comparison.

The colours are a bit hard to see but pretty much the laminex has a beige colour with a blue grey fleck in it,  the curtain fabric is a beige (which matches the roof lining and the laminex) and the cushion fabric is a blue/grey.

The curtain fabric is 100% blockout and of quite good quality.  It was $29.90 per metre on special for about $20.00.  Total cost $430.00 including the gathering tape that goes on the top.  All I need is someone to pilot the sewing machine!!

The first cushion fabric that I found was $76.00 per metre and I ended up settling for the fabric above which was $22.50 per metre (much cheaper of course).

Colours are a very personal thing,  but I have tried to keep them neutral.  I hade 4 round cushions which I think are called 'lumbar supports' laying around the house from an old lounge suite.  I elected to have these recovered to save costs and these will go around the back seats/bed.  If you click on the pic it will download to a larger size. (easier to see).

The pic below is is of a 2440 x 1220mm PVC sheet which I intend to line the shower with.  I was a bit worried that I wouldn't find this stuff,  but I managed to do so at Access Plastics in Moonah for $49.00.   I will need another sheet to finish the job,  but it is just what I wanted.

The next post will see the varnishing done (first coat) and it looks really good.  I am getting a hand this weekend to install the water tanks.  The end is getting near now.

Table Woodwork Done

Well another day,  not much done unfortunately.  However I did find enough wherewithall to get the woodwork on the table done.  I realised that the table was too big and that I had to make is more manageable,  so as I said in my last post,  I decided to cut it into three.  This has worked very well and will make the table very useable as well as not taking up too much room ath the front of the bus. The pic below shows where I cut it.

The pic below is the table folded to show how it will fit between the dinette seats.  The middle section is 340mm x 600mm and although I don't have the pole to put it on yet,  I reckon it will go just fine.

The next pic is the table upside down.  This shows the hinges and the reinforcing pieces that I put on the bottom side.  I will have to use these pieces of 42 x 19 to support some bolts or other means of keeping the table opened up.  I haven't worked this one out yet.

I also got some staining started today,  its all looking fine and once the varnish is on should come up very well.  The pic below is of the back wall of the shower and the adjoining overhead cupboard.

This one is of course the back and right side rear backrests just to show how the staining looks.

The Table Begins

Herewith the beginnings of the table.  The table is made from 17mm plywood with a 19mm pine edging and went together without too much trouble.  I glued and nailed the edging onto the plywood, so it should hold.  I've also fittted the table supports on the fronts of the dinette seats.  The pic that follow show the table being constructed and also it in place on the supports making it into a bed.

I have the fittings for the table but don't yet have the pole for it.  (still on order).  The table as it stands fits in between the seats really well to make the bed,  but it's too big to leave set up all of the time.  Getting onto the dinette seat from the side the fridge is on is almost impossible.  The table is 940mm long and 600mm wide,  so to make it more serviceable,  I'm going to cut it into three sections, the middle section with the holder for the pole will be 300mm wide x 600mm, then the other two will be 340mm x 600mm wide each side.

I will hinge the side sections onto the middle section so they drop down.  This means that I can get past the table to the cab, have the middle section alone as a table, or either or both of the side sections up as a table.  I am going to hinge it across the 940mm length so that the hinges won't be supporting any weight when it is being used in bed mode.  I haven't worked out how I'm going to hold the sides up yet,  but I am hatching an idea about using two sliding bolts on each side underneath. Trial and error, we'll see how it goes.  Of course there is Laminex to go on the top yet to match the kitchen bench.

The Table top just after the edging had been added.

View of table top from the cab (note the supports rails on the dinette seats).

Another view from behind the driver's seat.  The table is way too big in its present form but if I didn't do it this way,  I would have had to have loose pieces of ply to fill in the bed area.  I think the hinged idea will work. Here's hoping.  For those of you who know me and are wondering,  the answer is yes,  I've tried it out and it holds my weight!!

Lining Overhead Cupboards

Very little done today, although I did get the underside of the cupboard over the cab closed in. As you can see from the pic below, I have done this in plywood (7mm) because it is going to be covered and it's really light. The ply is heavy enough to mount the obligatory UHF CB radio from. Along the front edge of the plywood, there is a gap between it and the windscreen and the plywood overhangs the frame by about 30mm. I thought this would be very useful for hiding wiring for things like the CB radio etc.

I'm thinking about covering the underside of this cupboard with a carpet that will blend in. This is mainly to prevent damage to people's heads while they are moving from the cab to the back of the bus (when necessary). I guess you would only do this if it was raining or something. Otherwise you'd get out and walk around to the side door. I've trimmed the plywood with timber angle and it's come up quite well.



So far as timber work left to do, it's mainly trimming. I've gone around and found areas that need to be finished. Things like external corners, where furniture joins together etc. Below shows how I've finished one of those awful curved areas. This is not perfect, but will look fine when it's finished.



In my previous post I showed you a pic of the support on the end of the kitchen bench. I've added the one below next to the door because this shelf, although not carrying much weight, will tend to move up and down while the vehicle is moving so it needs this support. I rebated the bottom so it fits on the edge of the dinette seat and rounded the bottom so it looks OK.

I've got to decide how I'm going to deal with these shelves yet. As I said in a previous post I want to pad and cover the underside. I'd always intended using the same fabric as the seats, although it might be easier to cover them with the same material as whats going above the cab. We'll see. I do have to face these shelves yet and make some sort of 'fence' to go around the edge to stop stuff falling off. Nothing worse than the unabridged version of the Oxford Dictionary falling on your head because someone slams the door.

After the trim is finished, comes lots of sanding, then staining the lot. When that's finished it will start to look completely different. I've also got to make the table top so it can have the laminate fixed at the same time as the benchtop. I think fixing the laminate will almost be the last job because otherwise it will end up getting splattered with stain/varnish etc.

Benchtop Edging & Overhead Cupboards

Hi again. Some more progress has been made, this time concerning the benchtop edging and the underside of the overhead cupboards. I'm still not feeling right so any progress is slow. The other thing that I managed to do was the edging on the benchtop ready for the laminate to be applied.

The Kreg Jig came into its own again with fixing the edging onto the benchtop. Because I want to run the profile router bit around the edge of the benchtop once the laminate is fixed, I had to make sure that the screws weren't in the way. After a fair bit of thought, I decided to use the Kreg Jig and run the holes from the top surface. This makes the screws track downwards away from where the router bit will run. The Jig comes with a portable unit which you can take to the material and clamp it on. It works really well.

The pic below shows the holes on the top of the benchtop.

The pics below show the finished job with the edging fixed to the benchtop. I glued it as well as using screws and it should be really solid.

The underside of the overhead cupboards have been left to almost last because the wiring needed to go into them. Having finished and tested all the circuits, I set about closing them in with the same panel as I've used for the other fittings. After the panels were in I covered the external angles with 90 degree timber angle. The pics below show the finished job so far. The first one is down the back over the lounge/bed area.

The follolwing view shows the job over the top of the kitchen bench. You will see one of the supports for the overhead cupboards which I've cut to size. The cupboards need support at this point because although the are fixed to the wall, they are not fixed to the roof. They are pretty solid without the support, but I reckon that once loaded, the vibration will cause some issues.

In the pic above, you can see where the pine panelling finishes. I am going to cover the undersides of the shelves over the dinette seats with plywood. Its my intention that the plywood will be covered in padding and the same fabric that the seat cushion are covered in. The idea being that it will break up the 'surrounded by pine' feel and also prevent too much skin being knocked off one's head.