RV Update

Looking darn nice

Looking great, Darren.

I got about an hour in tonight, cut down some baltic birch for the bed platforms.

The outer piece that will be fixed to the base, it needed to be scribed to fit, there was about a 3/4" gap on each end.


Sorry for the blurred pics, but think you can make out what I did. The piece was squared to the front, then I used a pencil compass set the the widest space and scribed a line to show what needed to be removed, I then cut along the line with my jigsaw to make the piece match the curve of the wall.


I'll be adding a frame under the plywood to firm it up, the outer facing edges will get some maple trim with round-overs to go easy on the shins. I will also need to cut access holes for the seat belts, which will have a pocket for the buckle to drop into so they aren't making lumps under the mattress.

Some nights you just can't win. Last night I was able to go out, layout everything, all went as planned. Tonight, I take a few measurements, get cocky, and just start cutting. Well, I make my first cut, go to layout for some angles and realize something is not right. A second look at my cut-off and I realize that they are not the same length, the latest one is longer than the first one and they should be the same.



So I got out some biscuits and glue and patched back on part of the cut-off to get my correct length. I used a 6" wide piece under it, which will be part of the subframe anyway. However, after looking at it, I'm not happy with this patch


Even though this under the mattress, has a subframe to support the added piece, and will probably not be noticed; I think I'm going to just go get another sheet Saturday and redo it. Need to pickup a sheet of maple ply anyway and I can use the remainder of this sheet for other projects anyway.

Lesson learned (again) layout everything first!

Doh! Where are those magic sheet good stretchers when you need them!

I've had a batch of those bad tape measures myself good on ya for doing it right though

Ken Cook said:

I've had a batch of those bad tape measures myself good on ya for doing it right though

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Ditto on both counts.

not laughing at you but with you, or rather i feel your pain having recently done exactly the same thing. I feel a lot better knowing i am not alone in my club. Oh and there are times like mine where i even did layout and even did check. (duh dont know how) but still made the wrong cut. My excuse is i was distracted by my beautiful wife helping me.

And Ken its funny you mention tape measures, that specific day i caught myself attempting to use two different measuring devices and stopped. For fun i checked them against another reference and one was out by a substantial amount. Had it not been for the discussion here about tapes and accuracy i would have fallen straight in the trap. Thanks to all.

This morning I ran over to Metro hardwoods, dropped another $105 on a sheet of baltic birch (4x8x1/2) and a sheet of 1/4" maple ply (well mdf core actually). Ran an got a few more materials from the blue borg, and was good to go. I framed out a new sub-base on the steel frame left from the couch, took some measurements, and got everything laid out on the new ply. All went according to plan and thought through a few other features before cutting. I also got the sub frames attached to the platforms and installed the hinges on both tonight. Even got one set of gas springs installed and tested it out with a mattress on top. (sorry no pics of that, phone was dead at that point). I was able to lift and shut the hatch with one hand, hopefully it wont be popping open going down the road, but will deal with that if it does.

$105 for sheet of 1/2" plywood?!? Yikes!

Carol Reed said:

$105 for sheet of 1/2" plywood?!? Yikes!

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$70 for the baltic birch, $45 for the maple, +tax - 10% wood workers guild discount.

That's better. Still a lot of money for the birch.

Looks much better

Now your talkin'!

Busy day today. Finished installing the gas springs this morning. Then built out the skirting on the drivers side and a filler on the passengers side, those were covered with the maple ply. I've not installed the maple ply yet, I plan to spray finish them first.

Lastly I trimmed out the platforms, cut the seat belt pockets in, and installed the boxes for dropping them into when not in use.


I messed up the location of three of them two just required me to move the boxes over, the last one I needed to patch and move it about an inch from where I thought it needed to be. Obviously I needed to quit and kept going. It won't be seen much, so did a filler and some wood putty.

Today I sprayed lacquer on all the wood panels and trim. Between coats I installed the new HD antenna. The dealer said it would be a direct fit with the old mount...wrong. I re-inserted the screws for it to fill the holes and uses sealant over all of them.


and installed the tv and dvd player, which allowed me to watch the Chiefs get the butts kicked. The mount for the TV swings out but can be latched into place. The DVD player has built in wifi, so he can stream movies and music, also allow you to control it from a mobile device.


I also got the platforms re-installed and all the seat belts connected, pics tomorrow.

Houston, we have a problem, the lacquered panels don't look so good next to the faux maple. So tomorrow I'll be cutting out panels to cover the faux maple for the two bases under the passengers side.


So things left to do: install panels around the bases and some miscellaneous trim work, need to mill a recess into the floor for the table base and install it, make some partitions for the storage area, install some LED lighting around the back door and the canopy. He wants me to see if I can figure out why the canopy cover won't close all the way, so if that can't be resolved, I'll leave those lights off for now. Other than that, get my tools out and clean it up.

You've been busy busy busy....looking good , too bad on the antenna sales pitch {ouch}

Thanks Ken.

Today I got pretty much everything finished other than installing lights.

I routed a recess in the floor for the table base and installed it. Need to order a longer post as I had ordered thinking the mattresses would be 4" thick and they are actually 8"


Here are the platforms that got installed also.


More pics tomorrow, phone died before I finished up tonight. I did end up cutting out new panels to cover the faux maple ones, so everything matches now.

8" thick mattresses! That oughta be comfy in a camper!

Coming along nicely. I was thinking the post looked a bit short for thick mattresses. Was that table top a ordered item or part of the RV?