End of Week 6

It’s a lovely day and the conversion job feels a lot better this week. I’ve even taken some time off to do some gardening. Most of the furniture is now under construction and some almost finished. Many self-builders make their furniture with a softwood frame covered in thin plywood. I’m building glued carcases which can then be removed if necessary later.

My first attempt at veneering (as reported last week) did not end well, but I’m getting into the swing of it now and actually enjoying the work. One big time saver has been the decision to treat the inside or unseen surfaces with linseed oil. It darkens the bland poplar plywood and makes it look almost like proper timber. It’s an easy and durable finish which I have used a lot in the last 10 years. At present the solid cherry parts of the structure look very different from the veneered. This is partly because the species is almost certainly different, the veneer being American cherry and the solid our local version. There are two more reasons though: modern veneer is cut on a huge lathe which takes a continuous sheet of timber from the circumference of the trunk. This gives the grain a much more spaced out look compared to the old sawn veneers. The third reason is that the veneer has been exposed to the air for all the time it has taken to be coated with glue, packed and sold. My cherry timber has only just been exposed to the air this week so it will take a time to darken and mature.

One of the most difficult jobs with the furniture has been fitting it neatly to the vary varied profile of the sides of the van. This involved 6 different templates, each of which took about an hour to make. The technique is usually called “scribing” but that process is for profiles without too big a variation – you position your template (or the actual object) perpendicular to the wall, measure the largest distance from the object to the wall, make up a block of wood to that size and then, keeping the template perpendicular, use the block to guide a pencil mark. With the van the widest point was something near to 100mm so it’s really a question of estimating the distance by eye, drawing a rough profile on the template, cutting it to the estimate and then drawing, cutting bits off, drawing again, cutting again . . . and again and again. They all seem to fit within a couple of millimetres.

The other great difficulty with working in a vehicle is that you can’t use a spirit level. What constitutes upright? You can only use vertical elements like the back doors or the main struts. Sometimes the only way is by eye.

The big black water tank finally arrived this week. It’s just a sealed black plastic box so I will have to drill holes and fit caps to it – not sure quite how yet! I also decided on the lining carpet which will go on the ceiling and any exposed walls – a medium to dark grey called Anthracite.

Today I finally brushed on the first coat of polyurethane varnish on the two overhead cupboards. One of these – the one above the sofa – will be the first piece to be finished and fitted because it will have the switch panel in it which controls most of the electrics.

The really difficult but rewarding work next week will be in deciding on the sequence of finishing work. The carpet will go onto the walls before I fix the lockers, and all the doors will have to be finished and fitted in the workshop before it is screwed into place. Then I install the switch panel and make all the connections. Then I can test most of the electrics, and if all is well I can then do the whole ceiling and at least some of the walls with the carpet material.

The water and gas are more difficult. In normal kitchen fitting you would bring the pipes to an approximate position, fit the worktop, sink, hob etc. and then get the gas and water connected. The problem here is that I need to test the system before things go too far to be easily reversible if there is a fault.

So, next week should be fun!