Bigfoot dinette bed extension!
So, we sleep on the dinette, as the kids sleep on the bunk and gaucho. But it's really not big enough for us, so I made it bigger!
I used a leftover piece of 1"plywood, cut to about 10" wide. Lacquered, used routed the edges, rounded off the corner by the door.
For supporting on the dinette,I used a couple of cleats attached to the dinette. I also added some 1x4 backing to support that cleat. Also routered and lacquered. I used Ash, but Oak would be fine too. No softwoods for this detail.
For attachment, I used Oak dowels. I'm not good enough to measure each separately and then drill and have it work. So, I just drilled through the ply into the cleats. Here's something nifty I found. Home depot sells DeWalt brand drill bits, among others, but just DeWalt has this size increment. I got a 1/4" bit= 0.62mm. They also sell a 0.64mm drill bit, DeWalt only. So after I drilled out for the dowels, I went back and bored out the cleats with the larger bit. This gives a really nice tight but not too tight fit. I little pop with your hand and it's in.
The legs are on hinges, so during the day, it can go up on the bunk.
I haven't seen anyone else do this so I thought I'd share, with most of the gory details.
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