Fifth time lucky?

I spy activity – hurrah!

As with any flare-up in an inflammatory condition, it always gets worse before it gets better but, hey, here we are, on the mend, and back ‘in business’ with elbows flying, so make some space there!

Sallying forth

Started work on the fifth try at cutting out the wall for the back viewing area about, ooh, ten days or a week or so ago.  Between feeling generally rough and an excess of total indecision, I didn’t get back to it until Monday this week.

Where was I?  Those choices

• Decided that the warping issue
  was one I’d have to live with as couldn’t find any boarding of the thickness needed locally and I’d still got a sheet of 5 mm Kapa board which is sold as being less likely to go ‘walkies’ with the passing of time.
• Was very reluctant to make the decision whether to stick with an interference fit or add hinges and use a bit of interference to hold it in place when closed.
• Even more reluctant to trim the wall piece I’d made by much on the old principle that it couldn’t really be stuck back on again if it was a mistake.
• The hinge decision was sort of taken by default on a try it and see basis.

I took the plunge 

Trimmed it by a very little (as little as could get away with) and played around with framing this piece of Kapa board to help stop it from thinking of warping too much.

Windows in – did consider putting the top window horizontal but was concerned that would make a very narrow area in two places in the material.

Three edges are framed with a large ‘U’ profile wood trim and the fourth (the hinge edge) has the foam cut back to house a piece of timber to take wood screws for hinges

The edge where the ‘U’ profile meets and houses the wood strip edging makes a fair finish but the ‘U’ strip to ‘U’ strip leaves a blank oblong

A small piece of timber helps finish it off and will paint over adequately and be sandable if adjustments are needed

Hinge time

Sad realisation that the only hinges that we’d got and might work were piano hinges but even sadder when found that I’d have to recess them in on the body of the house if I wanted to keep the gap between door and body as small as possible.

At this distance in time I wasn’t sure where some of the wall struts sat but I measured up on the door and on the house and took a chisel to the house.  I was very lucky in that the only damage to completed work was a lot of dust and mess floating around and the toilet roll holder fell off the wall in the bathroom.

 

Found I had to dig out foam rather than wood but once I got the depth I reckoned may be needed, I lined recess with wood and let it dry under clamps to hold it in place

I’d marked up the house and the moving wall and more or less fitted the hinges to the wall side so that I could then decorate both sides.

I’ve scored and painted the side and bottom wooden edges (have since done the bottom one) and painted them brick colours and then stuck on the fibreglass brick sheeting

I’ve played around with trying to colour the hinges but I don’t reckon it will stay coloured

and have added a door knob as it were for opening and closing action.

First coat on top half

Now it’s drying time again before the adventure of offering up the wall and hinges to its space. There’s bound to be some adjustment needed that has to be sorted before the decoration can be added for the interior face of the wall.

Itchy now, waiting to get my hands on it – must go and find something else to mess around with.

 

 

Hinge of the matter?

Analysis of methods for hinging and attachment of moveable reveal panel

I give in …

sort of.

Probably?

During the last month or so been doing some health juggling while thinking through the outstanding items in the  30s – 50s house.

There’s the roof which you know about and which I’ve begun to make decisions on and, the one I’ve not really owned up to – the closure on the back face that lets you view the kitchen and bathroom.

What’s to do?

This is a narrow space and needs almost a full height piece of ‘something’ that is sturdy, can hold two windows and that does not warp.  Apologies for the emphasis there, but am a bit obsessed by how to go about this.

As mentioned was running short on the old brain cells as they were otherwise occupied.  What was and is available at the moment are somewhat on holiday – or that’s my excuse for not coming to the point with this job.

Lacking useful concentration has, however, given rise to hours of fantastic and impractical fun working on some strange and amusing resolutions for this back section of wall.  I thought I might share a little of the more practical ones.

Sensible ones
Type:	For:	Against:
The obvious one is an interference fit as used all over Hogepotche Hall.	simple, easiest, most basic to make, once the sizing is achieved	making sure that warping can’t occur damage to the surrounding main wall that frames it On HH, all edges, on the face and down the fitting sides of both the carcass and the removable piece, could be finished off in timber as was a timber frame building.  Here it’s not appropriate for the style.
Traditionally – metal hinges	they work once how they fit is managed, they’re sturdy (if I get suitable ones)	again the warping issue not sure that the carcass or the swinging piece are/will be thick enough to take a hinge tendency for nailing/fixing to ‘bounce’ out on use prejudice on my part as not a fan of them generally
T2 – fabric, leather or ribbon/tape hinging	simple, cheap, can be adjusted very easily to depth/width of carcass and moving piece		tendency for this type of hinging to drop or glue/fixing process to fail warping issue for moving section

Fantasy land
	For:	Against:
Make own – using part of two safety-pins hooked over a length cut from bottom of wire hanger running in wood channel the full length of the moving piece	cheap and cheerful and fun to make	again the warping issue cranks the section outwards so not an optimum look messy and unnecessarily complex with too many pieces involved

Photos of working with a dummy piece to represent the opening wall section while I played about with the safety-pin method.

One medium sized safety-pin

Pin with head lopped off but not other wise shortened and now pushed through the dummy walling
Not trimmed ends as need to work out amount of slack needed for free movement first.

To be built on the walling or main wall?
Tunneling with cover and with length of wire inserted.

Ended up working with a piece of ‘U’ profile wood so the channel could be provided in a-oner.

The supposed mechanism.
Pin end threaded (one at top and one at bottom) on the wire from the coat hanger

I can’t now remember how I was going to fix the channeled wood piece but here you can see the wire housed in a top piece of added walling and there was one at the bottom too

This arrangement was all too fiddly and messy and when I considered how much the whole thing had to be cranked outwards I stopped investigating any further.

Dummy piece sits a bit narrow when closed here

Appears to open OK without any magic being involved

But is cranked out and over so much that there has to be some other solution

As you can see on the last photo here the ‘U’ profile wood fits nicely as was the exact size to almost fill the gap made between the moving wall section and the house wall without adding to the displacement.

Conclusions

Far too elaborate.  Took me all of the time playing, before I asked myself if this is mostly about the warping issue ruling whether it’s hinges or swivels?

Where now?

Well, investigate the hinges further, I reckon.

Bought three different sizes/styles of hinge and will investigate all three.

Type	For:	Against:
Set of four mini hinges of suitable width	Small Will fit in depth of body and moving section	Look weak Will need to find very small counter sunk screws to replace the very short pins provided   Brass finish
Pair of cranked hinges	May still fit the depth of body (not yet arrived to check) Ready black stained	Unknown at moment
Small piano hinge	Continuous or able to be cut in two Possibly neater	Roll of edge will be visible Brass finish

Suspect will be better off with long pins of suitable diameter, at least in the sandwich of the carcass as the core there is foamboard.

Not sure of benefit of recessing or flat fitting so will need to try out each on small model sections.

Will need to find very small screw (see above comment re carcass) and/or, work out a method of making rawlplugs for fixing.  Possibility of using wood filler in the wholes made to hold the pin or screw?

Different hinge method

Type	For:	Against:
Woven tape	less likely to sag in weave	not sure have any narrow enough.
Nylon mix woven ribbons	less likely to wear	may sag and has no memory when try to iron so does not take a crease willingly
Various satin ribbons	various widths available	even a bound edge does warp under strain
Leather strips	make any length or width, have multiples or single	sag/stretch with use

Will also try out models for tape or ribbon.

I think, if this method is used then it needs to be continuous piece(?) which might help prevent dropping.

The main problem

Anti-warping build

Whichever method is used for access, I reckon this section of wall needs making much thicker to take the mechanism. Fortunately I’ve left the bathroom floor recessed back rather than cut to come to the front edge, giving a deep area of recess for a wall/door to fit.  The kitchen below has the floor space too.

To do it all in one would be goo but a piece of MDF is going to be too heavy – already looked into that.  A piece of suitable ply might do it or a sandwich of varied materials, each of which I hope would warp at different rates and therefore hold each other in place.  As long as any hinging mechanism can sit or be fitted to a suitable depth of wall of course, either of these might do.

Meanwhile

Actually took an executive decision yesterday morning and made a smaller piece of filling wall for the top of the opening.  This is needed for the guttering to have somewhere to live that doesn’t move about when the wall is opening.

Wood, readied for papering on inner face and now treated with white render to match the rest. Added a panel pin at each end and will cut off the heads.

Made suitable holes in wall each side to take pin and glued in place

Held in place wall to wall, sort of using the workroom as a clamp to push and hold the new joints while it all dries.

I have this wayward image that, while I’m not looking, the pressure of the chocks of wood each side being too tight and the whole house going ‘PING‘ across the room 🙂

A System of Peek-a-boo

Open and Closed

From http://yourwayhomeaz.com/how-to-build-a-house-for-dolls.html

From http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com

Sweeping statement #1:  There are probably as many choices and methods for ‘sealing off’ and closing the internal gubbins of a doll’s house model as there are makers.
Sweeping statement #2:  On average, particularly if you are using a kit, it will have a hinge opening (or openings) at the front or, giving a bit of a reversal, be a totally open view from the back whilst presenting the front as a complete, sealed facade.  In either case there may be further hinging or removable bits of the roof to give access in a loft area.

If not using a kit, the choice is yours whether to follow the main designs available for study or to go for something else.  The BBC program, Newsround, had an item on architect designed dolls house produced for charity, 13 flights of fancy with some variety in the box shaped ones whether they should open or close.

In-house variation — the sealed room

I started out thinking of going for the hinging, as in the first image.  There is plenty of advice and how-to information around to keep you on the straight and narrow when doing this, and it struck me as being the safest course to follow.  Then I thought the open back was a good idea, as in the second photo, cutting out the hinge entirely.  However, this would work well only if the building was one room deep.  Meanwhile I was happily building away.

I built the Great Hall.   It was the first room along with the entrance hall, that I’d worked on.  It was followed by the kitchen basic area and I realised that the first installment of the Grt H felt OK for height but was not big enough in length to suit my tastes and that I would also like to add removable outer offices to the kitchen; pantries, store rooms etc.

That sealed the fate of the sealing of the house, or at least the back part of it.  The Great Hall acquired a second, removable half, allowing the hall to be completely closed and lit from within.  The kitchen work and storage areas have yet to be added but their designs exist in my head and are being internally resolved as they revolve.

Internal – fourth wall with view down into rest of Great Hall

External sliding wall covering upper committee room

Having made one sliding panel for the upper room in the Grt H extension, further removable panels for other rooms became lodged in mind as a possibility.  Probably sliding, if their movement is not going to be impeded by some great balk of wood.

Hinged only if I it looks a better bet.

Peek-a-boo comes in

From this point on my view of the model embraced the idea that what I needed was a camera with a flexible scope for viewing the secrets within.  I’m still working on that.  For now, the Great Hall, when the two halves are closed up, can only be viewed by a camera thrust into the main door or seen blearily through the windows.  When cracked open slightly like a very neat egg, there are different perspectives as you can still view from one end to the other,- (see gallery below).

I know;  all a daft idea but, indulge me and we’ll have a laugh together when I fall flat on my face over it 😉

Removable sections present and future

Great Hall

Two halves together

Original Great Hall half

Sealed – internal view of second half

Second half of Great Hall

Two halves open a little

Kitchen and Entrance Hall/Office

Kitchen beginnings

Entrance Hall and Office area

Sliding panels

In choosing the layout of the upper floors, it became important that viewing angles might need to be different for various areas.  For example, the Long Gallery needs viewing from two of the narrow ends of its ‘T’ shape to enhance the whole idea of it being a long gallery.

The Arnolfini bedroom has a very definite point of view of a room whilst I wanted the rest of the room to exist as well.  This has meant cutting down the immediately visible in order to echo the Van Eyck painting and giving it a small sliding opening.  The rest of the room can be viewed through windows, and hopefully through its doorway when viewing from a leg of the Long Gallery (always assuming I can get the angles just right).

Guess what:  to make the above three things possible would mean openings on three different faces of the model and cutting in lots and lots of hinges is just not for me.

Candidates for the sliding wall treatment

Arnolfini bedroom

Long Gallery part I

Dining room dressed

Sitting room over dining room

Other possible sliders

• 2^nd bedroom
• Long Gallery 2
• Chapel

What will need deciding in the future?

• Attic areas
• Lighting boxes

Jigsaw puzzle problem?

Note to self:  A discreet labelling system is called for to reduce angst when someone removes all sliding walls and is faced with the joy of sorting them!