Meanwhile, several counties away … a painted book box means we can now carry on with the next phases of this project – assembling the door then installing the little lending library in son’s front garden.
The gateway to literary opportunity begins with small hinges. Using very small screws, fit hinges onto the door frame into the previously identified positions. Don’t do like me and fit them back to front. Divvy! Work out which way round they go first then screw into place. Do not fit door to main body of the box at this stage.
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| Fix small hinges to one side of door frame |
Next - lay your hinged doorframe flat so that the part going inside the box is face up then grab your sheet of Perspex. Position the Perspex across the frame leaving a small margin between the edge of the sheet and the edge of the frame. Use a bradawl tool to mark each of the pre-drilled bracket holes onto the wooden frame.
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| Position perspex sheet on frame |
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| Mark position of holes with bradawl |
With holes pricked out, lift the Perspex and carefully peel away the protective film away from the corners towards the middle of the sheet until it is completely removed. Do this on both sides taking care not to scratch any of the exposed surfaces. Lay the clear Perspex back onto the frame taking care to line up all the pricked-out screw holes.
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| Fit brackets on top of perspex |
Fit metal corner brackets using short screws. You are sandwiching the Perspex to the wooden frame so two key things to bear in mind:
1) Ensure your screws are short enough so they won’t go through to the other side of the wooden frame.
2) Don’t tighten your screws too much as it may crack the Perspex.
Once you have all 4 corner brackets in place, then add the 2 x T shaped brackets to secure the Perspex to the central door strut. You can now remove the rest of the protective film if you have not already done so.
A word here about stuff that’s obvious but often gets overlooked by the enthusiasm of cracking on. The more observant of you might be wondering why the door has no knob? This is not a deliberate design queue but an oversight on our part. Yeah, we simply forgot to drill the hole through the frame and Perspex beforehand. Top tip – never forget your knob!
When everything (knobs included) has been secured to the wooden door frame, attach frame to the main body of the box. This is a two-person job as one has to hold the frame up whilst the other person attaches the hinges.
Here’s what it should look like once it’s attached to the main book box.
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| Door successfully attached |
