by DANL » Mon Jul 19, 2004 12:35 pm
I'm doing a sort of Dutch door on my current project. The door hasn't been built yet so I can't give you a picture--in fact, I just came up with the solution for my trailer yesterday after months of looking for a good solution.
What I am after is a door with a window that can be opened to reveal a screen window. Minnesota gets warm and sticky in the summer and, since we plan to be mostly dry camping (no electricity therefore no AC), we need all the ventilation we can get. I will be occaisionally sliding the camping pod off the back of the trailer so I can use the trailer for other things so I can't have any projections that would hit the fenders. I'll try a verbal description.
Imagine a door consisting of a frame of three-quarter inch pine stock and covered with a one-quarter inch birch ply skin on the outside. There is another, shorter, frame set into the first frame which contains a fixed lexan window. Both frames are hinged at the leading edge. The part of the hinge attached to the body of the trailer runs uncut from the top of the door to the bottom. The other part of the hinge is cut in two places to allow the window frame section to hinge independently from the main part of the door. They both pivot on the same axis.
The "hole" left when the window section has been opened is covered in screen on the inside of the door frame to allow space for the window frame to close. Additional framing pieces on the inside of the door provide extra strength and also provide a frame and "door stop" for the window section. The window section secures from the inside when desired.
Whew! That was windy. Hope it gives you some ideas for your project.
Last edited by
DANL on Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.