Campaign hardware from Toplicht, a product review.

After reading "Campaign furniture", I have decided that I would like to make a set of travelling book cases.

Due to the Danish import regulations, it is immensely cheaper if I could source some hardware from Europe.
I managed to find some chest locks from Rutlands in England, that were reasonably priced.
They also carried brass corners, but those were kind of expensive.

A good friend of mine once suggested Toplicht as a possible source for some specialty hinges.
I sent for their catalogue, and I have also browsed their web page. The result: They really do stock most of what you could imagine.

I ordered the following items:

Brass corners at a price of just below 6 Euro a piece it is a stark contrast to the prices demanded elsewhere. The corners are cast brass with a thickness of approx 1/16". If you order more than 5 there is a discount.

Brass drawer pulls These look very much like the later type pulls shown on page 10 in "Campaign furniture". They seem to be a little bit thicker than 1/16. These are only 9.90 Euro a piece, if you order a single piece. Like the corners, these pulls also come with a discount if you order more than five.

Brass hinges These hinges are 5/64" thick and seem to be of a good quality. They are 13.90 Euro a piece, so they are a lot more expensive than the usual hinges I buy at the lumber yard, but the quality level is also quite different.
To get a discount on the hinges, you will have to buy at least ten.

The shop was really fast, I ordered the stuff Friday and I got it today. All the items were wrapped in newspaper for protection. Not that it matters much with brass hardware, but it gives a fine impression of the store, that they make sure everything is securely wrapped.

I ordered the locks Friday as well, but those haven't arrived yet, so therefore there is no review on those.

So if you need campaign hardware, I recommend Toplicht.de as a supplier. They have loads of interesting pulls and specialty hinges etc. and the prices seem very reasonable, actually downright cheap for some of the items (please note that I am in no way connected or affiliated with Toplicht).
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Brass corner, 2" x 3/4"

Brass pull, 2.75" x 1 5/8"

A small barn for the summer house 2, drawings and considerations

After a lot of sketches, I have finally made some drawings that should suffice to show to the local planing department. 

More drawings will be needed before final approval though, namely one that will show the position and orientation of the building on the property, a drawing of the remaining two sides of the barn, and a drawing that will show the way the frame is built up, I think that normally a cut through drawing is used, but that wouldn't make much sense for a timber frame building in my opinion, so I might make drawings for each section of the building, that way I can use it as a construction drawing at the same time.

The view from the side looks strange to me, but I think it is because the drawing does not take into account that the roof has got slopes. I ned to make an isometric sketch as well, that should help a bit on the look of it all.

There is still the possibility that the planning department may have some issues with a window placed in the attic. because local codes prohibits two levels in a summer house. But since it will only be used for storage, I don't know how they will decide.

Part of the challenge is that the roof type I am planning to use is around 6" thick, coupled with a set of 6" rafters, the inside head room is quickly reduced.

Below the gable/end view of the barn, I have sketched the roof build up.

For those not fluent in Danish (or those who have problems reading my handwriting), the layers are (from the bottom):

• Tongue and groove boards, 22 mm 
• Tarred paper
• Distance board 25 mm (1")
• Laths 1.75" x 3"
• Roof tiles made out of clay

The roof tiles are the old ones from our house that I kept when we installed a new roof a couple of years ago.

Maybe the other side of the barn will receive two windows, but I wanted to make sure that there was going to be some places where I could hang garden tools and maybe place a shelf. 

I plan to make 4 posts in the frame for the side, so in theory I could have three windows evenly distributed.

I also have to ask my wife what she thinks, but it will be easy to add a window or two to the drawing before going to the planning department.

End view.

Side view