Alarming development

With a pending heater system being planned, I went ahead and installed a CO2 / LP gas leak detector and alarm in the Thingamajigger this weekend.  

The instructions state to place it 4 inches above the floor, but no more than 20 inches.  For a point of reference, 20 inches is about the height of the Westy table screw tensioner.  The other requirement is that it is not within 12 inches of a vent or door.  We also need to make sure that nothing would block the path, so up aside the table screw (aside from being blatantly obtrusive) could be blocked inadvertently by a pillow during a cold night.  

That screwed me up for a while, as I did not need this to be obtrusive, and the logical place would be where my speakers reside on the bed base fascia.  The other point of consideration is that the bed fascia has a metal bracket along the top of the panel, that drops 1 1/2 inches below the top along the rear of the panel that further complicates installation.

So here is what I did.  I decided that up against the upper lip of the metal panel was my best location.  Less likely to be blocked by gear, tighter against seat for obscuring the look, and a location fairly easy to install.

I used Frog Tape to mark off my location and measure out the hole I planned to remove.  Drilled four 1/4 inch holes at the corners, the top two through the metal.

Then, I slid a coping saw blade through the hole, assembled the saw and cut out the lower portions of the hole.  The coping saw blade will not cut the metal, so don't try.

If you angle the blade right, the metal band on top can be used as a guide for a straight cut.  Once all the lines that are not backed by metal are cut, remove the coping saw.  Replace that with a hack saw with a metal blade and cut up the line through the metal to your top holes.

My next task was to cut the metal part hole to hole along the back.  I marked this off with a sharpie, and grabbed my whizzer.  Cut through the metal and removed.  Then it was just reinserting the coping saw and cutting out the remainder of the hole.

The holes at the corner also provide relief for the corners of the alarm unit.  It sticks through about 1/4 inch on the other side, so I will need to be wary of that when packing the tools back into the storage space, but otherwise I am pleased with the location.

An hours worth of creating and running a harness up to the Blue Sea fuse box panel, and then a couple screws and the install is complete!