Thursday, June 25, 2015

Oh no! Another catastrophy!

After yet another sleepless night, probably due to the extreme heat of late, I stirred myself from the realms of slumber to commence work on the bus. Arriving at the bus (and conveniently not mentioning m'ladys most excellent breakfast), I pulled out my new drill bit to commence putting patches over the last four inch diameter holes the hillbilly owners had considered it to be a jolly spiffing idea to make. Uh oh... I bought the wrong size drill bit.

At a casual glance, a quarter inch bit looks a lot like a 3/16 bit though the 3/16 bit is a shade smaller. My rivets are 3/16 so clearly I couldn't use a 1/4 inch bit and hope for the rivets to be snug. I hunted but could not find another 3/16 anywhere.

In desperation, I pulled out my angle grinder and replaced the cutting disk with a grinding disk and had a go at regrinding the tip of my drill bit. Sadly, after testing it, the drill vibrated badly as I was clearly far enough off center foir my sharpening not to have worked well.

Clearly that meant a visit to Lowes. Another couple of gallons of fuel I could have been very happy not using. Still, wandering around Lowes I looked for lift on, lift off hinges - which they did not have. Then I looked for solutions to my closet rail problem.

Lowe's had two pieces of white chain. One was plastic and clearly decorative. The other was metal and claimed to support 35lbs. I looked at the unsealed ends of the bent wire used to make the chain and chuckled. If that would support 35lbs then I'll be joining Obama on his next flying pig hunting session!

The chain in general was disappointing. My thoughts then turned to rope. Not to use in a glorious entry to the next world but to use as a closet rail. Hung and tied to eyes attached to the ceiling, that could work quite well. Still, its way too early to think about that yet.

I returned home feeling quite yucky. It wasn't nausea at having to spend money though that will do it. It was more either to do with the heat or perhaps needing to see the optician.

After dinner and in the fading light, I drilled holes in aluminum plates that I then riveted over the four remaining inch diameter holes. I did the usual thing - drill, spray with anti rust paint then after that had dried, applied silicone goop and riveted.

All four holes now having been attended to, my attention turned to the unholy mess the hillbillies had made of creating an underbus storage compartment. Their workmanship is absolutely appalling. The door is a solid sheet of aluminum. The hinge doesn't quite work. The door is bowed and where its bowed, leaks rainwater. The compartment is made of plywood which looks to be in poor condition.

The plan for the storage compartment is simply to remove it and rivet the door over the nasty hole they cut in the body. That's a job for another day though.

Just one photo today. I took it then Android stopped recognising the camera and I had to restart my phone, by which time, dripping with sweat and being chased by hoards of mosquitoes, it was time to stumble through the pitch black into the house.

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