Tidying the bus

Today as it was getting harder to get the right tools when I needed them, it was clearly time to start tidying inside the bus. It's looked like a tool volcano had erupted for quite a while. Thus I got down to it.

The first thing to remove was much of the trash. You wouldn't believe how quickly trash builds up from wrappers and boxes and envelopes. Just about everything I buy either comes online in an envelope or box with lots of associated packaging or from a store in a big plastic bubble container. There's absolutely no need for all this plastic packaging. People have sent things from one side of the world to the other, successfully, packed in straw, crumpled paper and cotton for centuries.

After a trashcan full of trash, I got to the tools. A couple that are unlikely to be used again on the bus project I put in the shed. That will likely happen to a few more. When the bus is completed I will only need standard maintenance tools on the bus together with spares such as bulbs and fuses.

Then it was a case of picking up the smaller stuff like sockets and wrenches then dumping them in the tool box. Slowly I'm getting there but it won't be done today. It might be done tomorrow or more likely on my day off on Tuesday.

Looking around I can see all the projects I have on the go:

• The 3rd battery holder. I built the base yesterday. I have to build the rest of it next. For that I might have enough steel angle or I might not. I'll have to measure very carefully.
• The new roof vent. I found my tube of epoxy putty and the new roof vent and put them carefully to one side.
• A fuse box to put in the control console in order to replace the huge array of inline fuses.
• A solidly built bridge rectifier to replace the rectifier I put together for the front solar panel. No great improvement - it just looks prettier.
• Sheet metal to go over the back windows. I'd originally put a sheet of metal on the inside of the bottom door window to prevent somebody entering after kicking out the glass. Now I think it'd be an excellent idea to have sheet metal in place of the window. For that matter I should do all of the back windows. I have no need for windows at the back of the bus! Two are covered by wooden panels and one has a steel panel over it. The fourth window isn't really needed either.

The sheets of metal for the back windows went to the back of the bus. That's a project that is not urgent and unlikely to be completed soon. The current project is the battery holder. That will need more welding. The roof vent again is not a project that's going to be completed soon. That also got stored at the back. As for the fuse box and the bridge rectifier - those are jobs that will take but a few minutes. The reason they have been left is because of the massive tool volcano that had subsumed the driver's seat. Needless to say I'd have to sit on the driver's seat to complete those projects.

During my sorting I found this. It's an old Hyperdrive HD80. It's from my days when I'd had a photography "business". I say "business" because there is no actual business in photography. At best it's a hand to mouth existence that has been largely killed off by digital imaging and cellphone cameras. Anyway, an abusive individual in my past had not actually persuaded me to start this business but more bullied me into it. Needless to say, there never was any actual income - more outgoings on gear. Most of that was lost money. This is one of the last remnants of that nightmare period. So having found that I've put it up for sale on Craigslist. eBay is just not worth the auction fees. Like as not I'll get no takers and will end up tossing it into the trash despite the fact that new it  cost $270. That misadventure cost me about $8,000 and after selling as much as I could of it (some just had no takers and had to be thrown in the trash) I think I got maybe $1,200 back.