A mish mash of things

Today was one of those odd days of doing little bits of things that in themselves are entirely inconsequential. I'd been to work and work in itself is rather odd these days.

For those not entirely in touch with how 2021 has progressed, there's still a Covid-19 pandemic raging. The medical people and anybody with half a brain are wearing masks and trying hard not to catch the virus which has so far killed 0.035% of the world's population, 0.15% of all Americans and 1.78% of those infected.

In view of this, I've been working shorter hours than normal for the last year and only nominal hours on a Friday. Today is Friday so after work I got the opportunity since the rain petered out to do some work.

Among the things I did was to change the air hose on the compressor. The old hose had a couple of nasty leaks. If that hose had broken, it would have left a nasty welt as it whipped around. There was an identical hose to the one that broke, at Walmart at a low price. Passing up that delightful "bargain" I got a real compressor hose from Lowes (hiss, spit). I cannot wait for Tractor Supply to open a store close by.

Having fixed the compressor I went over half of the side of the bus with some detergent and a foam brush that I'd bought in Lowes (hiss, spit). That brush has to be the most awkward thing ever as it has a tendancy to rotate weirdly. It does, however, do the job. 

Having washed the part of the bus I wanted to work on, I let it dry then went over it with a cupped steel brush in the angle grinder. That removed a lot of flaked paint. Rather than scraping every bit of paint off, I'm just scraping the loose and not too well attached paint off. The next step was to wipe down with mineral spirits. Then I used the last of my spray primers. The next primer will be out of a can and done with a roller.

After that I had to hunt to find various tools and light bulbs since the postman arrived with some lighting fixtures that I'd ordered. My two reading light fixtures are phenomenal. Those will really do the job!

The plan had been to replace this DIY lighting fixture with a different DIY lighting fixture that could take a halogen bulb and protect the woodwork from direct heat. To that end I had bought a $20 sheet of aluminium from Tractor Supply with the intention of making a heat reflector to go behind the bulb and a light reflector to go in front of the bulb so it would give illumination without dazzle.

Plans usually fall apart and this one did when the aluminium was needed for somebody else's project. Scratch that idea so I'd ordered some lighting units. I ordered a second circular light for use at the back of the bus, two porch lights to light the living and dining area and two reading lights for the desk areas.

I didn't paint the inside of the light intended for the bedroom area white inside. I probably will paint the inside of the reading lights and the light for the galley, white inside in order to reflect more light.

All of the lighting units have BA15 bulb mounts so they will share the same bulbs that are used in my turn signals and tail lights. In hope I put LED bulbs in them. Time will tell whether that was a good or a bad idea. The LED bulbs bought from eBay have a yellowish tinge to them which shouldn't adversely affect the circadian rhythms. Two bulbs from one of the car parts stores look a lot heavier duty but are on the bluish side which isn't so good for circadian rhythms. 

It took rather longer than wanted to install the new light due to unforeseen complications. For something meant to mount flat on a wall, there was an awfully large protrusion at the back that necessitated a hole being drilled to accommodate it and the wires. 

Nevertheless, having installed the new light I find it consumes rather more power than the previous unit while providing the same level of illumination. I did frost the inside of the lens just for effect.

This weekend I'd like to get the other lighting units installed and the whole of the one side of the bus washed, wire brushed, primed and topcoated. I won't go higher than the tops of the windows with the painting. The gutters and roof can wait a while.

Inside the bus I did notice something concerning. There was a single dribble of rusty water above the bathroom door. I really will have to get to replacing that roof vent. Indeed, it might be an idea just to tape something over it for the moment. 

One of my corner marker lights seems, somehow, to have come to grief. I don't know what has happened to it but it doesn't look pretty.

For the moment I have it taped over. I have some new corner lights on order. The new ones are LED. I am hoping they will fit. The last lot of LED side markers didn't fit so they're just sitting on my desk. It might be possible to use them - I might have to make a plate that they can sit on. They're about an inch too short.