Majorly under the weather

This weekend looks like no progress. I have come down with some kind of flu like bug. Having said that, I use my downtime for thinking and planning!

I have plenty old steel bedframe that I can use to make underbody framework. Enough in fact to build at least two underbody compartments. Doing that would give enough room for expansion of the battery system for a time when I want to put solar panels and batteries.

What I don't currently have is steel or aluminum stout enough to go underneath batteries. I do, however, have plenty steel that can be used for sides and backs of compartments.

My hunt for water casks continues. Suggestions have been made that I look at breweries, bottling, canning, pool cleaning companies and car washes as sources of used 15 gallon containers. Needless to say, these would solely be good for used water and not potable water.

I'm not sure how much water I'd need either. I have read of people showering with just one gallon of water. If that's possible then a 15 gallon container might keep me going for 5-7 days with both showering and cooking.

For clean water, I'd need a brand new water cask. Heaven alone knows what was carried in a secondhand cask or even how many previous uses or even owners it has had.

Putting underbody compartments together, having investigated more powerful rivet guns and found them to be expensive, I'm tempted just to bolt them together. Bolting is pretty straightforward and as long as the bolts are painted with Thredlock or something similar as well as being fully tightened using locking washers, there should be no problem. Welding would be interesting but as I've never welded it wouldn't be the best to start now.

I've been reading up on thermite welding. That looks interesting but as its used mainly to weld railway lines, scaling it down could be problematic. Arc welders look interesting but I'm not sure how to use them and don't have room for mistakes. I did hear about a rivet gun that uses .22 cartridges but try as I might, I couldn't find one listed anywhere. Air riveters were the next thing but again, they seemed ludicrously expensive. There are better hand riveter available so they might be worth a look. The rivets will have to be much bigger than I have now though. So, on the whole, bolts seem the best answer.

In an attempt to find barrels, I put an advert on craigslist looking for them. I'm 90% sure I'll get no responses and that all my efforts to find used barrels will come to naught and I'll have to pay out the ying yang for brand new. That's what usually happens! I always hear about other people's great deals but I always end up having to pay full price or I usually end up paying for somebody else's garbage and still have to buy new.

The fresh water tank I probably will buy new just to avoid contaminants. The used water tank, I don't much care what contaminants there are because it isn't going to be used, merely flushed down the sewers.

Having seen people securing water tanks with nylon straps, that's probably how I'll secure mine. It's something I thought of but that was poo-poohed pretty thoroughly by people on that good forsaken schoolbus forum. I'd all but changed my mind to go with chain. Nylon seems kinder to plastic tanks. The argument was put forward about road abrasion but honestly that's nonsense. Anything that would abrade nylon would abrade plastic or paint and I see no paint damage under the bus.

I'm not sure what kind of drugs these forum users are on but I rather suspect that the streets are safer with people like that sitting in their ramshackle trailers behind their computers rather than out on the streets. If I had a penny for every lunatic thing I've seen on a forum, I'd never need to work again!

Wiring and bullshit

Today aside from not feeling very well anyway, I was rather depressed by the baloney I'd been fed by imbeciles on the school bus group. Needless to say, I'd already removed the forum from the forum reader. In fact there seems little point in even having Tapatalk since that was the only forum I used.

Work was slow with many breaks broken by a persistent cough. Having said that, the under counter breaker box wiring was completed and the lid closed on that part of the electrics.

After completing the internal electrics by the simple act of closing the fuse box I started the rest of the electrics. The intent was to finish the electrics today but whatever bug I have is sapping my energy badly. The first task was to make a patch with a hole big enough for the cable gripper for the inlet cable. If you remember, the knockouts were way too big. It took a while to cut the aluminum with a hole saw intended for wood but it was done. Then the patch was riveted in place.

Normally I would use the right tool for the job but since the bus conversion is a one off job with no likelihood of a repeat and since the tool had been retired having done its task as well as the proper tool not being available, I made do.

The next task was another inlet hole but this was for the 55A cable from the other breaker box. This was through steel but the technique was similar. After allowing the tool to scribe a circle, I went around the circle drilling a series of small holes in order to make the work of the poor little saw easier.

The hole being cut, it was time to work on the gripper for the cable that leads to the electrical supply. This is known as a pigtail connection. I will put a proper socket eventually but for now and for system testing, a pigtail will do.

The electrical manager at Lowe's couldn't supply a cable gripper of an appropriate size but suggested a neoprene bung and drilling an appropriately sized hole in it. Very carefully holding the bung in between the fingers of one hand and a power drill in the other, I bored a hole through the bung then cut it to an appropriate length. Lubricating the cable with WD40 the bung slid on before the metal halves of the gripper were fastened together.

The plan tomorrow is to attach the main breaker box to the cable coming from the distribution breaker and to attach the power cord. This will all take place inside the hillbilly cable compartment which, as you can see, needs to be rebuilt.

Ideally I'd shorten the cable from the distribution panel and fasten the main breaker box to the metal wall in the background which is the wall of the starting battery compartment. That won't happen though as rebuilding the compartment might change the location of the breaker box.

One of the silly things that was told to me on the accursed school bus forum was that breakers were unidirectional. Now that doesn't make a whole load of sense since with alternating current, the current goes in both directions. I had to check because the seed of doubt had been planted. I know fuses work by burning out a wire when the current goes too high. It seems breakers are simple electro mechanical devices that perform the same function.

I think there's more room for problems with malfunctioning mechanical devices but there's nothing there that would indicate polarity being at all important. The plan is to set the main breaker to cut both legs of the circuit simultaneously, leaving only the earth wire connected.

It all goes to show what a load of complete bullshit I was told on that schoolbus forum. I'm so glad I saw through their little game and left them. I just pity the next sucker that believes them.

Once the wiring is completed, the testing will commence. That's where the fun begins. Everything should be wired correctly since I've been fastidiously following the rules for polarity. It'll be a case of trying those socket testers and an electric screwdriver.