The naysayers

A few days ago, I noticed some leaks inside the bus. I'm not quite sure where they're coming from because the likely seams have already been hit with silicone seal. Today, assuming a dry spell, would be an opportune time to have a look on the roof to see what's going on.

Needless to say, my thought of tracking down the actual leak and spot sealing it with silicone caulk or aluminum tape got poo poohed. One day I will stop paying any heed at all to what others say on allegedly sensible online groups. I bet the people that run commercial bus companies fix their leaks cheaply and easily. I bet they don't do what the people on those groups insist is the only method which is to put a $200 bucket of Kool Seal. Kool Seal didn't exist when I was young and buses didn't have leaky rooves. Clearly the Kool Seal only idea is yet another example of internet groups following their leader like lemmings. In fact, I find the vast majority of other people are a bit lemming like but this is especially pronounced in online groups. It used to be especially entertaining to go to sit in an internet cafe with a book and a cup of tea to just watch the rows of lemmings glued to computers. Indeed, my dad used to run a library and his prime complaint was of people that would sit down to play with the computer and who would be there all day, hogging the computer without even going to the bathroom. Indeed they even exhibited aggression when asked to allow others to use the computers. Basically, an addictive reaction.

As far as Kool Seal goes, $200 is a ludicrous price to pay to fix a leak that could be fixed with a small patch of tape or silicone seal. Certainly, if there were multiple leaks then an all over solution might be good. For patches, its very much overkill. I'll just never truly understand peoples thinking.

The plan otherwise was to put bolts onto all the newly installed drawers and to paint the dinette floor though with oil based paint rather than latex. As today is a day when I could be called in for work, I had an ear open for my phone while working.

The roof leak has flooded my countertop at some point. I'm glad to see the wood has not been adversely affected despite having swollen slightly. One of my receipts has been washed clean of ink, however. As soon as there's a dry day, that leak will have to be located. Had I had vinyl stuck down then the water would have caused damage. I'm glad I stuck with the cheaper option!

Meanwhile, here's a photo of my first drawer lock.

Putting it on required a piece of hardboard to space the bolt assembly off the structure. Putting the receiver on was tricky. That involved all kinds of fiddling but it worked in the end. That was the first drawer. There are seven more! I'll be so glad when this bus project is completed.

I'm very clearly still not over my recent illness. I did one bolt and had to rest due to feeling wobbly. I returned and did another two and felt more wobbly. Clearly I still have some recovery to do. Having said that, 3/8 of the bolts are now installed.

Yesterday I plugged the bus into the power supply. Today I had not just my battery hurricane lantern but a real, honest to goodness electric light in there. That made working so much easier!

Reading further about roof seals, apparently Kool Seal only lasts 5 years or so. That's $75 for what I'd call a bodged roof repair. Bus Kote is $200 and requires a protective coating which likely is another hundred or so.

The hillbillies that had the bus before me had attached hooks to the bus which probably attached a tarpaulin over the roof. Clearly their caulking didn't quite solve the problem. Thus, on the first dry day I'll put aluminum tape up and paint over it all! It might even be worth painting the seams and rivets white then putting tape then painting grey. That way, damaged areas of tape will be easily visible.

The bolts are looking quite good. I managed a further two before feeling wobbly and having to take a further break. I suspect it's going to be like this for a few days yet. Of course the bolts all work well. When they're completed, I can finish cleaning and tidying the dinette. After that I should put up curtains, paint the floor and possibly screw down the shower base as well as giving thought to securing the microwave and erecting my dry erase board.

Well, that's all 8 bolts installed. My drawers will not now open in transit. Of that, I am certain. I definitely overdid it today with activity, even just kneeling with a power drill putting in 6 screws at a time!

As far as work goes, it didn't matter whether there was reception or not - the blasted thing with 75% battery had turned itself off in my pocket! I hate Android with a passion! In fact I'm quite with those guys Eric spoke about that live in zero electricity houses! Needless to say, there was a voicemail from work but oh well. Too late to call them.

posted from Bloggeroid

Still under the weather

For ages I've been looking for drawer locks. They're horribly expensive but these look like good candidates.

I did have a go at asking Lowe's since buying from Lowe's would cut out the postage element. Of that postage free $4, $2 will be packaging and postage. Thus the real cost is $2 and he's probably only paying 50c per bolt to the wholesaler! Indeed, if it comes from China, it coulkd be even less.

Thus far I've been unable to find a mate for my non-nema inlet socket. I have, however been looking at alternatives. I found some nema 5-15 inlets on eBay. A pair of those would equal 30A. It would also allow me to use a straightforward household electrical cord.

There are twist lock plugs and sockets for 30A available but I'm not sure they are such a great idea. I heard an argument that if somebody trips over an unlocked cord, the cord pops out and that is undesirable. I look at it the other way - if it pops out then it reduces their chance of getting contributory injuries and it reduces the chance of socket damage. On the whole I prefer the unlocked socket.

A pair of these look ideal. They take standard 15A female plugs as would be found on a standard 15A extension cord. This means a standard cord could be used - the kind of cord than can be bought anywhere! Use two plus a 30A Y adaptor and there's perfection!

Indeed, something like this but vastly cheaper. I'm all in favor of using commonly available parts. Commonly available and lower value cables are less likely to be stolen. The ideal would be no cable but since the money for a $3,000 solar panel and battery system does not exist, it'll have to be a cable. The alternative is a $300-$500 generator.

The problem with finding a generator is that eBay and Amazon don't want to sell generators. If they did, they'd fix their search engines. If I type "electric start generator" then everything except electric start generators turns up. Recoil start, pull start - everything except electric start. The idea is simple - push a button, the generator starts and I get 1500w of power - enough to run the microwave or electric kettle. Push a button after cooking is done and the generator stops. How simple is that? Such generators do exist but Amazon and eBay can't sell them to me because I can't find them via their broken search engines and I'm not going to waste time and bandwidth ploughing through 32,000,000 irrelevant listings under "generator" when it'll be found under something unexpected like "porcupines".

The whole idea of how generators work is faintly ludicrous. They're about as Heath Robinson as its possible to become without collapsing into a fit of giggles. It's translating the pumping motion of a piston via a cam shaft into a circular motion to spin an electric motor to generate power. If the generator was also a piston, none of this spinny nonsense would occur and the whole thing would be lighter, smaller, cheaper and vastly more efficient. Indeed a few weeks ago I recall reading that one of the car manufacturers had created such a generator for a concept car. If the generator ever gets produced then sign me up!

Before work, I visited Lowe's and came out with more 10-24 screw eyes - 6 to be precise and a single 2 inch S hook. I wanted to try just one s hook rather than buy a bunch and find they were the wrong size.

After work and after dinner, I got to work and put up 4 rivnuts. I cut down 4 screw hooks from 2" of thread to 1". Then I dipped the threads in silicone sealant and screwed them into the rivnuts. I will put up a further two, when I know where I want them. That is as yet undecided though.

By now you're probably wondering what it's all in aid of. The answer is simple. As I'm not bothering too much with lighting and extra circuitry, I need somewhere to hang my hurricane lamp and here we are!

I put one above the dinette, one above the kitchenette, one above the hand basin and one between the bed and bedroom table. I suspect I'll put one opposite the bed to illuminate the wardrobe and one in close proximity to the shower though as I have yet to decide precisely where the shower is going to stand, that'll have to wait some.

Tomorrow I need to get more S hooks. No point in getting more than 5 as I only have or had six 10-24 rivnuts left after doing the closet chain.

There's becoming ever less that needs doing. Next I have to work on the plumbing. I'll probably try to do it with two 15 gallon tanks, one for white and one for grey. 15 gallons doesn't sound like a whole lot but reading around I don't think I'll need more. I can always add more later though.

A nice side project for a rainy day would be blinds for the windows. That's not important right now though. The outside could do with more grey paint on the roof and inside the front two wheel arches. I think I'll also paint over the NSA 2011 logo. I think I want my grey bus to be as anonymous as possible. Aside from that, the stencilling is a bit raggedy.

50lbs lighter, 20 years younger!

That's what I need to be! Contorting myself to fit into the space under my countertop is hardly fun nor easy then to hold and work with tools while doing so adds further to the challenge!

As somebody recommended a strain relief clasp to secure the 55A cable against movement, that meant a trip to Lowe's, during which I filled up with gasoline at an almost unheard of $1.79! Not 4 years ago I was seeing $4.15 a gallon.

In Lowe's, the plan was to get a strain relief clasp for the big cable, one for the small cable and something for the main breaker under the bus. Added to the list was 5 feet of flexible 30A cable in order to put a pigtail connector.

Of course, I met a helpful fellow in Lowe's who was so eager to please that in the course of discussion of his proposed solution to which I listened intently, I got confused about what I was getting. Thus I came away without one of the waterproof cable connectors that I wanted.

Oddly enough, not having the connector didn't affect matters much. I didn't get half the things done that I wanted to. Working under the countertop is an awkward process that's hot and laborious as well as extremely uncomfortable.

By the time I knocked off for the day, I'd put two strain relief clasps into the breaker box, put the main cable through the strain relief clasp, found a bolt and kinda-sorta tightened the earth cables to the case. They could be tighter but getting in there to do it is all but impossible. Earth wiring isn't that important what with most appliances being unearthed anyway but I'd like to get it right!

Two socket boxes were secured in place and one socket was wired. Stapling the wires to the woodwork was a challenge as I lay under the countertop. I didn't complete the run of the wire because I couldn't find my hacksaw to cut the wire. My LED lantern throws out a good light but it's no good for hunting for things in the dark.

On Wednesday my 30A socket should arrive. Rather than cutting a hole in the side of the bus to accommodate it, the new plan is to locate it underneath the bus where it'll be protected from rain. This also allows me to mount it to the floor of the forthcoming new battery/cable compartment.

I had hoped to have the electrics completed this weekend but with the challenges, its taking longer. I'll probably have that done by next weekend. Aside from a strain relief grommet, there shouldn't be anything else needed.

Another rainy day!

Today being a total washout as far as cutting plastic planks went, I worked on other things inside the bus. The little lantern I bought is a real godsend. Without it I'd have been unable to see to do anything. It really was that dark, what with all the rain.

After putzing around a bit, I started on the closet chain. It was a lot easier than I'd imagined though I had to tip my tool box contents and my supplies box contents into the shower pan in order to find the things I needed. That took some time too.

The closet chain is unfinished because I ran out of screw hooks. I had six and I have 20 rivnuts. Thus, I installed six rivnuts and six screw eyes with s hooks. Then the chain was hung from the s hooks. It's an elegant, lightweight solution. Each hook is 7 inches from the next. I figure that should hold the weight of clothing.

After installing the closet chain, my next project was to fit a handle on the toilet lid so that it can be opened and closed as needed. That was the work of a very few minutes.

The door lock had started being a bit odd in operation and certainly didn't look right as the tongues were hanging at a sloppy angle. I dismantled it and was amazed at how cheap and nasty it looked. Clearly the lock company whose name shall not be mentioned has just sold me any old junk rather than a decent quality lock. Needless to say, I reassembled it as it should have been and remounted it. This time, it worked properly. That's something that it has never done before. My guess is that it was bad from the start!

The hanbdbasin mount was fastened down. That took all of four screws and a few minutes. The hand basin itself is just held into place by gravity. There never were any mounts as such in the original installation. This hanbdbasin came from the hillbilly bus build.

In the background is my thermometer/hygrometer gizmo. Today it was 75F (24C) and 76% humidity. That was very pleasant for working inside the bus. I can see a dehumidifier will be needed.

I tried my breaker box in place. I couldn't fasten it as I'm lacking a main cable and its conduit just as I'm lacking sockets and other cables. Today was a day for visualising the electrical system.

Next, I fished my microwave out of storage and placed it on the countertop. It's a cheap Walmart microwave that I used from November of 2011 until April of 2015 when I moved house. Looking at the setup, it just seems that four surface mount electrical sockets would go very nicely on the front of the beam under the microwave.

As I'm limiting the power input to 50A, I figure two sockets can be 15A and two can be 10A. There will be a main breaker at 30A with a spare breaker at 50A for times when I'll be able to access 50A. For safety, when I'm on a 15A supply as when parked at home, I'll use a 15A main breaker.

Looking inside my microwave showed how horribly rusty it is. M'lady wants me to throw it away but I want to do what my dad did with his rusty microwave. He cleaned it out with steel wool and painted it with anti rust paint. It worked for years after that.

It does show why enameled paint inside a microwave is a sign of a cheapass microwave. The better microwaves are stainless inside. When it dies, I have plans for the components inside.

Mounted on the skirt of the bus, behind the hillbilly compartment (which will house a pair of batteries once I've rebuilt the compartment) will be this socket. The door goes outside the bus skirt. The box goes inside. The cable will be a dryer cable in a conduit from the 50A socket to the breaker box. I'd like to use flexible conduit but I think standard conduit might be cheaper and more practical to install.

On top of the breaker box I'd like to install sockets so that I can just plug my other cables in. It's more expensive but I feel a better solution.

If I can get my closet chain completed this week and the shower base mount then the electrics really won't take long. I'm annoyingly close to being able to apply for the bus to be registered as a motorhome.

My final act was to install a fire extinguisher. This was installed directly opposite the electrical system. This extinguisher is specifically for electrical fires and burning liquids. Ideal for kitchens! Let's just say that First Alert's wall mount for the extinguisher was very troublesome to install. It would be so much better if instead of a nasty plastic strap, a Velcro strap or a solid loop was used. I have no idea whether I'll be able to remove the extinguisher from the nasty strap or whether I'll just have to rip it off the wall if it's ever needed. This is why I'll be installing more extinguishers.

Final coat!

Doesn't it look lovely? That's the final coat of paint on my dinette countertop. After this, its touch up only.

Of the major construction, things remaining to be done:
1. Erect the closet chain.
2. Add the shower base mount.

After this, its plumbing and electrics.

Speaking of electrics, last night when I couldn't sleep, I looked up Peltier coolers. It's a very neat technology that can cool up to 20c below ambient temperature. It's horribly inefficient but holds promise. For a small, 1.5 cubic foot fridge, its twice as inefficient as a dorm model. The Peltier units are neat though because they can be installed into just about anything.

Again, last night, I looked up energy usage of common appliances. Now I know why with Eric's massive 1600 watts of solar and wind power, running a 1200 watt coffee maker is such an achievement.

A lifestyle change toward low power usage is in order unless I want to haul out a generator every time I run the microwave! Clearly I need to be thinking more in terms of non intensively cooked foods. For example, fresh fruit, hot drinks, bread and canned meats. Things that don't have to be kept really cold nor cooked much.

This morning, before work, I looked at my breaker box. Again, it looks as though it will be a better option to put it closer to the point of use. Under the kitchenette countertop there appears to be sufficient space to house it. There's a handy body rib it can be screwed to and its close to the hole the hillbillies made for their power input.

The downside is that situated under the countertop, the breaker box will be behind my fridge or cooler. The upside is that my 50A cable can be really short as can my 15A cables. In fact I'm wondering whether I could get away with 30A. I suspect I probably can but for the purposes of the box, I'll aim for 50, put a 30A main fuse and see what happens.

I'll probably rebuild the hillbilly door to their underbody compartment and rebuild the compartment to take a couple of 105Ah batteries. The socket for the 50a input will be accessible underneath the bus, out of sight. The water input and waste water will be concealed also. I want my bus to look like a bus from the outside.

Thinking about plumbing, I'm not sure whether to have piped water to go into my holding tanks to be pumped manually to the point of use or whether to have a separate tap. Both options have merit though the former requires less components.

It's all getting quite exciting! Once the electrics are done, I can get on with changing the registration.

Disaster - the white paint ran out!

At 7pm with just about an hour before dark I'm not going to rush off to Walmart to bug more - not when I'll be right by Walmart tomorrow on my way to and from work!

I started the day, putzing around. The first thing I did was to scrape the frosting spray off the bathroom windows. It took a while and several razor blades but it's done. As the toilet, which I intended to paint, is currently sitting in front of the window it made sense to sit on it to scrape the frosting off. That was better done before painting. I have enough paint on my breeches.

After that I installed the catch plate for my cockpit door. I'd been unable to find it and had used a screw initially. Now it was found, it could be used. Needless to say, I had to space it off the frame with washers. None of my doors are a great fit but then as I keep telling you, I'm not a carpenter. If Jesus were here today, he'd surely roll his eyes at my woodwork! My woodwork is good enough for what I need.

The next thing was to retard one if my drawers. That was a task! I had to keep adjusting and now its 1/32 too low but it slides all the way back. Doing that, I found the bottom drawer also needs adjusting. I didn't do that though. That's a job for another day.

The saloon doors were next on the list. They were carefully given a coat of primer on both sides. Mostly I avoided putting primer on my paintwork. I'll have to touch up where I splashed primer accidentally though. Latex paint splashes are allegedly easy to clean up with a wet rag. That must be on some other planet though where it doesn't start to dry so quickly.

Having painted primer, I broke for lunch but not before taking a huge pile of wood offcuts and tint backing paper to the burn barrel ready for whenever. M'lady is getting restive about debris in her yard!

After lunch I painted the toilet. I'll have to return to that though since I had to paint around the seat. The lid seems stuck down. I might have to apply force to open it!

Following the toilet, most of the saloon doors were painted. The very edges didn't get paint but will later. The fronts were painted first.

Then the backs were painted. I must be some kind of sadist because it would be so much easier to paint them when they're horizontal!

Rather than painting the edges, my attention turned to the kitchen countertop. I'd screwed it down after attending to the top drawer. The bottom drawer needs a little adjustment but it's not bad enough to make it necessary. Seeing as how there was barely half a cup of paint in the pot, I simply poured if on the countertop and spread it around with the brush. By then it was getting pretty dark.

Finishing just before the light vanished, the paintbrush was plopped into a jar of water for later washing. I like that I can do that with latex paint. Tomorrow I shall buy more paint.

As of now, things remaining to do...
1. Finish painting the kitchenette countertop.
2. Finish painting the toilet.
3. Finish painting the saloon doors.
4. Put a protective sheet over the kitchen countertop.
5. Screw down and put a final coat of paint on the dinette countertop.
6. Put a protective sheet over the dinette countertop.
7. Finish putting up privacy film.
8. Put up the closet chain.
9. Touch up lots of areas.
10. Install the shower base mount.

Then it's all electrics and plumbing. I'll probably try to get the registration as a motorhome started before I do much with electrics or plumbing.

Saloon doors!

This morning I put off doing saloon doors because I didn't know how to build them. Thus I started by putting on some window tint. Needless to say, the roll of tint ran out after the first pane. There was enough left over to do one of the two small bathroom windows.

After procrastinating and looking up ready made saloon doors online, I noted that most seemed to be 42 inches long. As it so happened, I had a section of hardboard left over that measures approximately 10 inches by 44. The plan was to use that as a panel set into one door.

Perversity being what it is, looking at my supplies, I didn't have enough 2x2 to make a complete box frame. I did have some 1x2 though. Thus the saloon door became a physical thing. Now, I don't have the time nor willingness to make fancy tops and bottoms for my saloon doors so my initial design is pretty basic.

There were three problems with this. First, the 1x2 was bowed. Second, the cross members were a little long and third, one door is mounted 1/4 of an inch too high.

The long cross members were shortened with the circular saw being used to shave off 1/8 inch off each cross member for both doors. It'll make the insert a strange size but that cannot be helped. The mismatch in height totally escaped me until later.

The bowed 1x2 was resolved by putting an extra cross member in. Having done that, the doors swing freely. Looking at them and my supply of hardboard, it looks as though another pair of cross members lower down might be a good idea. My leftover hardboard is a series of odd shapes and sizes. To hold the hardboard into the frame, quarter round will be employed. I had sufficient, given that my entire doors would be made of 2x2 however since the design has had to adapt to my available offcuts now I might need more but I'll try to work within what I have.

My goal is, working within the wood I have, to build saloon doors. I don't see any value in buying a big sheet of hardboard to use a small piece.

After getting that far, I needed to consider the matter before proceeding further. Thus I grabbed my two big film offcuts and applied it to the bathroom windows. The first piece (pictured) wasn't very satisfactory. One side tore and one corner just won't stick down. I'll redo it when my next shipment of tint film arrives.

Tomorrow I'll probably complete my saloon doors and maybe put up the closet chain. After that, its a case of screwing down countertops and painting the saloon doors, the rest of the toilet unit and that should be most things done inside the bus.

I was going to put vinyl floor tiles down on the countertops. My new idea is to Velcro vinyl tablecloths onto the countertops. Same idea but cheaper to switch out or replace.

Space - the final frontier

These are the voyages of the the good bus NSA 2011. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new places, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no Brit has gone before.

Well, I don't know about a 5 year mission but I do know I'm running out of space rapidly. After painting the green paint on the bathroom roof or rather, giving the roof a second coat, it was too soon to consider giving the lower wall a final coat of white as the green was not hard enough to take masking tape.

Clambering around the galley, I constantly tripped over pieces of molding. Thus, it was time to use them and use them I did. The first piece, I glued and nailed but it wasn't that great. The second, I just put the glue and nails away, drilled, countersunk and screwed it in place. Much more satisfactory and a load faster.

I noticed how warped some of my doors are and how off vertical some of my verticals are. All highly unsatisfying but they're good enough that nobody will notice and it'll all work just the same. The green paint could do with another coat in places but its not really enough to merit the time. I have until the 17th to have the bus ready. After that, woirk recommences and further construction will be relegated to weekends.

My biggest challenge right now is rehousing all my construction materials as its becoming somewhat challenging to find space to do anything. I've transferred my paint cans and long wood to the front closet but tools and supplies take up a lot of space.

In order to work in the bathroom, I'd moved the toilet to the bedroom and the shower base to the galley while the handbasin is in the cockpit. Moving two pieces of molding from the galley because I was falling over them to use them in the bedroom meant clambering over the toilet. It would be so nice to be able to do all this in a great big air conditioned garage where I could pile things ready for use!

I washed the somewhat mucky head protector from the emergency exit and replaced it after the paint had dried. There's now no Virgin Exit sign - they all left! http://schoolbushome.blogspot.com/2015/07/virgin-exit.html


I had a feeling I should be doing more painting and painted a cupboard door purple before deciding that my effort would be better employed marking where to put the drawer handles I bought last week at Ace. Thus, the drawers were marked and holes drilled. Now I can install knobs when I've finished the paintwork.

Tomorrow its probably going to be a good idea to paint the lower bathroom walls, washstand and some, if not all of the toilet. That way I can finish the bathroom then move all of the bathroom bits into place. That should give more room in the galley to work on the galley.

The batwing door hinge looks pretty straightforward. Looking at materials, I should have just about enough to complete the doors. They won't be a fancy shape - they'll be square but they'll be there!

I can see all the flaws in my workmanship and that makes me want to do better but honestly, I've done it just about as well as is reasonably practical given I need it completed by August 17th. Apparently I should be starting back to work about then.

Onwards and upwards! Completion is getting incredibly close. I look back to where I was just two weeks ago and progress has been little short of amazing!

Painting yet again

Today started with giving the cockpit partition a second coat of blue paint followed an hour or so later by touching up the edges and corners. It now looks really good.

After that, the bathroom was cleared and plastic taped over the window that I'd tinted. Then green paint was applied. I quite like the green though it's more lurid than the color swatch said it would be.

Tomorrow the plan is to do a second coat of green paint in the bathroom then to do more tidying in the galley prior to doing the purple paint in the galley.

I still have a lot of white paint to apply but since the colors are above the whites, it makes sense to apply the colors first as then I can just paint over the splashes and drips.

It's quite exciting how close I am to finishing! I still have to put a shower base mount and to make my saloon doors but otherwise I'm almost done. After the painting which will probably take a few more days, I'll build the shower base mount and the saloon doors.

I have run out of suitable materials for the saloon doors, believe it or not! There are a few pieces of trim left to fit but that'll take a day at most as will the tinting. Another thing that needs to be done is the creation of a way of unlocking the front door from the outside. I have some ideas for that!

The ants from yesterday appeared to be dead in large numbers but there were survivors scurrying around so I closed the bus for the night and set off another bug bomb. I might have to keep doing this for a few days. The next thing I need to do is to spray all the crevices with bug killer.

More painting amid thunderstorms!

As I'm not doing anything electrical with circular saws, angle grinders, power sanders or power drills, the fact rain was falling didn't matter a tiddlers winkle. In fact,it was cooler with the rain falling if not comfortable inside the bus.

The first thing done today was to finish priming everything. The front closet had the areas untouched by the roller primed. Then the drawers had the final bits of primer then the toilet was mostly primed. Some areas are just very tricky to reach with a brush. That'll take some determined contortions!

After the priming was completed (bar the tricky bits of the toilet), the closet had a coat of topcoat. That'll need work with a brush tomorrow. After that the front partition might get a coat of blue paint. During that process it might be as well to paint the floor. Now that should be black to match the existing floor but by the time it's been walked on a few times, it'll turn black

Yesterday there was no blog entry. This was due to work commitments, an after work meeting and some shopping. Ace Hardware had a bargain bin that had brass drawer knobs. They look the same but there are in fact two varieties. One is fractionally larger. At less than half price it was impossible to resist the temptation. While there, a fire extinguisher caught my eye. As there's a plan to have six - two in each compartment, it seemed a good time to pick one up.

The one purchased yesterday claims to work with electrics and flammible liquids. That sounds like it should be good for engines, batteries and kitchens.

The bus came with one. It seems to be OK but with extinguishers its not possible to have too many. I'm not really sure which extinguishers are best so I'm fumbling around in the dark.

No pictures but a lot of work

Today got off to a late start but start I did. Going to the bus with the intention of doing something simple - putting green paint in the bathroom - I found as usual that I ended up doing something totally different.

Wanting to get the bedroom table done and out of the way, priming was the obvious thing to do. As the cockpit, closet, drawers and toilet needed priming also, I started in the cockpit. The closet was a bit rushed because it was hot leaning in there so there are gaps. I'll fix those anothger day.

The cockpit walls are well primed though perhaps I should also have primed the floor since it is bare plywood. After the cockpit I moved on and primed some of the toilet before printing the beam in the bedroom and the underside of the table.

Needless to say, as it was over 100F in the bus, I did take several breaks. At one point I had to add water to the paint to thin it as it was getting thick in the heat. I continued on and primed most faces of the drawers and the topside of the table. The new cupboard door saw primer too.

By the time the last drawer had received paint, the light was beginning to fade. I popped the brush in a can of water to keep it soft and left, admiring the fact the cockpit now looks a load better.

Tomorrow is a shopping day. I need solely bolts to lock the drawers shut. I might also get more brushes and rollers. I know I have several brushes but it was all I could do today to find just one!

Of one thing I am certain - the way I'm rip-roaring along, the bus will be painted by the end of the week. Meanwhile, some weeks ago, I glued two pieces of PVC plank together. Looking at it today, that joint is now rock solid. I know exactly what I'm going to build my shower base mount out of! Yup - PVC planks glued together and glued to my PVC floor!

Almost momentous achievements?

This is my almost table. Today, after yesterday shaping the plywood, I mounted a beam on the wall and some supporting beams. Getting to the critical point, cutting the 2x4, the circular saw stopped.

Wiggling the saw flex produced brief spurts of saw power. Then I saw a section wrapped with tape. Unwrapping the tape revealed that the cable had at some time been cut in two. One can only presume that the operator at the time considered the cable a bit long, tried to shorten it then had a change of heart. The ends of the wires had clearly been pressed together and had clearly parted.

Whipping out my trusty soldering iron, I sat in a hit bus with a hot soldering iron, repairing the cord. Lacking electrical tape, I used duct tape but that'll work. A few moments later, the deed was done. The saw once more worked.

Having cut my beam ready to bolt to the table as the new leg, I took a break and fitted a lock to a cupboard door. The lock turned out not to be that great. If I bang the door, it pops open. Very unsatisfactory so I'll be looking for better locks. To add insult to injury the power ran out on the cordless drill!

Having pretty much come to an end for construction, I looked around and my dissatisfaction with the window tint I'd applied resurfaced. I peeled the film off one of the two windows with poorly applied film, cleaned the glass and put a new film on. That having gone well, I repeated the process with the other window. I'm sure you'll agree it looks better!

Looking down the bus from the bedroom, its shaping up nicely.

It'll probably take me a couple of days to paint the support post and table but when I've erected it, that represents the end of major internal construction. After that I have handles and latches to install in the kitchen, quite a bit of painting and cleaning. By Friday next week, I assume that I'll have finished. I must admit that though there's external work, its nice to have got this far single handedly.

Close to the end of internal construction

Well, probably. I have a feeling I might want shelves in my storage closet, overhead bins and more storage at the front but its looking good!

Today I mounted all of the cupboard doors in the dinette/kitchenette. A couple of doors gave me a little trouble. The one that I thought would be the hardest turned out to be the quickest and easiest.

During my drawer installing progress I had to straighten the first drawer I ever installed. It's now perfectly straight. The next things for the dinette/kitchenette will be to put latches on all the cupboard doors and on all the drawers plus handles on doors and drawers. Then it'll be fastening down the countertops, finishing the painting and putting vinyl floor tiles on the countertops.

Using the lift on lift off hinges I got via eBay from Britain solved a lot of problems. They were easy to install too - just drill a hole and screw them in. I used a section of angle bracket to help with this.

In order to paint and clean the dinette/kitchenette properly, I need to clear it of supplies. The floor is currently quite cluttered with paint pots and wood. I could shift the stuff to the bathroom but I wouldn't have space to work in the bathroom.

The solution - to build the planned table for the bedroom. I have a feeling I will be cutting wood to fit, assembling it, painting it then installing it. The leftover plywood from my drawers has given me enough for my table and there's enough left over for a mini shelf over the bathroom washbasin. Great for toothbrushes etc!

I have a feeling internal construction might be done very soon. My original projected date was January 1st, 2015. I'm about 7 months behind schedule!

It was brutal today or how I did my drawers!

Looking at the whiz-bang thermometer gizmo in my bus, I noted that the 102 degrees farenherit combined with 60% humidity might have been the reason for my frequent breaks. I'd work and do very little then I'd be drenched in sweat. Each time I worked, it was like having a mini shower - in sweat!

Despite the heat and a mini thunderstorm, I managed to complete most of what I set out to achieve today. I put fronts on all of my drawers. What I didn't get around to was retarding one drawer about half an inch still there's always tomorrow!

The first drawer front went on and I managed to install it a shade too low and a little crooked.

After that I put the one above straight. Now the reason I got it crooked was that I couldn't find my pre-drilled holes due to my putting glue over them. With later drawers I was careful to avoid covering the holes with glue.

It's a little redneck but I found my way of spacing drawer fronts was easiest using a pair of carpenter's pencils. I'd put them on top of the drawer front below and then just rest the next drawer front on them and wiggle it to the right position before drilling my holes. A piece oif plywood offcut leaned against the drawer front as I worked helped a lot.

As can be seen from the photos, I used a lot of drywall screws. These were used rather than clamping everything together. That really sped things up. I'd drill the holes, take the drawer out and place it on a workbench then apply glue, put screws through the fascia and locate them in the holes on the drawer then screw it together. I'd start with just two locating screws then add more as needed to squeeze the wood together. And the glue I used was Elmers. It seems to have worked well!

Finally, I had all the drawer fronts in place. The bottom left drawer could do with some trimming of the fascia tomorrow. I knocked off after this because I felt I had done well today and didn't want to push my luck and mess something up.

In the dinette/kitchenette, my remaining tasks are hinges for 3 cupboard doors, handles on 3 cupboard doors and 8 drawers, catches on the drawers and doors, painting the drawers, ceiling and floor, privacy film on the windows, painting the door and construction of my saloon doors. There's even sufficient plywood left over for the bedroom table!