Is this the end?

It certainly looks like the end of the road for my cheap Walmart microwave. I count 5 bullet holes in its carcass. Seriously, how can Walmart sell junk like this? After a little over 2 years use the bottom of the microwave inside was very rusty. It lay idle in a dry location for a further 2 years then when I set to cleaning it up, the pan had holes in it under the paint. No wonder every time I cooked, the countertop was covered in nasty looking water.

Today was one of those days when little was accomplished. Mostly that was because I am not really all that well. I didn't go to Lowes (hurrah). I did trim a little of the excess steel from the fridge to make some blanks to cover the apertures under the top front flashers. I started that a little late in the day and despite a spectacular mishap that went to show why only fools would take the guard off an angle grinder, I managed to cut two rectangles of steel.

Once I'd cut the steel, I ground the rusty bits back to clean steel then sprayed both sides with zinc paint. The zinc spray can started dripping and dribbling paint which was annoying but on the other hand this is exctly why I do prefer a brush and pot of paint. There's just no point in wasting a 65c brush for a little bit of painting though. Spray cans are handy for quick, small touch ups and that's about it. I decided on rectangles on the basis that they're easier and faster to cut. As long as they're mounted in the right places, they should have a balanced look. I'll have to trim the top outer corners to match the curve of the roof and I'll have to trim and indentation for the CB aerial. Other than that, the steel should be fine as it is.

As the paint was drying I turned my mind to the rear turn signals and switched one of the lenses over so that unlike the right turn signal, the left now has no arrow. It didn't improve matters. I suspect the bulb could be the problem in the left turn signal. It just seems dimmer than the right turn signal.

By the way, the right turn signal is a completely new unit that I installed last year as is the right hand reversing light. I'll have to replace the bulb to see if it improves matters. Really and truly it doesn't matter to me whether the lens has an arrow on it or not. I just hoped I could make it brighter. So, it looks like a new bulb but I won't stop there. I'll see if I can get some of that silver reflective Christmas wrapping plastic foil and fit it inside each of the light assemblies to improve the amount of light coming from them. These things just aren't visible enough for my liking in daylight.

By the time the light began to go, the paint on my steel plates was not fully dry so I put them inside the bus. I would have liked to have installed them today rather than leaving tape over one of the apertures. Having said that, there's always next weekend and the tape should keep rain out.

I looked at the ground beside the bus. That'll need a good clean up when I finish working on the bus. I have a feeling I'll spend an afternoon picking up trash from the yard! The plan for the big piece of fridge is to cover the lower door window aperture at the back of the bus. I'll have one piece that I'll trim to weld into the aperture. Once that's welded, I'll fill the space behind it with closed cell insulating foam then either use rivnuts and screw a sheet of steel over the inside of the door or rivet a sheet of steel there. On the whole, I think rivnuts make more sense as it allows me to perform maintainance if needed. I just hope I can make my welds waterproof.

I am very disappointed with the amount done today. I know I have overdone it today. I know I overdid it yesterday too. I wanted to go to Lowes to get my final plumbing part. I wanted to put two stop nuts on each bolt for each barrel. I wanted to plumb the shower barrel in fully. I'm still looking at plumbing the handbasin. I just hope I can get everything completed by the end of the month. My dad was griping that I hadn't completed it by April of last year, which was my original completion goal! I think my original target was a little ambitious given that I had so much to learn and that I'm such a perfectionist.

The shakedown!

A first run or a shakedown run is so called because you watch for things that fall off as the vehicle shakes. Today, what with fuel prices beginning to rise, I took the bus out to put some more fuel in the tank. I put about 20 gallons of diesel in and that almost filled the tank. Today was the first run the bus has had since probably January of last year. It showed - accelleration and gear changing was sluggish but improved as time went by. It clearly needs a 1000 mile run to get it back into running order.

The gaugues all looked healthy even though the hillbillies buggered around with the rev counter wiring so they could fit a reversing horn (badly). Often the rev counter and occasionally the speedometer don't work because of their bad wiring work. That's all on the list of things to get my mechanic to fix.

A few things fell down when I was driving - mostly things that had been poorly situated such as boxes placed on top of the bed and big boxes piled on top of small boxes in the closet area. My lamp standard toppled too. I'm not in the slightest worried about any of those things. Of more concern were by S hooks. A lot of my S hooks vibrated loose and fell off the screw eyes. Some have fallen into crevices and will be hard to locate. My closet chain was one such casualty of the S hooks. Clearly I need to replace all my S hooks with carabiner clips instead. That's well worth knowing.

On a more serious note, the allegedly flexible CB aerial snagged a low-hanging twig as I was driving off the property and snapped off just above the base. Clearly it wasn't as flexible as claimed. Obviously I need some kind of whip aerial.

Today I put up the shower curtains and found I need to get a 3rd curtain in order to surround the shower fully.  As with the S hooks elsewhere, the S hooks in the bathroom were problematic. I think I'm going to have to buy a lot of small caribiner clips. Evil Bay is probably my best bet there. Failing that, for the closet chain and the shower curtains I suppose I could get stainless steel split rings. That would definitely work but might not be strong enough for clothing.

Otherwise, I spent my time cleaning the inside of the bus and putting things in boxes ready for a series of photos to send to the DMV in the retitling process. The electrics work and aren't a problem unless the power supply has a higher amperage than my cable in which case it's remotely possible to burn out the cable.

These are exterior images.





Thinking about the top flashers, I might just remove them and replace them with aluminum plate riveted in place with silicone sealant. I don't strictly need extra lighting. Rewiring them would represent an interesting issue too. As I go along with this project I become more enamored of simplicity. It might be worth replacing the arrow indicators with the amber covers that have been used on the upper flashers.

The cockpit of the bus looks pretty nice. I do need to revive the original drivers fan though.
 

Moving back, the first compartment is the galley. As my microwave committed suicide, I have no microwave to display so I put a simple set up of a kettle with my $18 gas cooker and some tea bags.
 
 
Going further back, there is the bathroom with no handbasin but a jug and bowl. It's very reminiscent of the 18th century but works pretty well.
 
 
I couldn't step back far enough without falling out of the bus to photograph the shower. My jacket is indeed hnging from one of my S hooks but was heavy enough that the S hook didn't bounce out of place. Moving back is the bedroom with the bedroom table shown in the image. Look very carefully and you can see my camera that - it's a 3 megapixel Canon S1 IS from 2001. Oddly enough my phone takes far better photos so that camera is never used.
  

As can be seen, the bedroom is a bit of a dumping ground for clothes and general junk. I'll have to sift through and get rid of the stuff I don't actually need. For some strange reason I have a box filled with several years of rent receipts and another couple of boxes full of receipts and tax records for a business that I had many years ago that proved tp be a financial nightmare.

Beyond the white door is a simple closet area in which I have a pile of empty plastic totes.

Driving the bus was quite interesting. As I said, it hasn't been driven since January so it's not yet in its prime. The 10 miles or so I put on it today was nothing. I almost took it to a further filling station because the local one was advertised at $1.95 though was actually $1.89. The further filling station was $1.69. I'd probably have used a gallon to get there and a gallon back. 25 gallons would havebeen $5 cheaper but I'd have used half of it on the run so though I was $2 poorer for using the local filling station, I felt safer using the bus on a shorter run given the amount of time it has been standing idle.

On an earlier trip today (in my car), I picked up some supplies to complete the shower curtain (which was achieved) and some supplies to help me finish the plumbing. The most important thing, the heavy chain, I completely omitted to buy! Having said that, I can always use nylon cargo strap either initially or permanently.

What a day!

Two entries - would you even believe it? Yes - today has been exceedingly eventful. What with no electricity in the morning followed by intermittant electricity, I am much more inclined toward gas as well as my 120v plugin.

After breakfast/lunch/whatevertheheckitwas, I left to go to work. Arriving, I found the normal rooms locked up and the lights out. Then I found the boss. Apparently he'd tried to let me know that work had been cancelled for today but his letting me know had been to ring my phone and leave no message. That wasn't particularly helpful but anyway as nothing could be achieved at work, I turned around and headed back home, stopping off at the barbers on my way. It had been a couple of months since my last haircut!

Arriving home, after checking out the microwave I set to, working on welding the final patch over the hillbilly cable compartment disaster area. It took a while to trim the steel to shape and I deliberately undercut it this time in order to avoid the warping problems I had last time. 

Welding with 6011E 1/16th rods used a lot of rods and I had major problems - as before with burn through. In the end and because I ran out of 1/16th rods I turned to 3/32 rods. What a difference - these were and this is extremely counter-intuitive much easier to weld with. I began to fill the gaps where I'd undercut the steel but before I had quite finished, the daylight escaped on me. Had I had another couple of hours of daylight, I'm sure I would have finished the task.

Using the 1/16th rods I never had a problem with the welder shutting down to cool down. With the 3/32, rods I'd manage about two rods before the welder would overheat and need to cool. It has a 20% duty cycle. If I'd spent more on the welder I would not have the problem. On the other hand, I am happy that I didn't pay for more than I need.

By the time I had to stop due to darkness, I'd welded about 75% of the edges. I applied some black bumper spray since my Rustoleum anti-rust spray and my Rustoleum self-etching primer sprays didn't want to work and since I didn't want to use a paintbrush. 

As can be seen, I haven't finished welding the bottom left now the lower left side. My welds aren't pretty but they do work. I'll be glad when this operation is completed!

As mentioned before, I looked at the microwave. I pulled it out and wire-brushed the rusty parts inside. The more rust I removed, the more I found. The paint just peeled up and revealed yet more rust. It really wasn't very impressive for a microwave that I purchased in November of 2011 and used until May of 2014 then stored in a dry location! I don't think 30 months is a good life for a microwave!

Anyway, I kept working on the rust with steel brush and scraped the paint away with a plastic paint scraper. After a while I noticed that the rust wasn't surface rust. It was rusted through in places. How on earth is this possible? There was so much rust that repairing the microwave just seems pointless. Certainly I can deal with rust. Looking at the holes in the bottom of the roller recess, it just seems to me that the microwave is beyond repair.

Sadly, I took the microwave out of the bus. I'll have to replace it with something else. So, for the moment it's sitting on the ground awaiting disposal or recycling.

I had hoped at least to get the electrical inlet hole made but still, I have made progress. Indeed maybe I might have made faster progress had I used 3/32 rods from the start. I didn't know that at the time for I am but a self-taught amateur welder.

 

Things that don't work.

Sitting in the bus today, I reflected on things that haven't worked out. Not because of the waste of time and money but because things that haven't worked out have been minimal.
1. My cheap 10-24 bolts that broke under very light pressure.
2. My plan for barrels as water tanks. They're just not available!
3. My multimeter. I bought a multimeter in around 2006 and tried it today. It's totally dead. I tried changing the battery and the internal fuse but it is dead, refusing to move the needle even after twiddling all the adjustments. Yet another gizmo designed not to last very long and another reason not to buy expensive gizmos.

4. Rustoleum paint. This doesn't stick to anything.
5. Silicone sealant. This works well but doesn't stick to PVC. By the time I realised that, I'd already laid my PVC floors. Had I known this before, I'd have used latex sealant instead as that does stick to PVC. That would have meant I would not have needed a shower base. As for the roof, the silicone sealant works but doesn't lie flat. That could be a problem if a tree branch rubbed the raised seal off.
6. Latex paint. This looks good and adheres well. It's just not that rugged.
7. Interior. Were I doing this again, I'd probably do it very differently. I did it the way I have because I was aiming at an all electric installation. I think I'd put less woodwork inside and I'd put a pot bellied stove to compensate in colder weather. I've designed my installation as more of a home for extended periods. I'd probably have been better keeping it more like a weekend camper.
8. It looks like some of my NiCad batteries haven't survived. I tried charging them today.

9. My microwave. Sure it didn't cost much but it should have lasted longer than a mere 2 years. I used it daily from November of 2011 to April of 2015. By mid 2013 the paint was bubbling and peeling. I wouldn't use that microwave now. It's just in too poor condition.

10. Electromagnets - I'd just make my own rather than fiddling about waiting for them to come from China.

As far as I've gone, I'm happy. I need to thin out my stuff - I have too many clothes so I need to get shot of stuff that no longer fits. I might need to thin down on books to - perhaps go for ebooks instead? I've also got a pile of broken mobile phones, old chargers and general electronic wiring garbage - the kind you build up on all the time. I probably need to cut down in crockery too. I have a set of cheap mainstays China that cost me a princely $10.

Since my microwave has clearly died, I'm wondering whether I should go for something like a small gas burner and put an extraction fan in. That would increase water usage as I'd have to do more washing of saucepans but would decrease the need for electricity. That would put me squarely into boondocking territory. Having viewed the prices though, a replacement microwave seems better as well as safer.

Going forward the plan is - given a dry weekend - to redo all the bolts in my underbody compartment. This weekend was a loss because of the rain. There are a lot of dry weekend tasks to be completed, if ever there is another dry weekend. There seems to be somewhat of a plot against me these days as every weekend is wet. I blame the French! Only the French can be underhanded enough to inflict me with wet weekends.

Sealing or rather resealing the roof seams and repainting will all have to be done in due course. I'd love to have done more over the summer but what with heat exhaustion, it was rather hard. It'd be nice to be able to work under cover but building even the cheapest cover over my bus would be prohibitively expensive.

This weekend, nothing much was achieved bar a redesign of the plumbing necessitated by availability of supplies. With luck, next weekend will be better.

I'll have to do something about onboard humidity. 78% is high. Maybe I should get a Peltier dehumidifier and try to run it from a solar panel? If that works, it bodes well for a Peltier fridge.

The old Chinese curse

The old Chinese curse was "May you live in interesting times". Around me, things are definitely getting interesting. Thus, the bus project is getting ever more relevant. With recent events in South Carolina, tension could definitely rise.

As far as work on the bus, today, there wasn't much done. I put some great stuff behind my kitchen counter to seal gaps and reduce vibration. Then I had a go at sharpening the broken drill bit. Sadly, as I lack skill in that area, it didn't improve matters much. I cut a couple more pieces of aluminum to go over two holes on the other side of the bus but lacking the drill bit, could not drill rivet holes.

Thus, I headed out to get a drill bit and while I was out I picked up a new shower base. This is black rubber and cost just $19 from Tractor Supply. I suspect it's some kind of feed trough or something but it looks sturdy. Tractor Supply had drill bits and I got a 1/4 inch replacement drill bit but forgot to get a carbide 1/8 inch bit. Oh well, another day.

While I was at Tractor Supply, I looked at their batteries. They had quite some selection, including some deep cycle batteries. Right now I'm somewhat confused about batteries. I hear that I need deep cycle batteries. I can understand that but then I read people writing that some deep cycle batteries aren't. Then I read that some deep cycle batteries with 12 month warranties won't last much more. It's so hard to separate truth from nonsense when you're a beginner.

At $90 for a 108AH battery. It has promise. Given that actual facts available on how deeply a deep cycle battery can be discharged are somewhat rarer than hens teeth, its somewhat hard to know how much promise. Some sites say 80%, some say 45% - its the internet being its usual factually inaccurate self again.

Assuming 80% which seems reasonable, that means a 108ah battery can be used for about 80ah or 1 amp for 80 hours or 80 amps in one hour. My 900 watt microwave that takes an inordinate 10 minutes to cook anything would probably consume about 6ah per hour or about 1ah per use. Based on 3 meals daily, I could use the battery for almost a month between charges. That pretty much makes a mockery of everything I've read on "forums" and "groups". Of course with the wildly contradictory stuff I've read, it all boils down to sucking it and seeing. I have to be my own Guinea pig!

As I said, its all getting quite interesting.