Well, today I went under my bus and worked on installing my second waste barrel. This one is for the handbasin. I've installed it rather further forward than one would immediately think it should be for a very good reason. I want the clean water barrel directly underneath the handbasin so that I can pump water straight up. Underneath the toilet is where I might eventually put a black tank so the grey tank has to go forward.
Today I went to Lowes (hiss, spit), to buy some stop nuts for my cable clamps. Oddly, I bought sufficient for one barrel but not for the other (which needs stop nuts badly). I guess my counting was off.
Looking around, I thought about the plumbing and wondered whether I could simply go with flexible pex tubing. I could put a 3/4 to pex connector on both barrels. Having got this far though I'm not about to start re-plumbing the system though. I could definitely use pex from the bottom connection though.
So, basically, that's all I did today. I did find Tractor Supply's chain connectors didn't have a standard opening. One connector was too narrow and couldn't be used. The other problem was one I had encountered last time. The chain connector U bolts are not at a standard distance. I made a new template and it worked for 3 of the U bolts but not for all of them. There was a variance of about 1/8 inch between the bolts which made standardisation somewaht hard.
In terms of the U bolts on the other side of the bus, rather than putting stop nuts, I wonder whether perhaps welding the nuts to the bolts might not be more secure. The same could be done to the bolts just done with stop nuts. It would add that extra security. I certainly don't want barrels coming loose and falling under the wheels when I'm driving. In terms of removing them if necessary, I can always use an angle grinder. That's easy enough!
So, the upshot of my week off is two barrels installed under the bus and the handbasing not only reinstalled but clamped down. I lost a lot of time due to rain. In fact there was a trashcan standing beside the bus and in the two wet days, it accumulated at least 3 inches of rain.
I still have to do the plumbing, ventillation and to replace the lower back window with steel. It'd be nice to have the front door unlocking system set up too. At least there's progress! While I was under the bus, I looked at the hillbilly wiring. I'm wondering whether soldering the connections rather than leaving the crimp connections might solve many of the problems. Indeed, I might even try to rewire the reversing horn.
Thinking about the top flashers, having got the barrels in place, I might attend to those too. For the moment I want to get all the stuff under the bus completed because I really hate working under it. That includes the wiring and possibly installing a second reversing camera cable, just in case I want to install a new camera.
Showing posts with label ventilation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ventilation. Show all posts
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Friday, February 19, 2016
Conceptualising
I had opportunity to continue thinking today. Normally, I just don't get a chance to do my own thinking so I have to buy pre-prepared thoughts from Walmart in the thought aisle. Usually I prefer the Indian spicy throughts with a side of Nancy's Nook. Anyway, I left Walmart with a couple of bottles of ideas in an unmarked brown paper bag.
Today I looked at different ideas for cooking, power and ventillation on the bus. That was prompted by the fact I am about to close-up a large aperture under the bus and that as it is, two compartments could replace the existing one compartment.
One idea I had was to put a gas bottle compartment for cooking and water heating. Lowes has some 4.25lb propane cylinders that are 9 inches tall by 12 inches wide. That sounded pretty interesting. Obviously it would have to be well ventillated so some kind of mesh would make the floor and sides. I have some mesh too though it's very rusty. New mesh is cheap enough. In the end though, I decided against this route as I don't really see the need for extra gas power.
For electricity I was thinking I might use those external cell-phone batteries and charge them from a folding solar panel rested against the windshield from the inside. Now that would charge my phone, tablet and mifi pad but not my camera batteries. Well, that's what I thought until I saw this website http://www.voltaicsystems.com. Actually, having discovered that site, many of my power problems are solved. Basically, I realised the only things I really need power for are my cellphone, mifi pad and tablet. Lighting is taken care of with an LED lantern powered by D cells. My toothbrush and hair clipper both run off AA batteries. My shower head runs off D cells too and in the event the batteries are dead, a manual option can be employed for all but lighting.
For ventillation I had the idea of using a fan to pump air from the ceiling in the bedroom out through a hole in the floor created by the hillbillies. That would be complicated. Better to close-up that ridiculous hole and make a roof vent instead. Now I looked for roof vents and found some interesting ones on the Amazon British website. They were horribly expensive though and only worked for single-skinned vehicles. Going further and back to the electric fan option, there are some solar fans. Perhaps mounted on the outside of the bus with suitable ducting and filters, they might be the solution. They'd need an on-off switch but would be a zero power option. They're also dirt cheap.
So, I don't need an underbody compartment for batteries or gas cylinders. This means I can just weld a plain sheet of steel over most of the exisiting hole. Had I realised earlier that I could have put the master breaker inside the bus, I could have just had steel conduit taking the cable to the power socket and done away totally with the underbody breaker box. Of course, one lives and learns. I didn't know anything about most of the things I have done before I started work. I am not a handyman. I am an office worker. I am prepared to persist and am not afraid to try new things.
Thinking ahead about water, I did see somebody else's conversion in which they had a handpump to pump water from a 5 gallon bucket under their sink. I deliberately have not installed a handbasin in my bathroom or kitchen. In the kitchen, it seems so pointless because everybody washes their dishes in a plastic bowl as it retains heat better than a metal sink. As for water disposal, I can simply chuck it down the shower drain. In the bathroom, the handbasin can be replaced by a bowl and a jug of water. Again the water can be chucked down the shower drain. I have thought about using a footpump to pump water out of an underbody tank. Now the downside of an underbody tank is that they freeze. I'm not worried about that with the waste tanks because 90% of the time, the drain cock will be open and it'll be draining to the ground. The waste tanks are just there for times when an open drain isn't desirable. The upside of an underbody tank is it can hold more. The upside of 5 gallon jerrycans of water mean it's unlikely to freeze as they can be stored inside.
Going back to ventillation, solar powered ventillation over the cooking area and the bedroom look very possible. The downside is they only work during the day and they will look a little odd from the outside.
In terms of electrical supply, I have already experimented with a $5 USB charger and found it lacking. The other day I ordered a much larger capacity USB charger from eBay for about $9. If that works well then I have my power solution. I didn't realise I was so close to being completed!
In other news my rivnuts for the shower curtain supports arrived. I forgot to pay for my screw eyes so they will be a few days late as it was a few days before I remembered to pay for them.
Today I looked at different ideas for cooking, power and ventillation on the bus. That was prompted by the fact I am about to close-up a large aperture under the bus and that as it is, two compartments could replace the existing one compartment.
One idea I had was to put a gas bottle compartment for cooking and water heating. Lowes has some 4.25lb propane cylinders that are 9 inches tall by 12 inches wide. That sounded pretty interesting. Obviously it would have to be well ventillated so some kind of mesh would make the floor and sides. I have some mesh too though it's very rusty. New mesh is cheap enough. In the end though, I decided against this route as I don't really see the need for extra gas power.
For ventillation I had the idea of using a fan to pump air from the ceiling in the bedroom out through a hole in the floor created by the hillbillies. That would be complicated. Better to close-up that ridiculous hole and make a roof vent instead. Now I looked for roof vents and found some interesting ones on the Amazon British website. They were horribly expensive though and only worked for single-skinned vehicles. Going further and back to the electric fan option, there are some solar fans. Perhaps mounted on the outside of the bus with suitable ducting and filters, they might be the solution. They'd need an on-off switch but would be a zero power option. They're also dirt cheap.
Thinking ahead about water, I did see somebody else's conversion in which they had a handpump to pump water from a 5 gallon bucket under their sink. I deliberately have not installed a handbasin in my bathroom or kitchen. In the kitchen, it seems so pointless because everybody washes their dishes in a plastic bowl as it retains heat better than a metal sink. As for water disposal, I can simply chuck it down the shower drain. In the bathroom, the handbasin can be replaced by a bowl and a jug of water. Again the water can be chucked down the shower drain. I have thought about using a footpump to pump water out of an underbody tank. Now the downside of an underbody tank is that they freeze. I'm not worried about that with the waste tanks because 90% of the time, the drain cock will be open and it'll be draining to the ground. The waste tanks are just there for times when an open drain isn't desirable. The upside of an underbody tank is it can hold more. The upside of 5 gallon jerrycans of water mean it's unlikely to freeze as they can be stored inside.
Going back to ventillation, solar powered ventillation over the cooking area and the bedroom look very possible. The downside is they only work during the day and they will look a little odd from the outside.
In terms of electrical supply, I have already experimented with a $5 USB charger and found it lacking. The other day I ordered a much larger capacity USB charger from eBay for about $9. If that works well then I have my power solution. I didn't realise I was so close to being completed!
In other news my rivnuts for the shower curtain supports arrived. I forgot to pay for my screw eyes so they will be a few days late as it was a few days before I remembered to pay for them.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Plans and ideas
Remaining to do on the bus are:
1. The front door unlocking system. A quick and dirty solution would be just to add a standard door lock and wedge something under the door locking flap to stop it locking the door. That would allow me to lock it from the outside on my way out. Ideally though I'll continue with my plan for an electromagnetic solution. There's nothing to say that I can't use both solutions.
2. Waste water system. The bucket under the bus is a temporary measure that will work just fine though the goal is to plumb in two 15 gallon waste water drums. Even a single drum would be just fine though.
3. Fresh water system. Now here I had a brainwave. I clearly cannot trust used chemical drums for fresh water nor any kind of secondhand drums. The 5 gallon buckets from Walmart are a little small but several plumbed together could well provide enough water for a couple of days. I saw a video on YouTube about how one woman put leak-proof plumbing into a 5 gallon bucket. That gave me thoughts though securing such a small thing as a 5 gallon bucket will not be easy.
4. Carrying on with the 5 gallon bucket idea, it would be possible to put a copper tube looped through the bucket. Air could be blown through the tube. The bucket could be filled with water that's allowed to evaporate via the inlet. This would have the effect of cooling the air slightly. That could be useful for air-conditioning. Pouring water into a barrel will have zero cost. Blowing air through a tube using a CPU fan will use negligible electricity.
5. Ventillation in the bedroom is planned using a CPU fan to suck air from ceiling level to blow it out underneath the bus via an existing hole made by the hillbillies.
6. The cooking extraction fan will have to go through a hole in the side of the bus. Again, a CPU fan will be used.
7. The lights still need work to turn the school bus flashers into brake and indicator duplicators. The front reds will just be removed.
8. The reversing horn needs to be wired to a switch on the console. I'm not a fan of horns coming on automatically.
9. The drawers need padding and separators in those intended for crockery.
10. The breaker box compartment needs to be built.
11. I'm going one way and another as regards batteries. Currently I'm thinking that since I'm using solely 3 fans - maybe 4 if I put one in the bathroom. Other than that, all I'm using battery power for is charging phones etc. At most in terms of power I'd be using 20AH a day. That could easily be handled by 60 AA NiMh cells. I spotted 100 NiMh cells of 3000MaH on eBay. That seems to be better value than lead acid deep cycle batteries. NiMh have other benefits too in that they can be totally discharged with no ill effect. A battery compartment below the bus means the batteries performance might be adversely affected in cold weather but inside the bus there's a risk of fire left unattended while charging from solar panels. Thus, a small battery compartment under the bus could be ideal. Such a self-built battery would probably be best housed in an old metal ammunition box. That could even contain the charge controller and a voltage regulator.
12. Given that I'm now using gas, fitting a further compartment where a 20lb gas cyliner might be fitted could be interesting.
13. The bathroom vanity - now that I've decided not to use the vanity as a site for a gascooktop - does need a sink but I am still against plumbing in a standard sink. I'm considering a drop in-lift out enamel bowl with handles. If necessary, I could weld handles onto a standard enamel bowl.
The good news is that I should imagine I shall soon be able to work on the bus in the evenings on a weekday. The evenings are drawing out now to the extent that at 6pm, instead of barely being able to see my hand in front of my face, I was greeted by this scene as I left work.
Of course 15 minutes later it was pitch black but that'll change fairly rapidly. Currently we're gaining another minute of daylight every day. I predict that this will be the amount of light left when I get home by around the end of February. By then I hope I'll have done everything needed with the bus including getting the alternator belt changed.
1. The front door unlocking system. A quick and dirty solution would be just to add a standard door lock and wedge something under the door locking flap to stop it locking the door. That would allow me to lock it from the outside on my way out. Ideally though I'll continue with my plan for an electromagnetic solution. There's nothing to say that I can't use both solutions.
2. Waste water system. The bucket under the bus is a temporary measure that will work just fine though the goal is to plumb in two 15 gallon waste water drums. Even a single drum would be just fine though.
3. Fresh water system. Now here I had a brainwave. I clearly cannot trust used chemical drums for fresh water nor any kind of secondhand drums. The 5 gallon buckets from Walmart are a little small but several plumbed together could well provide enough water for a couple of days. I saw a video on YouTube about how one woman put leak-proof plumbing into a 5 gallon bucket. That gave me thoughts though securing such a small thing as a 5 gallon bucket will not be easy.
4. Carrying on with the 5 gallon bucket idea, it would be possible to put a copper tube looped through the bucket. Air could be blown through the tube. The bucket could be filled with water that's allowed to evaporate via the inlet. This would have the effect of cooling the air slightly. That could be useful for air-conditioning. Pouring water into a barrel will have zero cost. Blowing air through a tube using a CPU fan will use negligible electricity.
5. Ventillation in the bedroom is planned using a CPU fan to suck air from ceiling level to blow it out underneath the bus via an existing hole made by the hillbillies.
6. The cooking extraction fan will have to go through a hole in the side of the bus. Again, a CPU fan will be used.
7. The lights still need work to turn the school bus flashers into brake and indicator duplicators. The front reds will just be removed.
8. The reversing horn needs to be wired to a switch on the console. I'm not a fan of horns coming on automatically.
9. The drawers need padding and separators in those intended for crockery.
10. The breaker box compartment needs to be built.
11. I'm going one way and another as regards batteries. Currently I'm thinking that since I'm using solely 3 fans - maybe 4 if I put one in the bathroom. Other than that, all I'm using battery power for is charging phones etc. At most in terms of power I'd be using 20AH a day. That could easily be handled by 60 AA NiMh cells. I spotted 100 NiMh cells of 3000MaH on eBay. That seems to be better value than lead acid deep cycle batteries. NiMh have other benefits too in that they can be totally discharged with no ill effect. A battery compartment below the bus means the batteries performance might be adversely affected in cold weather but inside the bus there's a risk of fire left unattended while charging from solar panels. Thus, a small battery compartment under the bus could be ideal. Such a self-built battery would probably be best housed in an old metal ammunition box. That could even contain the charge controller and a voltage regulator.
12. Given that I'm now using gas, fitting a further compartment where a 20lb gas cyliner might be fitted could be interesting.
13. The bathroom vanity - now that I've decided not to use the vanity as a site for a gascooktop - does need a sink but I am still against plumbing in a standard sink. I'm considering a drop in-lift out enamel bowl with handles. If necessary, I could weld handles onto a standard enamel bowl.
The good news is that I should imagine I shall soon be able to work on the bus in the evenings on a weekday. The evenings are drawing out now to the extent that at 6pm, instead of barely being able to see my hand in front of my face, I was greeted by this scene as I left work.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Are rednecks my salvation?
Today the plan was to practice welding thin steel only that's not how the day unfolded. The day itself was fine - bright, cold and dry. Enthusiasm for welding was non-existent although I did trek into the bushes to find some suitable-looking steel. Hunting around the bushes here can be very fruitful when it comes to finding steel, plastic, old-style glass Coke bottles and abandoned household equipment. Thank the Lord for rednecks and their haphazard way of dumping stuff they no longer want.
Having scoured around the bushes, I realised I need to finish the inside - that's blinds and shower curtains. The existing hillbilly cable compartment does work - it just doesn't look pretty. The plumbing works though I do desperately need to put a hook to hang the bucket. That will have to wait until I can figure out a way of doing it well.
Thus, I headed inside and started putting up blinds. Cutting them with the angle-grinder requires a steady hand - which I developed as I cut more blinds. Needless to say, I'd forgotten where I'd put the brackets for one set of roller blinds and had to have a darned good hunt to find them. In the end, they were in a Walmart bag that contained a few bags of jelly-beans (my weakness).
The roller blinds take some getting used to as they very often need manual winding for the last few inches. Having said that, they're easily cleaned, easily removed and I prefer them to curtains for the bus. Curtains would, of course, have been cheaper. They could have been simply sets of bandanas. I'm sure that since the local football teams are the Gamecocks and Clemson that I could have got Clemson or Gamecocks bandanas for next to nothing in the charity stores.
Closed, the blinds do not look bad. These cost $4.95 in Walmart at the mounts were 97c a pair. Not too bad. The blinds in the galley are just privacy blinds - not light blocking. They can be seen through the window tint as lighter areas. I did get a room darkening roller blind but that was $6.95 so I got that purely for the bedroom.
I'm getting some light-pollution problems on my phone camera at the moment. I think it's because I"m including the light source in my photos - the LED hurricane lantern. Anyway, in the photo you see my cheapo tablet and a very elderly 3 megapixel zoom compact plus my clock. After my Nexus died I figured it just wasn't worth spending a lot on a tablet since they're pretty well disposable. Indeed, I asked somebody how much they would charge to fix it and they wanted as much as my cheapo tablet cost!
Having done the main windows with blinds, there are the bathroom windows that have no kind of privacy whatsoever aside from tint and the other two half bedroom windows. Those windows I will put paper blinds over. I couldn't use paper in the kitchen because of the cooking aparatus. I needed something less likely to flutter in a breeze. The bedroom will get black, room darkening paper blinds. The bathroom will just get white privacy blinds.
I took the International logo off the front of the bus today - the grey paint around it was peeling so I removed the logo and sanded it down. Then I sprayed with the cheap, lighter paint. I'll probably slap some Rustoleum grey on it at some time. That's not a priority right now though. The priority is to get the bus operable as a motorhome which it pretty much is now.
Having done the shower curtains, I'll put separaters in the drawers and put my china in the drawers as well as giving the bus a darned good cleaning. The solar stuff can wait. That's not a priority. The breaker compartment needs to be done soon though. As far as an underbody battery compartment is concerned, I'm not too sure it's really worth bothering with one. It might just be better to charge a dozen or so AA batteries using solar power. Those could be used to power or recharge USB devices. Another thing I'll do is to mount my whiteboard on one of the walls. I have had that whiteboard for a long time and it does come in handy for things occasionally.
The whiteboard has an interesting history. At one time I was going to do face-painting and photography with really good posed photography - not the kind facepainters do. I interviewed three facepainters. One decided she didn't want to spend $3.99 on facepaints from Walmart and lied and kept lying about her facepaint order always going to arrive. Total timewaster. The second facepainter called to arrange an interview then called five minutes before to reschedule and after the third call to request a reschedule, I realised she was a timewaster too and told her that if she found it that hard to attend an interview at a time that she suggested then it was highly unlikely that she would ever turn up to work. She argued and demanded I didn't tell the welfare people she didn't show. I should have told them but quite honestly it would have meant extra work. The final facepainter suddenly announced midway through the interview that she was a lesbian and went on to talk about her girlfriend. That really had no place in the discussion but I glossed over and we agreed to work together. Needless to say that involved buying a whiteboard to write prices etc on. Then she never showed to any sessions. Again a total waster which is pretty much my opinion now of all facepainters. The redundant $6.95 whiteboard has come in very handy in my kitchen though and I expect it will
I thought long and hard about the underbody battery compartment and for the amount of power I'm likely to use, it's not really justified. I was thinking of putting a solar-powered extraction fan in the bedroom. That seems to me to be worthwhile. That'll keep the bedroom cooler in summer. That can pump air out underneath the body.
The less complications I build in, the better to be honest. This is why I'm aiming at simple, cheaper solutions. I've been thinking long and hard over the extraction fan in the kitchen. I know it's needed. I'm not sure whether to have a straight chimney with a cap and no actual fan with the chimney going up through the roof on one of the sides where it won't add to the height of the bus. Another solution would be an actual fan, drawing the air from above the stove and blowing it out through a vent either under the bus or through a vent hole in the aluminum sheet that replaces one of the missing windows. On the whole, as heat rises, it might be better to blow cooking heat and steam down and out. Nobody will notice an extra vent on the side of a bus!
Having scoured around the bushes, I realised I need to finish the inside - that's blinds and shower curtains. The existing hillbilly cable compartment does work - it just doesn't look pretty. The plumbing works though I do desperately need to put a hook to hang the bucket. That will have to wait until I can figure out a way of doing it well.
Thus, I headed inside and started putting up blinds. Cutting them with the angle-grinder requires a steady hand - which I developed as I cut more blinds. Needless to say, I'd forgotten where I'd put the brackets for one set of roller blinds and had to have a darned good hunt to find them. In the end, they were in a Walmart bag that contained a few bags of jelly-beans (my weakness).
The roller blinds take some getting used to as they very often need manual winding for the last few inches. Having said that, they're easily cleaned, easily removed and I prefer them to curtains for the bus. Curtains would, of course, have been cheaper. They could have been simply sets of bandanas. I'm sure that since the local football teams are the Gamecocks and Clemson that I could have got Clemson or Gamecocks bandanas for next to nothing in the charity stores.
Closed, the blinds do not look bad. These cost $4.95 in Walmart at the mounts were 97c a pair. Not too bad. The blinds in the galley are just privacy blinds - not light blocking. They can be seen through the window tint as lighter areas. I did get a room darkening roller blind but that was $6.95 so I got that purely for the bedroom.
I'm getting some light-pollution problems on my phone camera at the moment. I think it's because I"m including the light source in my photos - the LED hurricane lantern. Anyway, in the photo you see my cheapo tablet and a very elderly 3 megapixel zoom compact plus my clock. After my Nexus died I figured it just wasn't worth spending a lot on a tablet since they're pretty well disposable. Indeed, I asked somebody how much they would charge to fix it and they wanted as much as my cheapo tablet cost!
Having done the main windows with blinds, there are the bathroom windows that have no kind of privacy whatsoever aside from tint and the other two half bedroom windows. Those windows I will put paper blinds over. I couldn't use paper in the kitchen because of the cooking aparatus. I needed something less likely to flutter in a breeze. The bedroom will get black, room darkening paper blinds. The bathroom will just get white privacy blinds.
I took the International logo off the front of the bus today - the grey paint around it was peeling so I removed the logo and sanded it down. Then I sprayed with the cheap, lighter paint. I'll probably slap some Rustoleum grey on it at some time. That's not a priority right now though. The priority is to get the bus operable as a motorhome which it pretty much is now.
Having done the shower curtains, I'll put separaters in the drawers and put my china in the drawers as well as giving the bus a darned good cleaning. The solar stuff can wait. That's not a priority. The breaker compartment needs to be done soon though. As far as an underbody battery compartment is concerned, I'm not too sure it's really worth bothering with one. It might just be better to charge a dozen or so AA batteries using solar power. Those could be used to power or recharge USB devices. Another thing I'll do is to mount my whiteboard on one of the walls. I have had that whiteboard for a long time and it does come in handy for things occasionally.
The whiteboard has an interesting history. At one time I was going to do face-painting and photography with really good posed photography - not the kind facepainters do. I interviewed three facepainters. One decided she didn't want to spend $3.99 on facepaints from Walmart and lied and kept lying about her facepaint order always going to arrive. Total timewaster. The second facepainter called to arrange an interview then called five minutes before to reschedule and after the third call to request a reschedule, I realised she was a timewaster too and told her that if she found it that hard to attend an interview at a time that she suggested then it was highly unlikely that she would ever turn up to work. She argued and demanded I didn't tell the welfare people she didn't show. I should have told them but quite honestly it would have meant extra work. The final facepainter suddenly announced midway through the interview that she was a lesbian and went on to talk about her girlfriend. That really had no place in the discussion but I glossed over and we agreed to work together. Needless to say that involved buying a whiteboard to write prices etc on. Then she never showed to any sessions. Again a total waster which is pretty much my opinion now of all facepainters. The redundant $6.95 whiteboard has come in very handy in my kitchen though and I expect it will
I thought long and hard about the underbody battery compartment and for the amount of power I'm likely to use, it's not really justified. I was thinking of putting a solar-powered extraction fan in the bedroom. That seems to me to be worthwhile. That'll keep the bedroom cooler in summer. That can pump air out underneath the body.
The less complications I build in, the better to be honest. This is why I'm aiming at simple, cheaper solutions. I've been thinking long and hard over the extraction fan in the kitchen. I know it's needed. I'm not sure whether to have a straight chimney with a cap and no actual fan with the chimney going up through the roof on one of the sides where it won't add to the height of the bus. Another solution would be an actual fan, drawing the air from above the stove and blowing it out through a vent either under the bus or through a vent hole in the aluminum sheet that replaces one of the missing windows. On the whole, as heat rises, it might be better to blow cooking heat and steam down and out. Nobody will notice an extra vent on the side of a bus!
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