Done with lies, done with Lowe's (@lowes)

A few days ago, I was stuck with buying a second plumbing fixture from Lowe's when the first had an insufficient supply of parts. Buying Lowe's cheap plumbing stuff really worked out for me there! I'd have been better buying a standard plumbing fixture and paying a little more!

Needless to say, I complained to Lowe's via their Twitter account of @lowes and was asked to complete their "rant and rave" form online. What a waste of time that was! No action was ever taken, no help was ever offered.

Foolishly I've been in contact with Lowe's again. My bus roof has a couple of leaks. I heard about a product called Kool Seal that, according to the manufacturers website can be tinted. Even Lowe's agreed.

Thus, today I turned up at the store and asked for Kool Seal and for it to be tinted. A rather frumpish woman whose name was concealed stated that Lowe's did not tint Kool Seal. Thus I produced my phone and showed her the Twitter conversation that said Lowe's did upon which she again denied it and claimed other Lowe's might but they didn't put Kool Seal through their machines.

Aside from the fact all they do is to tip the dye into the tin then shake the tin for a few minutes, that sounds like nonsense. I asked her if she'd like me to tell Lowe's that they don't tint Kool Seal and made sure she saw me do just that!

The conversation with Lowe's continued via Twitter without resolution. I just get the feeling Lowe's really doesn't give a damn that they lose customers. Needless to say, I shall now stringently avoid Lowe's. There's Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Fastenal, Ace Hardware and a few others nearby. Looks like they're getting my trade from now.

And thus was my entire conversation with Lowe's. I shall, of course, never hear back from them, cannot in any way recommend them and will recommend based on my experience; there are better places to go.

posted from Bloggeroid

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!

Hunting for Scotch Mist

There are lots of euphemisms for what I'm trying to do now. Attempting to plait fog and attempting to knit a rice pudding are but two. I'm trying to do the impossible - find something real and worthwhile using the internet!

For weeks I've been looking for plastic 15 gallon barrels in order to use them for waste water from my bus. Let's just say that it's harder to find those than it is to find The Holy Grail.

Craigslist has plastic barrels of 55 gallon etc but precious few of 15 gallon. When I do find them they're either an outrageous $20 and 100+ miles away or they're brand new, 200+ miles away and $40.

It doesn't matter what was originally in the barrels since they're just for waste water. The closest I've seen was on somebody else's property. It's a derelict house with barrels outside. Sadly though, as somebody owns them, I can't just liberate them. If they were just out at the curbside awaiting collection by the garbage truck then I'd have no qualms. These are behind a ramshackle fence though.

I'm pretty desperate for barrels but they just don't seem to be available despite being advertised all over the internet. It's just so frustrating. Just two 15 gallon barrels would be ample for waste water. The best I found was $20 per barrel but shipping from Florida was $15 per barrel for a total of $70 which is utterly ridiculous!

For comparison, a brand new 37 gallon water tank is $200. Lowe's 3 inch pipe is $12 for 10 feet and 10 feet will carry 3.6 gallons. Thus $120 of tube would carry 36 gallons. A used stainless steel beer barrel would cost $22 and would hold 15.5 gallons. I did see a stainless barrel but it was riddled with bullet holes.

As I said, its frustrating because I see all the bargains advertised but they're just not available. Its like the drowning man clutching for the straw. Salvation is there - just out of reach!

Sadly, today was a do nothing day. By the time I got home, the daylight had gone and the rain was pouring down. Not a good time to work underneath my bus.

General annoyances

Hah. I keep finding this holds true. Every forum I encounter, no matter what the topic is full of people willing to offer the most asinine opinions as fact. Today I posted on one looking for ideas other than those stated as rejected solutions. Not one person had the gumption to come up with real suggestions. They merely repeated my already rejected solutions or picked fault where there was none. How asinine!

I'm thinking today about my front door lock. My bus has one of the old fashioned manual opening controls. Had it had an electric door then a key switch to open it from the outside would have been incredibly easy and wouldn't have taken more than an hour or so to install. As it is, I have to go in for quite some engineering. The locking part is easy - just slam the door. Unlocking is harder.

There's a sprung flap that must be lifted. Looking on eBay for solenoids produced a long list of entirely inappropriate solenoid valves etc. It probably means I'll have to develop my own solenoid. It's not hard - its only wire wrapped around an iron core. Usually in such a manner that the iron can slide into and out of the wire coil.

My initial thought is to raise the flap via a solenoid which allows the door to spring naturally. I can just push the door open from there. Activating the solenoid can be done with a simple ignition key switch. I'd thought a motorbike ignition key switch would be ideal as they're usually waterproofed.

Given that I occasionally lock my keys in the bus and have to borrow the key I gave to my lady friend, perhaps I also need to set up some kind of keypad entry system. That would have to be located somewhere that Joe public couldn't see and wouldn't be tempted to play with.

The ideal would be some form of lock attached to a cellphone where a code is sent by SMS to a number and that unlocks the door. Sadly that kind of module is hard to find - probably because its the favored way for terrorists to set off remote bombs.

Of course, an easy way of effecting entry is low on my priority list. First of the list is putting my newly arrived drawer bolts into place followed swiftly by all the underbody work. After that, there's the tow bar and system electrics.

After that, its reregistration and testing! With luck, my bus will be ready to go to photograph fall foliage at least at Table Rock if not further North. I've been in the US for a decade and have never managed to photograph much in the way of fall foliage.

The first thing done today was to go shopping. There was a specialist plumbing supplier buy they couldn't help with my 1.5 inch drain screw. In fact I think it's a weird size dreamed up by Lowe's just so they can screw extra money from customers that need an extra nut. This has to be the most expensive damn piece of zinc in the world!

Having returned home, the nut was installed finger tight. I'll have to get a wrench on it over the weekend. On the end of the tube I'll clamp a rubber hose that'll empty the waste water into a waste tank.

I can see areas under the bus where the black paint has flaked off. I'll have to see about fixing that. Meanwhile, an actual photo of the drawer bolts that arrived yesterday.

In other news, I moved one of the pieces of the former bedframes closer to the bus, ready to cut to form the skeleton of the new battery & cable compartment. Although I'd like to use steel for the body of the compartment, I don't have steel sufficiently strong to hold a battery. That might mean a trip to the scrapyard or that I'll use plywood. I have plenty thinner sheet steel.

Bolts galore!

A week or so back I ordered some bolts for my drawers. Today they arrived and mightily stout they are too. Way better than I'd expected and far cheaper than the flimsier versions I was considering earlier. I'm very happy! They'll need a piece of hardboard behind them in order to center the bolt in the drawer but that's not a problem. These things are stout and will hold my drawers closed even if an elephant is trying to break out!

For those with short memories, these are the bolts. I took a photo today but for some unknown reason my phone couldn't achieve correct focus. It wasn't worth digging out a camera and a laptop just for a single photo!

I had a good hunt through the junk I removed from the bus to see if I could find an appropriate nut for the shower waste pipe but they were either too big or two small. With my luck, this will be some bizarre size nobody has ever heard of. Danco, the manufacturer, refused to supply a further nut even though I was willing to pay money and postage. Lowe's who weren't helpful in the store suddenly decided to make a show of helping online (for publicity) but that so far has achieved nothing worthwhile.

The economy must be booming with nobody unemployed any more if companies can afford to turn business away! Clearly my eyes must be deceiving me when I see people begging beside the road, banks repossessing homes and people being thrown out of their homes.

The nut needed is probably an oddball size. I measured the pipe at 1.48 inches on the outside of the threads and 1.45 inches on the inside of the threads. Clearly this is either going to be an undersized 1.5 inch thing or something wacky like 37 or 38 millimeters.

My big gripe about US plumbing is that just about everything is a non standard size. Even two allegedly identically sized things can be way off identical. This is probably why the hillbillies that converted the bus the first time around, gave up!

I did discover a specialist plumbing supply company not far away. It's probably worth paying them a visit. They might even be able to supply something better of a more standard size.

Looking at the heavy angle iron that I have, I'll need something stout to secure that to the bus. Being as heavy as it is, I might be well advised to use rivets rather than bolts. Clearly my little hand riveter isn't up to the task of using rivets the size needed. Thus, after being astounded at the cost of electric and air riveters, I saw a riveter powered by .22 cartridges. It's more expensive in operation but given the small amount of riveting needed, could well work out cheaper. Welding would be the best solution but as I've never welded, now's not a good time to try.

The plan with the cable compartment is to rebuild it properly. I'll probably house one or if possible, two batteries in it. One would be ample to power things like fans and USB power supplies etc. I might visit the scrapyard for some stouter materials.

Caulked

Today before work, I completed caulking around the shower base. That's not going to be moving anywhere on its own now. The next thing will be to install the underfloor waste tanks or at the very least, a way of emptying the waste. The waste pipe definitely needs another nut to hold it down but that has to be applied from under the bus. I don't actually have that nut either. Since Lowe's does respond to their twitter account, I sent them a tweet to try to get if not another nut, at least the specifications so I can order one online.

Lowes did eventually respond with the ultimate answer that they weren't going to help. Meanwhile I diud track down the real manufacturer, Danco and explained that due to a constructional oddity I needed a second nut. As of now I'm awaiting their response. Worst case scenario, I have to buy a complete second outlet just to get the nut!

The handbasin since it looks like its going to be used, needs to be fastened down, somehow. The proper mountings never came with it so I will probably have to get creative. It's one of the reasons I don't like that handbasin.

Since I'm waiting on plumbing parts, I'll probably work on rebuilding the battery/cable compartment. Unlike the hillbillies, I'll build it with real angle iron of which I have a large supply. Alternatively I could use aluminium which would be lighter though I'd have to buy the aluminum. Either way, I need to buy nuts and bolts. Ideally I'd rivet it but don't have a supply of strong enough rivets nor an appropriate rivet gun.

My Nema 5-30 inlet arrived today. My next task is to fit it where it can be used. To do that, I need to rebuild the cable compartment. I really wish the hillbillies hadn't made such a massive compartment. It really wasn't necessary. Really and truly, I don't need that compartment. I'd rivet the blessed thing shut given half a chance! Sadly though, I need some kind of access hatch to access my main breaker. I do wonder about cutting the door in half and putting a half-sized compartment instead. One that contains just the breaker box. The cable I can store elsewhere. As far as a house battery is concerned, I can put that in anytime and it really doesn't need a special compartment. If the compartment housed solely the breaker and Nema 5-30 socket then it need not be built strongly. In fact it could just be there to protect the contents from water!

Installing batteries is another issue entirely. Speaking of which, I noted the fridge I removed from the bus was made by Avanti. Looking at Walmart's website a search for Avanti threw up a so-called superconductor fridge for $120ish that runs off 120v AC or 12v DC. Current consumption was high at 83 watts but that's because it probably runs off a heater element. That looks interesting and something that could be fun off a pair of batteries.

I'm still waiting for my drawer bolts to arrive. They should be here anytime now. That'll complete the galley area. The bathroom plumbing and every underbody facility are my main battlegrounds now.

It's been a long time

That was how my bus looked in November from the inside.

That was how my bus looked in November from the outside.

Wow! What massive changes have been effected since then. The inside has been gutted and rebuilt to be more home like. The outside looks far less like a school bus.

Reading around, several sites suggest that a Navy shower is the way to go with a motorhome. That's a case of wetting down in the shower, applying soap then rinsing off, turning the water off between wetting down and rinsing off. The same sites suggest that it can all be done with a single gallon of water. I know it can be done with a bucket of water and a flannel washcloth.

At Lowe's today I hunted for plumbing parts and found that just about everything is non standard. I suppose that's the main reason why plumber's putty exists! So, I have parts I can put together. I had a look at dish racks but found only one. It looks very much as though building my own dish rack into my drawers is going to be the sole solution. That'll take some more plywood and some wooden dowel plus time. It's not hard.

After returning from Lowe's, I measured the bathroom between the body ribs in order to drill a hole for my piping. Lo and behold, I got my measurements almost spot on and the pilot hole went into an area well away from body ribs. That makes me very happy.

Before I did that, I finished putting the shower base support together. One end must have been a shade longer because it's definitely some form of trapezoid. With the shower pan in place though, it won't notice and to be honest, won't make any difference!

The next thing was to drill the hole for the shower waste pipe. That was pretty easy. The time consuming bit was hollowing out a pan around the hole for the nut and flange. By the time I'd finished, the mosquitoes had bitten me pretty thoroughly but the shower base now looks pretty good.

After that I investigated water pumps. It seems the marine galley pump I was advised to consider which is foot operated is actually available locally at West Marine. The hand pump that I'd like so much seems to have a rubber diaphragm which turns me off. Old fashioned hand pumps never used diaphragms so that was an expensive look alike. That killed my interest right away!
Using a water pump means I don't need a faucet on the bathroom sink. I removed the faucet. I was going to empty the water down the shower but the outflow from the shower is a shade higher than the shower base. Water will collect so its probably best not to do that but to cut a new hole for the handbasin outflow. That shouldn't take long at all!

I haven't decided where to put the water pump yet. I don't have it and thus don't know where it would work best. I have a feeling the water outlet will be flexible - some kind of hose maybe with a nozzle.

For water inlet and outlet I'll definitely have to have a drain cock on the grey tank and some kind of input for the white tank. I'm not keen on having the white tank filler accessible to the outside world. There are too many freaks that would slip something in the water for fun. I don't mind them pouring my grey water all over the place though.

I might just have a filler for white water inside and bring water in, in 5 gallon containers or perhaps have a filler cap outside that leads to a faucet above the real filler cap inside. That would allow me to filter the water!

I've started to fill the drawers in the galley. Thus far I found my plates will only just fit in the plate drawer. That was to be expected. This is just the kind of irritating thing that would happen! The drawer will take 9 inch dinner plates. To be honest, I was never keen on the blue & white mainstays plates. I bought them because they were cheap. That was the sole reason. I might just as well sift through my stuff to find the things I actually want in the motorhome and the stuff that can be abandoned. None of it is of high enough value to sell.

The plan for the plates was to put them in a rack, standing edgewise but that plan will have to be abandoned. I really didn't want to have plates lying flat but I suppose bubblewrap would help. Perhaps just having them angled would work through it'd reduce drawer capacity. Its something to think on.