The heat broke

Today the horrible heat broke within moments. A thunderstorm rumbled yet there was no rain and a clear sky. The heat dropped from 104 to 90 in minutes.

I didn't do a lot on the bus today. I made two doors for cupboards. One is a bit problematic because of the close proximity of the doorframe. There is a solution however. There is such a thing as a lift on lift off hinge also called a rising hinge. As the door opens, it rises. The door can at any point simply be lifted off its hinges and placed out if the way. Trying to get a pair is hard though. 20 years ago, I bought a pair for my darkroom. Trying to get a pair in America seems impossible though. EBay has them at ludicrous prices though.

Anyway, here's a picture of my doors. I'll do a top for the counter and then paint it. It's almost finished!

Timetable to drawers

As many of you know, I made a drawer base a few days ago. Then I did nothing because it was simply too hot. I've realised the heatwave is continuing so I'm now working in briefer spurts. The temperature in the cockpit of the bus a couple of days ago was astounding. Read the thermometer!

Thus today I set to , to complete my drawer. No plans have ever been drawn up for anything I've done in the bus so far and its all working wonderfully. The first thing was not to start work but to fix a plumbing leak in m'ladys yard. Then it was a case of feeding and watering chickens and doing the myriad of other things one does on a homestead.

Eventually I managed to measure and cut three planks of 19 inches and 15 inches with the circular saw. That was enough and I had to go inside to cool down. It was 104F outside and hotter in the bus. In fact, the bus feels like an oven when I'm inside!

Returning to the bus after cooling down, I worked on cutting two more short planks for the drawer. Sweat was dripping onto the floor with a splashing sound and running into my eyes giving blurry vision and a stinging sensation.

Eventually, after yet another trip into the house to cool off, I assembled the final parts of my drawer. It's definitely heavy. I just hope the runners are up to it!

It could have done with a little sanding and fine fitting but it works. It is my first ever drawer. The next drawer will be lighter and I might just abandon using Lowes $7 runners and just use wooden runners instead. Far cheaper and simpler!

Onward... The next thing to do to the dinette is to put a countertop and two cupboard doors! After that I can paint it and call it mostly completed.

Thinking time, drinking time, planning time

Astonishing temperatures recorded along the length of the bus today of 120.5 in the bedroom, 118 in the dinette and 125 in the cockpit added up to a bus that was just too hot to work in. Outside temperatures of 100F meant even filling holes was a non starter.

It was a day for drinking copious quantities of fluids of the non alcoholic variety and a time for planning and thinking. The end of the woodwork phase approaches and should be completed by the end of June.

The remaining woodwork needed is to complete the kitchenette and dinette. The dinette just needs the drawer I started to be completed, a top put on and paint. The kitchenette needs several sets of drawers though I might put a cupboard at one end and a fridge space at the other. I built the kitchenette to accommodate one of the dorm fridges. I'll also build a small closet at the front of the bus. All of that'll need painting.

For paint, I fancy lavender or purple and white for the dinette/kitchenette and yellow and white for the bathroom. The bathroom needs a comode. I'll probably build one similar to the first one I built but I'll build it better. The shower base will either be a tin bathtub or a black rubber horse trough. I'm not keen on tin because the rust issue on my white PVC floor. The black trough doesn't go so well with the decor but seems more functionally better. Both will need drain holes to be installed. That's a good thing because I can put them where its convenient but could be tricky to seal though the black rubber should be easier.

There's only going to be one handbasin in the bus. A little shocking but practical. Everywhere I've ever lived, people have done therir dishes in a plastic tub that they've placed in the handbasin. Why not just do away with the the handbasin? Just have one in the bathroom since I already own that one and port the clean water in a jug and simply empty the used water into the handbasin or the shower.

Tied to water disposal are other ideas. If I have a dry toilet which is going to cost next to nothing go build then I will have to put waste water in a grey tank. The general rule goes that grey and black waste can only be disposed of at authorised sites. My thought is that grey water can be used to flush the toilet if a flush unit is in use. Otherwise, water in the grey tank can be evaporated via forced air ventilation. It follows that the black tank where one is in use could also be force ventilated in order to reduce disposal volume.

For the dry toilet, essentially the comode is a seat over a bucket with a lid into which cat lit or compost is placed, covering the fresh deposits. It's pretty much the same as the old earth closets.

Water and holding tanks can all be of the 15 gallon variety. The 15 gallon tanks won't show under the skirt around the edge of the bus. Multiple 15 gallon tanks for fresh water can be used. Thinking about hot water, I could out a 10 gallon hot tank under the bus. I honestly cannot fathom needing more than a couple of gallons for washing.

Batteries and electrics need not be complex. I'm thinking of a single flexible solar panel glued to the roof to start with. That will charge two deep cycle batteries mounted under the bus. The clever bit is surplus power will be used to heat the water. The only 110v appliances will be the microwave, fridge, kettle and slow cooker or steamer. There will be a charging station for electronics and possibly some internal lighting but the lighting will be 12v or less and LED.

Ventilation is an interesting issue. I could put a minuscule AC unit or I could put the modified swamp cooler I wrote about a few days ago. I might need a dehumidifier too but I'm not sure yet.

There are other things that I have yet to touch upon but this is basic gist of my thoughts. Most of this won't change. It's just going to take a while to do all on my own.

120°F or 49°C - Holy Hell!

Let's just say that today was well nigh impossibly hot. In short all I achieved was to glue the planks for the bottom of my drawer together and to fill two of the remaining 21 holes in the sides of the bus.

This is an example of the two holes I filled. They were huge. Somebody had bored two inch diameter holes in the side of the bus. Anyway to cut a long story short (hooray) I put Great Stuff foam filler into both holes. Then I cut pieces of aluminum for each hole. I drilled 4 holes in the aluminum and drilled a single hole in the bodywork to correspond to the top right rivet hole. Next I applied silicone goop to the hole and riveted the first hole. After that, I drilled the other holes and riveted the patch down. Some other patches I put more rivets but I'm not strictly sure it is needed.

Looking back at the first image, you'll notice yellow paint. This is because I simply taped over the holes and painted, leaving them to deal with later. Later is now! It's too hot to work inside the bus so I'm working outside.

After wiping away surplus silicone goop and waiting for it to dry, I sprayed the patch. It'll need a second coat but its done for now. Tomorrow I'll probably paint both patches and maybe work on some of the other 19 holes.

The hillbillies really liked their hole saw!

Getting into her drawers!

Drawers came to mind today as did painting. I reasoned that to paint, I'd better clean the dinette. Then I reasoned that it would be better if the drawer was completed and in place ready to paint.

It was pretty hot but with the internal door propped open as well as the front and side doors, it was bearable. I put a fan up to blow hit air out of the bus but it didn't improve matters much.

Putting the drawer together wasn't actually that hard. Oh, I can complain and bitch about it and it took until I ran out of wood to put it together but it was all pretty simple. The key was cut accuracy. Everything had to be pretty accurate.

I started days ago by ensuring that all the supports that would be involved with drawers were perfectly symmetrical. Today it was just a case of installing the runner bars and making sure they were horizontal, both at the same height and that they were parallel. So, 3 dimensions of orientation at each end.

Once that had been achieved it was a case of adding the drawer runners, one of which rather usefully captures the slider so that it can only be removed at the end of its run. That helped with measuring the width needed for the wood. Cutting the wood was easy enough.

I only miscut one piece - a mistake I've made before. I simply misread the tape measure which is not that hard when reading the numbers upside down. I cut the wood too short. Sadly I was unable to finish the drawer because the next piece of wood as supplied by Home Depot had been consumed by termites. Now you know why I try to make sure all my wood is pre-treated. The termite problem must have occurred at Home Depot or before. Wood in this condition should never be sold!

After stopping work for supper, I raced down to Lowes to replace the two drill bits that had broken, to get a catch foir the cockpit door and to get some more OSB and 1x4. The 1x4 is excellent for making drawers. As with the 2x4, its wet and I laid it across a stepladder to dry overnight. Speaking of the 2x4, its definitely drying. One piece of the four is still pretty heavy and might need a lot more drying. The rest is probably now usable.

Of course now its dark so nothing can be achieved until the sun reappears. Its getting quite exciting looking at progress...

Today's accomplishments look impressive

I started out with the idea of converting a space in the bathroom into a wash stand. Well, that was the theory. I got as far as putting insulation under the seat rail and OSB on the face of the seat rail. That was only after I did other things...

The first thing was to look at the wood I left out last night. It was lighter and drier but not right yet. I left it out all day, turning it every few hours. By the end of the day it was definitely feeling drier. Its not there yet though. As its going to be exceptionally hot for the next 3 days, I'll leave it out. If its not dry after 3 days of 110f (43.3c) then it never will be!

Before I knocked off for the night, I test mounted two wooden bars upon which I will mount drawer runners in my dinette. That went well enough so maybe tomorrow I'll be building a drawer.

Most of the day though was spent turning the 2x2 that I sanded clear of mold yesterday into a door. Sadly I had a casualty - my last 1/16 drill bit committed suicide. I'll soldier on with my 1/8 drill for the moment.

The door actually put up very little resistance. It went together beautifully though I ran out of T brackets and had to use L brackets instead. There's a little spring on the door that causes it to open due to the 2x2 being warped. Clearly the ball latch won't do. I'll have to install something stronger.

And there it is - the completed door, of which I am rather proud. I sat on my dinette and admired my handiwork for quite a while. The list of things needing to be done is ever reducing.

And tomorrow? I'm not sure what I'll do. I could work on the bedroom sub partition that I started today, I could work on the bathroom wash stand, I could work on a drawer, I could paint the outside where I missed painting or I could work on filling the 21 remaining holes in the outside of the body that are currently just taped over. You'll just have to wait to read the next exciting installment of the bus blog.

Fighting the good fight but not really seeing much progress!

Today was mildly frustrating in that nothing stunning was achieved but problems abounded. I couldn't do any carpentry because the 2x4 is still wet. In fact I decided to leave one piece outside until tomorrow to see if it improves any, even risking it getting warped.

Overnight I left 2 pieces of 2x2 out due to their mouldy appearance. Well, today I sanded them and they look a load better. They're definitely not treated 2x2 contrary to Home Depots claim. After putting them into the bus, I saw the 3rd piece of 2x2 from Home Depot and sanded that too. That had some nasty looking dark marks and now it doesn't!

I had a go at installing the bathroom handbasin and put in a piece of 2x2 that's the correct length and perfectly level. That's as far as it went. The next piece of wood just didn't cut right then didn't mount right so I decided to skip that for the moment.

I'd have loved to have done the cockpit door but because I have 2x4 lying uncut in the bus, there was no way I could even attempt to build my door. The wood would have stopped it swinging. I thought about making a drawer but that would have been a new learning experience that would probably be better done en masse - do all the drawers at one time.

I did get on with some metalwork. I cut off the surplus metal that had been welded to the seat back tubing. Now all that's left is some blobby welds that I'll have to reduce when I switch out the cutting wheel for a grinding wheel on my angle grinder.

Another thing I did was to install the other part of my door lock. That went pretty much OK though the door needs to be partially opened by the big door lever in order to get the lock to move. The shim I had to put behind the lock is a little too thick. Without it, the lock wouldn't work. In fact, I battled most of the day to install that lock plate. The end result is that yes, it works but I'm not 100% happy with the implementation. I am however relieved that I have two working locks on the bus that can be opened from outside. Now it'd be rather hard to be totally blocked from entry.

No pictures today. I didn't achieve anything of which I am sufficiently proud. I did, while having lunch, look at an interesting YouTube video in which a guy made an instant water heater from a pair of 110v heating elements and some aluminum tubing. There was a 12v water heater too but I didn't watch the video. It did set me thinking though about whether I could get a 3 gallon immersion heater. That should be sufficient for a good shower combined with a shower head that cuts the water off when its not actively being used.

Today the temperature rose to 105f (40.5c) inside the bus. That made working on the door lock for a couple of hours real fun. Sweat was pouring off me. Doing the bathroom sink should be easier as its right beside the door.

While I was in the area, I measured the shower area at 34 by 53. The water trough I saw in Tractor Supply yesterday for $18 looks like it'd make an excellent shower bottom. It just needs a drain to be installed. That should be easy and I'm not restricted about where to put the drain either. There isn't one so I can make it where its convenient for the bus!

Right now, its frustrating because progress is slow due to the heat. Progress is imperceptible. I know I need to buy more OSB but I'm holding off on trips due to my lack of income. As I said before, my job ended for the summer and my applications thus far haven't produced as much as an interview.

I'm hoping to get the bathroom sink base completed tomorrow. That's something I can do without using OSB though to put the sides on, I shall need some.

As far as the $40 shower base I bought. I'll just have to write that off as a bad buy and won't ever return to Bonner's Wholesale. I did look at Habitat for Humanity Restore but their stuff looked no better. I'm better off ignoring secondhand and salvage as its always wasted money. What really pisses me off is that I worked damn hard for that money that got wasted on the garbage shower base. Oh well, tomorrow's another day!