Grub
Pierre
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WVvan wrote:Quote:Not all people with guns are 'yahoos'. -_-
And not all yahoos have guns. But when you get a yahoo with a gun you get things like shot up road signs, which unfortunately I've seen innumerable times.
Fair enough  .
Any day enjoying the great outdoors beats any day enjoying your 8x8 office cube!
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #16
Laminate the edges of the doors, drop leaf and countertop.
Do two opposite edges on each then after the contact cement sets up, route the edges.
Do the remaining edges.
While the doors are setting up make the final decision on the kitchen cabinet location. Drill through the floor and bolt it down.
Check that the laminated drop leaf and countertop fit right.
They do.
Road test the drop leaf by going camping.
With the drop leaf and countertop I now have a place for my laptop. I took along my regular folding TV tray table and for the first time didn't need it. Found that watching a movie on my laptop requires a spare set of computer speakers to hear properly. There will be a TV in the final build.
Also took along some ribbon LEDs to test out how they would look/work. These are Warm White.
These are Cool White.
The above pictures seem to replicate the light color as I remember it fairly closely. My preference is the warm white for indirect lighting and the cool light for direct lighting.
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* This post was
edited 06/10/12 08:27am by WVvan *
Open the pod bay doors Hal.
Once I exit Hal, this is what I do.
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #17
Work on the sink next. I'm making the sink from an mixing bowl I bought at WalMart for around $5. Need to drill out the bottom for a drain fitting. I'm measuring and marking the bottom of the bowl to find the exact center when I had one of my "Well Duh!" moments.
It hit me that the bowl is spun aluminum. It's covered by a a series of concentric circles. Just scrape away the bottom label and the center is already marked. Used a punch on the center point
Had to buy a new hole saw large enough for the drain fitting.
Clean up the edge with a round file.
Used silicone II along with the rubber gasket to seal the bottom.
I'm just placing the bowl into the countertop.
The only thing holding it down will be the silicone II placed around the underside of the lip.
Because of that I'm double stacking the silicone to get a secure fit.
Pressed down on the bowl. Cleaned up the excess silicone from the edge then put a weight in the center of the bowl to hold it in place while the silicone sets up.
While that's curing go back to the laminated panels. Have to clean off the excess contact cement from near the edges.
Use a one sided razor blade to carefully scrape off the worst of it.
Then acetone and a rag to get the rest.
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #18
Replace the wood screws holding the pump and accumulator to the back panel with bolts and nuts.
It's now time to create a greywater tank for the kitchen cabinet sink. First thing is to find what space is available. Take some measurements from under the van then transfer that info to a pizza box. I'll be using a DiCarlo's Pizza box since it is made of cardboard that is similar to posterboard.
For those of you who are not familiar with DiCarlo's Pizza it is a regional pizza chain mostly located in the Upper Ohio River Valley area. If you grew up in the this area, as I did, then there's a good chance you think of DiCarlo's like manna from heaven. A few months back Parade Magazine listed it in their "America's Best Pizzerias: The Honor Roll". The DiCarlo's Elm Grove location is just off the I-70/I-470 split so it's easy to get to. Just be warned that there are no chairs so you have to stand while you wait and they don't take credit cards. I always make sure to grab a couple boxes worth whenever passing through my hometown of Wheeling, WV which is why I have the boxes handy.
The greywater tank will go under the van in the area between the passenger side frame beam and the side cargo door. In this picture you can see I've removed the shield I built for the Webasto heater fuel pump to allow more room for the tank. So the size of this area dictates how wide I can make the tank. I don't want the tank to extend too far below the bottom edge of the van so that gives me the height. I'm moving the cardboard along the frame beam checking clearances.
So using those measurements as a cross section the next decision is how long to make the tank. Since two 5 gallon tanks are the fresh water source I thought that six gallons would be a good size. That will hold a one complete 5 gallon tank with some room to spare. I usually don't stay in one space more than 3-4 days and will be dumping the tank after I leave so six gallons should work. That gave me the length of the tank.
Once I had the measurements I started thinking about what to make the tank from. Had original thought of making it from metal but once I had the dimensions and did the math that would be a lot of metal. Someone had recently posted in a forum about constructing a tank by cutting out styrofoam blocks in the shape of a tank then fiberglassing over the styrofoam to make the tank. After enough fiberglassing was done to build up the tank, dissolve the styrofoam from inside. Thought that might be a possibility so got on the Internet and started reading about making your own fiberglass tanks and found another way. Make the tank from plywood then epoxy the plywood to make it water proof. Decided I'd give that a go.
Still had plenty of scrap plywood laying around. Used 3/4" for the bottom and the ends since they might have to deal with rock hits. For the long sides I re-used more of the left over floor panels. By the way, this time I was able to get the biscuit cutter without injuring myself.
Here the plywood tank is partially built. I'm checking the fit before gluing on the one side.
There were two bolts that extended from a muffler hanger through the frame beam. I cut off the extended threaded part to make room for the tank.
Made a couple changes for fit.
Here is the completed tank. The topmost plywood piece is not attached.
For epoxy using US Composites 635 Thin Epoxy Resin System. This is all new to me so before starting read the epoxy guides at West Systems.
It's a two part system that is mixed in a 3:1 ratio. I didn't want to mess with graduated containers so I invested in a electronic scale from Harbor Freight. I checked with US Composites and they wrote that ratio by weight is still 3:1.
Covering the outside of the tank with a layer of fiberglass.
Folded the cloth and trimmed to fit then stapled in place. This gave me mixed results which I'll cover later.
To position the box upside down I added a couple of 2x4 pieces to the battery frame cover I'd made before.
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landyacht318
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You are setting yourself up for some misery if you attempt to saturate that cloth in place.
Cut pieces of cloth just big enough to cover one side of the box + 1.5 inches to wrap around each side and splits at the seams where the cloth need to fold around a corner
On a separate piece of cardboard taped flat on top of a table, wet out the cloth with the epoxy with a throw away bristle brush. Work from the center to the edges keeping the weave perpendicular, and use a squeegee to remove the excess.
With both hands peel the cloth off the cardboard and drape in place. Using the squeegee, spread from the middle to the edges. Keep the weave perpindicular. Getting the cloth tight to the wood in the corners with no bubbles is a task. They should be well rounded beforehand.
Some epoxies have secondary bonding issues due to an amine blush. This needs to be scrubbed or sanded off.
Wood can be thirsty and suck the resin from the cloth. Any bare wood should be painted with epoxy and allowed to soak it up before placing saturated cloth on it.
Some people are super sensitive to the hardener used in epoxies. Take all precautions to keep it off your body, and you can use rubbing alcohol to clean the squeegee and gloves for re use.
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WVvan
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landyacht318 wrote:You are setting yourself up for some misery if you attempt to saturate that cloth in place.
Thanks Landyacht318. You nailed this one exactly. Unfortunately my postings are after the fact so I'd already finished before reading your advice. At least I'll have this helpful info for the next time.
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #19
Before starting the epoxying I had the garage door open and a fan blowing directly on me.
Here's the first batch of epoxy mix. Using a plastic body putty spreader to smear the epoxy over the fiberglass. This worked real well because when the epoxy drys it just peels off the scraper. I'll also be using a cheap chip brush which will be thrown away when done. I'm wearing disposable gloves. Went through a bunch of these. The gloves are pretty cheap so I don't know that it's worth the effort trying to clean them.
Spreading the epoxy on this box was one of the stickiest, messiest things I've ever done. Because of the mess I didn't take many pictures for fear of gumming up my camera. From what I've read if you let the epoxy cure there is a problem getting additional layers to stick. So instead once begun just waited till the previous layer started setting up before I added the next layer. Kept that up until I was done. This took a few hours.
Here it is part way through. Didn't put down near enough newspapers. I would pick it up by the base to move it around so all sides could be worked on. It was like working with a giant fly strip. Sticky.
In this picture you can see along the outside corner on the end the fiberglass is a lighter color. I found that this is the problem with wrapping and stapling the fiberglass cloth to the box before starting with the epoxy. As the epoxy is spread around the fiberglass cloth starts to stretch. So even though it was taunt when I began, after awhile it begins to pull away from the wood at each corner.
My solution was to cut through the cloth along the corners then overlap the two pieces. That took up most of the slack. Then cut several strips of fiberglass cloth and use them to reinforce the corners. Spread more epoxy
Cut more fiberglass cloth and used it reinforce the bottom and ends. Epoxied it then added another layer.
After around 4 or 5 layers of epoxy I called it quits.
Let it sit for a day then trimmed off the excess fiberglass strands. The surface of the epoxy is no longer tacky but it has a slight oily feel that takes another day to go away.
Next I have to epoxy the inside of the tank but there is some other things I have to get done first.
Here is the tank under the van. Between the epoxy and the fiberglass the tank is now so wide it's a snug fit between the frame beam and the underside of the van. It's staying in position without me holding it.
I had to add an extension to the Webasto fuel line so it will reach around the front of the tank.
Next decision. How to mount the tank. The frame beam already comes with a bunch of holes. Instead of making my own, see about using a couple of these.
Found a couple that line up with the area where I need the end of the tank to be. Make a bracket that will fit the tank and the holes.
Add what I call a positioning bolt to the end of the tank. The positioning bolt's purpose is to fix the location of the tank so I can remove the tank but still return it to the same spot. Hopefully close enough for what I need.
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* This post was
edited 06/15/12 08:53am by WVvan *
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Grub
Pierre
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Getting pretty handy with that welder I see!
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WVvan
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Grub wrote:Getting pretty handy with that welder I see!
Getting better but lots of room for improvement. Problem is some days it's like I never welded before.
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #20
Create another brace for the other end of the tank. Since the tank is so snug in it's location this will just be a simple brace. I'm attaching it to the frame beam at a hole that is already drilled. I did have to enlarge it slightly for the 5/16" bolt.
This is the first version. I ended up modifying it twice before I was happy with it.
Need to redo the shield for the Webasto fuel pump. Take the old shield and cut off the bits I don't need.
Test fit and mark it's location on the tank.
Bolt a couple pieces of angle iron to the side of the tank that will support the modified shield.
Drill a hole for but don't yet add a high level indicator.
On the front of the tank add a bolt for the Webasto fuel line.
Drill another hole for the overflow pipe. Make the hole slight larger than it need be.
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