OOops! Nearly Forgot . . .

Just a silly little job for someone that I fell over while looking for a piece of material. When I found it I wondered why this other piece was not where I expected it to be and then remembered what I was supposed to do with it. Must be that "old timer's disease" catching up.

Lot's of other silly little jobs too ...
The microwave had to fixed in place . . .


















Same as for the fridge . . . use some furniture castors to put the feet in . . .


















(this iPhone is terrible in low light - and no flash - you just can't hold it steady enough)
Some more "breeching staples"and a strap over the top should do the job.























Then "accessorise" the bathroom.
All these pieces are held on with "strong" suction caps - it will be interesting to see how well they hold up - but I didn't want to drill holes if it could be avoided. Still, my GPS holds on the motorcycle windscreen with just a suction cap and if that works this should too.









































The steps now have their end caps in place and look much neater but they have a slight tendency to slip on the supports with time and traffic.


















So the simplest thing I could think of was to put some stops on each end. Some 3mm aluminium strip was cut into pieces and some holes drilled























and then were riveted to each end of the step. That stops them going anywhere!


















and they can still be stacked up for storage.


















I know I go on and on but really! Back to the hot water system. Water heating up of course expands and the pressure needs to be eased off before it all blows and just in case something goes wrong a safety valve is of course mandatory. If you've ever wondered about how much energy is stored in a boiler you should read some of the old stories of early train boilers blowing up and the damage they did!! There he goes . . . wandering off again . . .
Well in this heater there is a safety/expansion valve - but no place for the water to go - it just leaks through the joins and into the cabin somewhere!! So of course that's another thing that needs fixing - a bit of copper pipe (the water is HOT) with a couple of bends soldered in and a slot cut in the cover























seems to do the job quite nicely























Then of course were those messy wires still hanging around in the kitchen.


















I knew I had a bit of ducting lying around somewhere . . . well it's a bit neater anyway.


















I also needed another 24Vdc socket for the freezer. I won't repeat my comments about the stupid lugs for these wires - but it took me another 30 mins to rebuild the plug after the lugs broke off.


















Still, it was finally in place and the the freezer can be pushed into its place below the "pantry". Just enough room to raise the lid.























Last time I was out in the rain every time I opened the door I got drips down my neck. A gutter seems in order over the top of the door to help divert the drops. Some "J" moulding seems the ideal stuff.























Just to be a bit fancy a bit of rod the same size was put in one end and the assembly in a vice and given a smack with a hammer.























Makes the end turn down a bit and stops the drips running back along the underside.


















Then this was riveted and siliconed over the door. (Silicone yet to be tidied up . . .)


















Also coming inside in the dark I haven't decided where all the lights will go yet but at least one is needed alongside the door so you don't break your neck trying to get to the kitchen light. A spare LED light I have for testing light output will do nicely for now.























Also found some nice little rubber straps and hooks which can be screwed along the inside wall of the fridge compartment without rubbing on the fridge and are easy to hook onto the slides to stop the fridge rolling out while under way. So now the green straps can go.























Also a 4kg bottle (more portable) for the outside BBQ was fitted into the gas compartment.


















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Well I can't avoid it any longer.
I have to tackle the motorbike rack.
First thing I need is some holes through the nice, smooth, shiny aluminium . . . somewhere.























The only clue where, is the hole on the inside made for the shaft to go through. Of course it is way to big and awkwardly placed to hope to get a hole through the middle























so a quick jig is in order. Make the plastic the same size as the big hole


















and drill from the inside and the hole comes out here























This can then be used as a pilot hole for the hole-saw and it seems to have come out OK.























Of course a stainless fitting, similar to the ones made for all the other holes in the back will need to be made later but for now press on.
A shaft is turned down to fit. A large thread is also machined on the end (now hidden in the hole) in order to pull it up tight and keep it all in place. I sort of wondered about the strength of this but there are two of them 32mm diameter to hold up a 100kg bike and when I jumped up and down on one of them without doing up the nut nothing seemed to move at all so I think they will be sufficient.

The Red Handled Hammer . . .

A very heavy coat of "hammertone" to make sure all the gaps are filled and find something else to do while the paint is drying.


















I've had an idea for a while to help stabilise the steps. It's not that they are unsafe but there is some movement under your feet as you walk up and down which can be a bit disconcerting. The most common question I get asked by people when they first see the steps is :
Q : "Are you going to have a handrail?
A : "Put your $@*&*%$ hand on the side of the $@*&*%$ truck".
The only reason I haven't done it until now is it involves welding inside a storage bin under the floor. Guess I can't put it off any longer. It's really very simple - drill a hole in the corner of the outer square tube and weld a nut on using a long piece of "all thread" rod screwed into the opposite corner to keep it aligned across the diagonal.























Take out the rod, slip the inside tube in (also square) and screw in a bolt. This presses the inside tube tightly into the opposite corner and nothing moves. It's just that I have to turn off and disconnect all the electrics so they don't get destroyed by welding "eddy" currents and make sure I don't set fire to anything with welding spatter. At least it's done now. Later I will make a hand wheel for the bolt so I don't have to keep looking for a spanner.























Speaking of looking for things . . . . have you ever spent twenty minutes looking for the red handled hammer only to find it right in the middle of the bench (WHERE YOU LOOKED A HUNDRED TIMES) only you were never going to see it because the handle was yellow?
I have had this idea of making the legs of the dining table from some stainless steel tubing. I was sure I had some in the rack except whenever I looked I couldn't see any. After arranging for a friend of mine to look in his rack (where I was sure I had seen some) I was putting something away in my rack ( a rare occurrence at the moment given the state of untidiness abounding) I went to move something wrapped in CLEAR plastic only to realise it was half a length of brand new stainless steel tubing of the exact size I wanted!
No more excuses - all I need to do is make some end fittings.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you look at it - the stuff costs over $1000/metre, I have some 100mm diameter stainless bar left over from a previous customer's job.























There's $100 right there and I need 4 of them.


















Back to the CNC lathe.
I tried a shape I liked but it was physically heavy and now being extremely weight conscious (yes I know this is going to make about 1kg difference, total!)























I decided to go with the more traditional























Seeing there are four of them to make and machining stainless is not the fastest job in the world I could do some other little thing while keeping an eye on it. Underneath the truck body you may remember the electrical bulkhead connectors. Well the negative ones aren't really a problem but the positive ones are a bit of a hazard. A bit careless reaching in there with anything metal could see a short circuit powerful enough to melt part of the chassis!


















Some time ago I had found some covers which would do the job but needed the cables disconnected to get them on, and I wasn't sure I could get them over the terminals in any case.


















I figured slitting them down the middle and then "ziplocking" them on would do the job.


















Around this time the CNC had finished it's job.
So a quick ten minutes on the mill and they all had drilled and countersunk holes on the inside of the spigot - I just think they look better without screws showing, and
"TA DAH"!!


















Well I think they look good anyway.

Slow Day . . .

Slow day as I was up between 2am and 4am taking some friends to the airport for a holiday. I thought I was the one supposed to be having holidays ......

Oh well.
I couldn't resist hoisting up my spare wheel with the fork lift just to make sure it ll fits. I know I spent a lot of time measuring my motorbike and working out just how LOW (?) I could get my spare wheel but DAMN it seems awfully *&^$!%!* high!























The motorbike ramp I intend making pivots from about 50mm up and in from the lower corner of the box so it's deceptively high as well. I hate putting weight up there but believe me I have used stupid amounts of time trying to find another way to mount it and each has more disadvantages than this way. So there it's going to stay.
The mounts are made to locate the tyre about 5-10mm away from the fibreglass as the back of any off-road vehicle is the dirtiest spot and collects mud and dust in copious quantities. My main concern when I mentioned strength earlier were really to do with fatigue vibration. Maybe I was affected by Nevil Shute's "No Highway" too much when I read it as a child. Sure enough it's possible to wobble it by hand to produce a terrifying vibration. Looks more like a boxing "speed bag" than anything else. I have lots of high density foam lying around from earlier construction so maybe a piece of that under the bottom edge will help a little.























It's tightly compressed in there and there's no chance of it falling out and sure enough it's fixed the "fore and aft" vibration cycle (which is the one that would affect the rivnuts the most) but there is still a "side to side" movement which will fatigue the welds. I think the proper fix for that one is a welded brace cross the middle which will put the load on welds in shear rather than tension (welds in tension are an engineering no-no). So that decided weld in the brace, tack in the bolts, as it's too hard to get to them once it's all in place, and give it all a good coat of cold galvanising prior to painting tomorrow.


















This has of course all been done on the spare one so tomorrow I'll have to pull the wheel off and change it all over . . . thank goodness for the forklift. Maybe I'll end up towing a fork lift behind on a trailer . . . great for going to the shops once the truck's parked :)

Every Little Bit Helps . . .

A casual remark to someone the other day got me thinking about the best way to allow air in and out through the vents but not to let water (dust is another problem altogether) get through. The multiple layers and the drain from the middle to the outside are the first step. They are based on the principle that the water tends to "bump into"the screen and trickle down rather than fly straight through (unlike neutrinos). I was suggesting that some fly wire in there would be a good idea to stop mosquitoes etc. as well and would help with the breakup of the water when it occurred to me that there is an ideal material for this purpose. Common pot scouring material is perfect - it is basically countless holes held together by some non-rusting nylon - which lets lots of air through but surprisingly provides plenty of resistance to water. A quick trip to the local hardware store for a "bulk" supply and a bit of quick work with some scissors (just keep the joins away from each other) put in multiple layers up to about 25mm thick and it's all ready for a trial.


















I was amazed and delighted to find that I could blow through it almost as if it wasn't there but also spray a garden hose onto it without getting a drop through!!
And I bet the mozzies have a hard time too!!

Realising that now the only thing really stopping me from having a bit of a trial is that leaving the city without a spare tyre is really very silly I decided that I can't put it off any longer but I have to make the mounting bracket. This has been bugging me for a while as to how to make it strong enough while still being "elegant" until it occurred to me that in this case the wheel was hanging off the truck not the truck hanging off the wheel so strength wasn't really such an issue and most of it would be hidden behind the wheel so I should just get on and make something ugly and weak.
Flat bar and "angle iron" fit that bill exactly.























Weld it together with enough weld to hold the Queen Mary together



































drill holes to match the bolt pattern on the back of the truck


















and some more bigger ones to match the wheel


















and make a spare one in case I get a second spare (to be sure to be sure).


















Now the holes in the wheel are quite big to allow for the massive wheel studs necessary to hang the truck off the wheel but way to big for "visa versa". I really think that 16mm high tensile bolts will be more than adequate (after all I'll only be using stainless steel for the other side). They are also tapered each side !!!























So what I need is some washers to fill in the holes and bear on the tapered part (like a wheel nut) to support the wheel without damaging the holes.
Seeing it will all be hanging out in the weather stainless steel seemed like an obvious choice so I fired up the CNC lathe and manufactured some tapered washers to do the job. They go into the mounting plate like so























and into the wheel like so.























The beauty of being able to do this is that while the lathe is working I can go and do other little jobs that don't seem to get done otherwise.

An interesting little item is to apply some grip tape (like adhesive backed sandpaper) onto the front edge of the (as yet unfinished) steps. This suddenly became more important with the advent of winter causing a slip on the step (fortunately without damage to life and limb) and had the interesting side effect of making the steps much more user friendly at night as it's very difficult to see the edge of the step in the dark.


















Next the stove / sink combo can be properly sealed into the bench to prevent any inevitable spills seeping down into the bowels of the cupboards and putrefying.
Again lots of masking tape applied prior to silicone. The main purpose of this is that I like to put enough on to have some squeeze out so that you can see it has created a seal all the way round. The drawback of this is that it then needs cleaning up. My method is to let it squeeze out, give it a wipe all around to smooth it off letting the excess spread onto the tape and then peel off the tape immediately. All the excess is removed with the tape and there is only a thin line left around the edge. Give it a spray with some water and detergent (which prevents it sticking to you) and a last wipe smooth and it's all done, and NO MESS !!


















While silicone was to hand it seemed like a good time to do a few other bits as well.
The handbasin in the bathroom had not been properly sealed in either as I thought it was best to wait until the "drawer" front was attached and sealed as it is easier to get at this way. More tape.


















Same deal then for the basin


















This is one of those weird images where you can't tell whether it's going up or down - but I assure you it's the right way up.























I was also concerned about the door frame as the bathroom will be subject to high humidity and moisture was likely to penetrate under the frame causing it to either rot or twist.
So around the frame too









































Lastly a little job using some adhesive backed velcro used to hold the kicking boards in place. I decided to do this rather than screwing them in place as there is quite a bit of space behind them which could be used for a bit of storage of seldom used items.


















So pretty soon I'll be able to attach the spare wheel . . .
hmmmm . . . the current plan calls for using the motorbike ramp as a lifting device to get the wheel up and down so it looks like I'll have to tackle that too . . .