Sojourner

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Originally Posted by Tango

I hate it when that happens. I guess the only good news is it missed your jugular vein...and guy stuff. Hope you get better soon pardner.

Sorry it happened and it's good you got your meat covered with no problems buy yourself.
I had a 9" cut off wheel explode on me yesterday and believe it or not the crazy freaking weather saved me from a cutting wheel explosion?
Because I had long johns,blue jeans and insulated cover alls on.
The busted damn wheel made it all the way to the long johns and I have a bruise on my inner thigh near the knee.
Sorry it happened to you.
Been there done that.
This is related but just advice and not for sojourner.
OSHA safety advisory from several years ago. Don't quote me
Your grinding/cutting wheels need to be rated for the RPM that your grinder turns?
My old company bought all brand new Hilti grinders that ran 6000 rpm?
They didn't say that nobody makes grinding or cutting wheels that are compatible?
So after a few exploding grinding and cutting wheels we had to buy exclusively from Hilti until the rest of the world caught up? And they still have not yet as for as a lot of tools?
But the attachment you attach to the tool needs to be able to handle that tools capacity.
Don't put a 1500 RPM grinder wheel on a 3000 RPM grinder.
Bad JUJU

[Brewerbob]

Knock on wood, I've not had an exploded disk get me. Using little 4 1/2" jobs so if/when maybe the damage will be less. I have brushed bare skin on the grinding wheel one too many times. Even almost at a stop, it still leaves instant road rash and that sh1t just plain HURTS!!. I wear gloves even if they are thin ones whenever messing the the angle grinder.

Almost cut the last digit of my thumb in half back in Sept with a table saw. Totally stupid newbie mistake that even a newbie knows better than to do. Was cutting without the pushy stick. Made the cut just fine. Reached across the blade left handed to move the cut piece past the blade. Left hand started closer to the off switch. No clue why I didn't just turn it off first then move the piece. Or even simply reached right handed instead of reaching over the blade.

Anywho, took more than 2 months for all the flesh to grow back. Nice scar for war stories like this. Still waiting to see if the feeling comes back like it was. Currently feels like a thick callous, half numb. Unless I touch something vibrating then it tingles weird like. Even the steering wheel can do it if I hold it at the wrong angle. Seems to be affected by cold more than the other fingers/thumb.

As for working along, it's about the only work on my bus that I can do. I really need to do something about the hole for the fuel pump. Hasn't happened yet but carrying something and miss stepping could go horribly wrong especially since the car is a stick. A broken ankle would make things tricky.

[EastCoastCB]

Sorry to hear about your injury, Trav!
Happens to the best of us!

[sojourner]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

It's always sad to hear about an injury, but buses do demand a certain amount of blood.

At least it was a clean grinding wheel.

I have a saying about doing projects here on the farm. "No job is finished unless there's some DNA left" ��. Always seems to be some blood left or knuckles skinned along the way.

Thanks to all for the well wishes. Gotta tell ya though, worse than any pain involved, not going forward with getting this door frame installed is the hardest part. I am NOT good at being laid up.

[Rusty]

Very sorry to hear about your injury.

The part about working alone hit home- I don't want to even admit to the 'situations' I found myself into that could have had much different endings. Many a person has told me: I don't know how you moved/lifted/removed yourself without getting hurt.

Try to at least have your phone on your person while 'doing tricks' as I am accused of doing while working alone. Sometimes it's hard, but I always try to have it close.

My father-in-law was a millwright for Chrysler for close to 4 decades and he had a grinder wheel explode few months before retirement, messed his knee up bad.

That is a crappy area to heal, moves too much. Take care.

Bus is looking good. You can always tack some angle on the edge of that door frame for a flange to attach/seal. It also hides the raw cut edge of the skin. Use big rivets for stock look.

[sojourner]

Well, after a bit of a respite I'm back in action on this door frame install. I first cut the side panels to get access to the chair rails:



The next step is to cut out the chair rail. I later ground off the pop rivets and Huck fasteners that connected the chair rail and hat channel to the floor and then cut the top of the hat channel, chair rail and floor, then remove:



After removing the chair rail and hat channel piece I laid out the floor where the square tube brace will go. I notched the floor hat channels to be able to get more weld on the tube frame when I do the final install of the door frame and step well assembly:



The ratchet strap is pulling down a hat channel that's not sitting directly on the frame. This was it's position before doing any cutting and not because some was cut away. Interestingly, none of the metal (including the roof hat channel) I cut away was under stress.
Also, to cut away all this metal, I used an angle grinder with cutoff wheel, reciprocating saw and jigsaw with metal cutting blade. A warning to the wise, cutting and grinding away this kind of thing takes a lot of forethought to do reasonably safely. This kind of cutting can get you bad hurt if not very carefully planned and executed. If you're in a hurry or unfamiliar with using power tools to cut metal, please get someone else with experience to do it!!

Here's a pic of a portion of the tube frame set in place to test the fit:



Next, temporarily set in place the door frame to fit the left edge of the storage bay frame to the door frame and fit and tack the sides of the tube frame for the step well to floor junction:



More to come as I progress.

[david.dgeorge07]

Looks great! What was your strategy for safely cutting the floor joist channel?


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[sojourner]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

Looks great! What was your strategy for safely cutting the floor joist channel?


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After getting my lines laid out I checked where there were no hat channels and used the angle grinder (careful plunge cut) with a cutoff wheel to create "windows" to begin saw cuts. This could also be done by drilling holes to start the jigsaw cuts. I then cut the sheet metal with a jigsaw up to either side of the hat channels with the exception of the ones with angle iron attached. On those I only cut up to the side opposite of the angle iron. I then used a reciprocating saw with a long blade to finish cut the hat channels and through the angle iron. I did the first cuts where the inside of the tube frame will mount. I then came back and made cuts in the back side the same as I did the others but only cutting the floor skin and not all the way through the hat channels. I then laid out lines on the hat channels where the tube frame will sit and cut away the excess. This is the part that get's a bit tricky and, because an angle grinder with cutoff wheel would be out of position and prone to hanging up, I used a combination of jigsaw and reciprocating saw to rough cut away the notches for the tube frame. It was then just a matter of cleaning up to fit with an angle grinder.

[sojourner]

After reinstalling the door frame I needed to weld into place the storage bay brace that will bolt to the door frame. I'm designing the storage bay frames to be removable in case the need to do so ever arises. Especially the frames covering the skins over the fuel tanks. I slipped a thin sheet metal shim in between the door frame and storage bay frame to account for paint.



I then removed the door frame to dril the pilot holes in the storage bay framework to later drill the holes in the door frame. These holes are drilled to 3/16" to be drilled in the door frame later to tap to 1/4-20. These holes will later be drilled to 1/4".





Reinstall the door frame to begin welding the step well to floor attachment.



After final fitting the step well to floor framework, it's time to weld them in place.







Then remove the door frame and step well frame to weld the places inaccessible behind the chair rail.



I fabricated the bottom step frame and welded it to the door frame. The step treads will be made of Cambera mahogany as is the bottom step. The boards I have are 1" thick and, in case I needed to replace them I set up braces to make the bottom step flush with the step tube frame. This way, the door will sit directly on the steel frame giving me a flush entry step.



The next step will be to reinstall this framework into place and weld to the floor and chair rail. Gonna be a couple days though as I feeling a bit under the weather which totally bums me out. I really do like building things and am not a good patient. After losing almost a week to the hand injury, it seems I picked up a bug from my visit to the emergency room!!

[Tango]

Excellent progress! Keep the pix coming.

[WanderWoman]

WOW! Looking great! Thank you for the step by step explanations, it makes it easy to understand what is going on

[david.dgeorge07]

Considering things like this always makes me feel tired! Looks like you are doing great work!


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[sojourner]

Got a question for ya'll.
We're not planning on going to the far north for the winter ever in this bus. Not that that can't happen, we're just not planning on it. With keeping the roof height stock this leaves little room for heavily insulating the floor. The current plan is to do 1/2" plywood, mount thew cabinets and fixed structures and then use glue down cork flooring (the only product that's 100% cork) for all exposed areas. That being said, I have the opportunity to get 7/16" OSB for $8/sheet. This is the exterior grade sheeting, not the cheaper grade.
Any thoughts on why, or why not to use this as a foundation for the cork flooring?

[snonut]

I didn't know they even made an exterior OSB, but that being said it is pretty good as underlayment. It actually provides some sound deadening property. The only problem I have ever had with it is when it gets really wet, it sort of dissolves.

[Rusty]

Just want to comment on the big hole in the side of your bus-

Great work and fabulous pictures Those pictures will undoubtedly help a bunch of people contemplating this big, but worthwhile job.

My door is midship and it really changes the felling you get when you enter- more RV, less bus.

I like how you softened the corner on the top step (45)- may have to incorporate that one.

Don't use OSB for anything on the bus. Savings is not worth it. Skimp elsewhere.

[ben2go]

Originally Posted by sojourner

Got a question for ya'll.
We're not planning on going to the far north for the winter ever in this bus. Not that that can't happen, we're just not planning on it. With keeping the roof height stock this leaves little room for heavily insulating the floor. The current plan is to do 1/2" plywood, mount thew cabinets and fixed structures and then use glue down cork flooring (the only product that's 100% cork) for all exposed areas. That being said, I have the opportunity to get 7/16" OSB for $8/sheet. This is the exterior grade sheeting, not the cheaper grade.
Any thoughts on why, or why not to use this as a foundation for the cork flooring?

If your exterior 7/16 OSB is like what I get at lowes, there's two sides, smooth and rough. If you're using a standard contact adhesive on the flooring, you should be OK with it on the smooth side. Seal the OSB joints with something like thin gorilla tape to help keep the flooring from settling into the joints between the sheets of OSB.

If you're using the stiff backed cork flooring, you may be able to get away with 1/2 inch foil faced foam insulation, 1/4 inch plywood, joints sealed with gorilla tape, and flooring laid down.

[Rusty]

Just reading-up on your choice of flooring- I always liked the idea of cork- especially the insulating properties. It's also renewable, which is good. I do feel bad for the Oak trees when the strip them, but life is tough in the Forest.

I also read-up on the special adhesive they suggest- Wakol D 3540

They don't list OSB as suggested underlayment.

Water Based contact adhesive with Zero VOCs. Wakol D3540 Cork Adhesive can be used for interior installation of cork tiles and underlayment over porous and non-porous substrates.

Acceptable Substrates:

Plywood (at or above grade)
Concrete (at or above grade)
Drywall (unfinished)
Painted drywall so long as the paint has been covered in latex/water based primer
Special Features:
Elongated working time
High initial bonding strength
Fast curing (24 hrs)

Even if OSB is free, still would not install. My dos centavitos.

[cadillackid]

im not sure id like OSB in a situation where its constantly going to flex.. i realize its not there for strength. but even the exterior stuff seems to stress out easy from moisture and id think over time any "board" that is glued together from bits. but start to deteriorate.. if it were my build with as much attention you are paying to detail and great craftsmsnship, i'd spring for the good wood as your underlayment.. thats one area you never want to have to revisit again...
-Christopher

[Tango]

I have never seen any OSB that was waterproof and did not swell up like crazy with dampness. Is this something different than every day OSB?

[ben2go]

All of the modern houses and buildings I have worked on were sheathed in OSB. My outbuilding roof is sheathed in 7/16 exterior OSB. The exterior grade OSB uses a water proof glue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriented_strand_board