The Roach Motel

[Tango]

There are no "bad dogs"... but here are a helluva lot of bad dog owners. Just sayin'.

[Accordion]

Excellent photo of the outhouse at night. Perhaps you could post it on the photo thread in the "everything else" forum.

[roach711]

Thanx Accordian, I'll have a look. BTW, I just hung three of my upper cabinets "Accordian style" with the angle brackets and even with the screws going into fiberglass they're rock solid.

[Accordion]

Originally Posted by roach711

Thanx Accordian, I'll have a look. BTW, I just hung three of my upper cabinets "Accordian style" with the angle brackets and even with the screws going into fiberglass they're rock solid.

Hanging the cabinets "Accordion style" is a sentence that makes me laugh. "Accordion style" makes me think of polka music. Although I like some polka music, I do not play polkas. I prefer tangos and Cajun music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6br6A1wkbIw

Screwing into fiberglass would make me leery of it's strength. On my bus, I used a 9/64th pilot drill bit and used sheet rock screws to go in to the metal.

Hopefully, your cabinets will stay in place. How thick is the fiberglass that you screwed in to?

[roach711]

Originally Posted by Accordion

Hopefully, your cabinets will stay in place. How thick is the fiberglass that you screwed in to?

I'd say the fiberglass inner skin is about 3/16th's thick and it holds a sheet metal screw real well. I didn't test mine by hanging from them like you did but I did give each a good yanking on and they all held fine. All my upper cabinets have one end anchored to one of the closet cabinets and 3 or 4 angle brackets along the rest of their length. Time will tell, but I think they'll be fine.

[Accordion]

Having that side support will greatly enhance the strength of the cabinets.

[roach711]

The bedroom upper cabinets are in



I had a somewhat drawn-out water heater adventure this week. I fired it up and a few minutes later happened to look out the window to see a lot of black, sooty smoke coming out of the heater. I quickly shut it down but it wouldn't come on again. After poking around a bit I found a thermal cutoff that's supposed to kill power to the heater if the flue gets blocked and flame backs up into the water heater controls. Naturally, it not resetable and had to be replaced. About a week later the replacement arrived and troubleshooting resumed. I checked the gas pressure after cobbling up a handy-dandy manometer, cleaned the flue tube, checked the gas orfice for blockage and just generally sat there and stared at the ornery bugger. None of it made a bit of difference, particularly the staring. Finally, I looked online and found a good troubleshooting site which suggested (among other things) to check the burner tube for spider webs. Five minutes later the heater was burning nice and blue instead of the sooty orange flame before. Bloody spiders

[bansil]

"Man-o-meter" Does it spew when its all hot and bothered? looks like just aplastic tube full of water

[ol trunt]

Roach, your cabinets are awsome--the fit and finish is perfect.

Your manometer obviously will work just fine and is quite clever-- it doesn't need it to work but a drop of food coloring would make it easier to read I think. How about 'splaning how a monometer works to the rest of us? Jack

[roach711]

Bansil - you're evil. You know that you are. The Man-O-Meter you're thinking of is called a ruler

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Roach, your cabinets are awsome--the fit and finish is perfect.

Your manometer obviously will work just fine and is quite clever-- it doesn't need it to work but a drop of food coloring would make it easier to read I think. How about 'splaning how a monometer works to the rest of us? Jack

Jack - Me thinks you probably know way better how to use this thing than I do, but here goes.

Propane 101

Propane bottles have pressures varying between not much when empty to around 250 psi when full, but propane appliances require steady pressure of about .5 psi. The regulator sits between the bottles and the appliances and knocks the pressure down so the appliances will be happy. Several things can screw up that pressure adjustment. Sometimes the regulator will get out of adjustment, propane lines can leak or get crimped and sometimes junk gets in the propane tanks and clogs orfices.

So you may have an appliance that's screwing up but how do you know whether it's mechanical or gas pressure related? That's where the manometer comes in. Basically, it's just a clear tube with a little water in it attached to a backer board with a scale which lets you measure pressure in inches of water column. You hook it up to the low-pressure side of the regulator and when you turn on the gas the pressure moves the water column. Typically, propane static pressure (that is, with no leaks or gas appliances running) will be 14 inches of water column. With several appliances running you want to see at least 10 inches.

I built mine out of some foam board and some 1/2" plastic tubing that was laying around, and Instead of using expensive brass fittings to connect to the gas lines I just used electrical tape. The pressure is so low in the propane lines that the tape seals just fine. To test gas pressure to the water heater I disconnected the gas line coming into the water heater regulator and taped the manometer tube to the fitting on the incoming gas line.

You can also use your manometer to test for leaks in the system by pressurizing the system then turning off the propane bottle valves and watching the manometer for any drop in the water column.

Here's a link to instructions for building one:

http://www.rverscorner.com/manometer.html

One mistake I made was to make the lower loop too small and the small amount of water was being blown right out the top of the tube (Bansil,just keep it to yourself ). After much head scratching I finally just made the lower loop longer and that solved the problem.

I built mine because the spider webs in my burner tube made it look like I had very low gas pressure to the heater. By hooking up the manometer I could rule out low line gas pressure.

[ol trunt]

, Thanks. Jack

[bansil]

[roach711]

Not a lot of progress this week but I did pick up a new valance for the front bumper. I'd shopped the Internet for a replacement and found some aftermarket valances for $70 or so plus shipping but I checked the local Ford dealer and they had factory replacements for $65. I've been pleasantly surprised by Ford's parts pricing.



The sink we got had three holes for the faucet but I needed holes for the sprayer and the soap dispenser. Word on the 'net was that stainless was ornery stuff and hard to work with. Some suggested using a greenlee punch set to shear the holes and others said a hole saw would work but would generate a lot of heat and might discolor the sink. I tried my Sears 1" hole saw and it dug right through nice and clean. Sometimes the Internet guys over-think the problem.



My little incandescent reading lights over the bed were drawing 11 watts each so I checked ebay for LED replacement bulbs. I found two G4 base LED bulbs for the grand total of $4 shipped to my door. Light output is about the same as the incandescent bulbs and these draw only 1 watt each. The light color is distinctly greenish which isn't great but the price and power draw was certainly right. After installing these our total lighting load (three aisle lights and the two reading lights) is 12 watts. That compares to about 65 watts to run all the incandescents.

We also needed some low power lights for the under-bed storage area and for use as a night light in the bathroom area. The Dollar Store came through with a set of three AAA battery powered LED stick-on puck lights. They were $5 for the set and included batteries. Their light output is pretty low but they do light up the dark places with no wiring required. You press the light lens to turn them on/off.



The weather's starting to turn cold here in lower Michigan so I need to get my water pipes and tanks drained before they freeze.

[roach711]

So I had two smallish problems: The back of the kitchen counter was visible through the side windows (which looks a bit country) and I needed someplace convenient to put cooking utensils and silverware. The original plan was to black out the windows up to the top of the counter and to build some sort of holder for the utensils and fasten it to the back of the kitchen cabinet door.

Disregard that homeless guy reflected in the window.


What I came up with was something that takes care of both problems. I took the cutouts from the window trim panels and made them into a piece that fits down into the gap between the counter and the bus window covering the back of the counter top and giving us some handy storage for the utensils. I'll paint the piece black so it will effectively black out that part of the window.

Here's the (unpainted) piece.


and here it is in place.


I'm also very excited that my third bus title finally arrived and actually looks like they may have actually gotten it right this time.

[Tango]

Nifty solution that will doubtless get mimicked many times over. And...nice camera.

[ol trunt]

Very clever idea! If you don't mind I'll try to copy cat your solution . Jack

[roach711]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Very clever idea! If you don't mind I'll try to copy cat your solution . Jack

Copy away with my blessings. I'm just pleased to finally be able to contribute something original

[Tango]

The sharing and cross pollination of ideas is one of the things that make this forum so great. I was in ad biz for many years and we had a saying..."there's nothing wrong with stealing ideas...as long as you only steal the good ones."

[roach711]

Originally Posted by Tango

The sharing and cross pollination of ideas is one of the things that make this forum so great. I was in ad biz for many years and we had a saying..."there's nothing wrong with stealing ideas...as long as you only steal the good ones."

Totally agree with that. My build would have been much more difficult without all the ideas I came across here. We truly do stand on each other's shoulders at times.

You were in advertizing? I pictured you (and Jack and chevy49) as being heavy equipment guys from your willingness to cut and paste huge pieces of equipment.

[ol trunt]

Roach, I was suprised as well. But then I guess I shouldn't talk. I started out as a teacher and when I couldn't stand that any longer I became a peace officer--I did like that, go figger. I've always played with cars and for it to remain fun it needed to get more and more complicated hense all the tools and equiptment and no money in the bank What about you '49 and you too Roach?

I think the truly amazing thing about Tango is his concrete and steel art--truly amazing! Jack