Just Call Me Bobert

[Rwnielsen]

I'm sure you know all about this, but the difference between traveling an hour to work on your bus vs. ten minutes is enormous.

That's where I'm at....65 miles

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Did a little work tonight on the TSLABUS while waiting for the lvp flooring adhesive in the party bus to set

Got the radiator drained and the old egr cooler off. Coolant all looks good so won't need to flush or replace anytime soon. I won't mention how much time I wasted walking around the bus to my workbench and toolbox trying to guess correct wrench sizes or needing a screw driver, pry bar, leverage bar, and then trying to get the d*mn bolt out of the socket with the vice, screwdriver, and a mallet haha. A mechanic I am not!!

The new egr cooler isn't quite ready to go on, need to "adjust" the water inlet port yet...

Also crawled underneath and got the tcm pulled down. Sent off the details to the programmer to make sure he can work with this one before I ship it off tomorrow to get 6th unlocked.

That was a bigger pain to get down than expected. The third bolt up top is hard to get at and I don't have a ratcheting wrench that size. The electronic connector wires have a plastic latch to keep them snug and those didn't want to come off nicely either, I was afraid to put too much pressure on them and snap them off so took a lot of wiggling. The label on the tcm was covered in oil and grease so that took a while to get cleaned up to send the cin to the programmer.

Everything on a bus takes longer than expected

 

[Dbacks2k4]

A few new updates. I've been documenting them on YouTube as I go but I'll be sure to update this thread as well.
TSLABUS Adventures

Most of my initial round of engine work and prevent maintenance is done. The deleted EGR cooler is on as well as a new EGR valve. Well, new-ish. Ok, used. Since the cooler is deleted that valve will never do anything, but I did put a used one on there in case I ever need to take this bus into a dealer for work. All I'd have to do is re-swap the non-deleted cooler back on and she's ready to go in. I'm also hoping that the intermittent sputter I was getting was a symptom of the EGR valve failing and that issue is now just gone (one can hope.... but probably not).

The heater hoses are now also replaced, including that giant PITA one that goes from the reservoir under the oil pan and up to the water pump (I think). I used the blue Flexfab silicone hose for most of the runs, and used the green premium hose for the PITA under the oil pan one since it's the most vulnerable down there. I still have the two bleeder lines that go back to the reservoir to do yet. One is for the EGR cooler, again pointless, but trying to keep up appearances . The other I think is for the AC compressors. I ran out of 3/8" silicone hose though, and will have to wait a few days for that to come in. I also replaced the old gate-style heater shutoff valves with new ball valves.

Sometime before going cross country with it I'll likely replace some of the other fluid lines, including the power steering, but I don't have any of that hose type laying around the shop. I've never really had issues with those on my other buses in the fleet... so its not a top priority for me at the moment. Coolant lines are what always seem to cause us issues.

The oil analysis came back looking good. High sodium levels but they think that could just be some additive the school district used. My mechanic isn't worried about it. So looks like an overhaul isn't necessary at this juncture.

I spent an hour one night installing a quick connect fitting in the service port and changed out the drains for the ones on leashes that can be easily drained from the side of the bus wtihout crawling under. The air compressor is definitely almost shot, I've got oil in my air tanks and I think a leak around one of its seals on the compressor itself. If weather cooperates I'll do a degrease and power wash on the whole engine here soon so we can see what all else is leaking. I think the front main is as well, but its hard to tell with so much old grease and oil up there. The air compressor and front main if needed will definitely be jobs for my mechanic... waaaay too far beyond my comfort level!

The re-flashed TCM is back and I appear to be 6th gear enabled now. As soon as I button up the last couple coolant lines and refill the radiator I'll take it out for a test drive.

Last update is I started work on the undercarriage storage boxes. Got rid of the old rubber mat that was in them, cleaned up, sanded down and coated with a truck bed liner. I'll also be cleaning up the outside of the boxes under the bus and going over them with a rubberized undercoat protection.

 

[fo4imtippin]

Good work Kevin! I have my radiator out as well replacing every rubber line. Surprisingly, they were all in great shape although they were fused to their male parts and had to be cut off. I bet that roll of silicone hose was a pretty penny. I ended up ordering a few 2.25 angle boots from BlueBird for pretty cheap. They used Gates greenstripe 4 ply hose on everything and it held up really well. I himhawed about changing to Silicone, but wasn't sure about the greater permeation. Its funny, my most difficult hose was from the resevoir to the bottom of the radiator. I cut that one and took the rest out after i pulled the radiator. They had one of the straps on a timing cover stud. I decided to work around that as i didn't want to mess with causing the cover to leak.


I noticed your round mirrors are still on the hood (everytime you had to bend around them). I wacked my head a few times and they came off. Havent noticed any blind spots without them. Since this isn't a party bus, are you planning on taking them off? Or do you find them useful?



I left a comment on your video. You will find that the reason they put that strut on the roof was just support to hold in the rear Airconditioner. (AZ bus for me too btw) In my case, my roof is galvanized and that strut was aluminum. It leaked and caused terrible galvanic corrosion. I would recommend to drop your A/c before you paint the roof and check it out. I welded plugs into my holes and jbwelded the top of them.

I fabbed up brackets to relocate my Air Conditioner to the front (over my engine). Just used some angle iron to put an end on and bolt into the ribs. Then i hung a carriage bolt through the iron to lay into the top of the inside unit.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Good work Kevin! I have my radiator out as well replacing every rubber line. Surprisingly, they were all in great shape although they were fused to their male parts and had to be cut off. I bet that roll of silicone hose was a pretty penny. I ended up ordering a few 2.25 angle boots from BlueBird for pretty cheap. They used Gates greenstripe 4 ply hose on everything and it held up really well. I himhawed about changing to Silicone, but wasn't sure about the greater permeation. Its funny, my most difficult hose was from the resevoir to the bottom of the radiator. I cut that one and took the rest out after i pulled the radiator. They had one of the straps on a timing cover stud. I decided to work around that as i didn't want to mess with causing the cover to leak.

I noticed your round mirrors are still on the hood (everytime you had to bend around them). I wacked my head a few times and they came off. Havent noticed any blind spots without them. Since this isn't a party bus, are you planning on taking them off? Or do you find them useful?

I left a comment on your video. You will find that the reason they put that strut on the roof was just support to hold in the rear Airconditioner. (AZ bus for me too btw) In my case, my roof is galvanized and that strut was aluminum. It leaked and caused terrible galvanic corrosion. I would recommend to drop your A/c before you paint the roof and check it out. I welded plugs into my holes and jbwelded the top of them.

I fabbed up brackets to relocate my Air Conditioner to the front (over my engine). Just used some angle iron to put an end on and bolt into the ribs. Then i hung a carriage bolt through the iron to lay into the top of the inside unit.

Thanks for the kind words and feedback.

The rear roof rails being support for the a/c evaporator makes total sense now that I think about it! The only thing I could think of was some sort of roof cargo rack but I'd never seen or heard of such a thing on a school bus, even a travel/activity bus.

We leave the front mirrors on the party buses. It's actually an ongoing disagreement between my business partner and I, ha ha. I like keeping them for visibility when driving late night parties. Nice to be able to double check there's no drunk idiot squatting right in front of my hood before I take off... it's amazing the places drunk guys choose to urinate around 2am. He thinks they look too tacky and we should take them off (I agree with him on the optics point). The ones on the skoolie will be coming off when I get closer to being ready to paint the bus. I guess there's no reason to wait that long, I'd save myself some ducking if I did them now

The coil of hose was a bit pricey, but I did quite a bit of shopping around and got it for a decent price at hosewarehouse.com. Buying in bullk helped a little bit. It was back ordered for about 3 months, but eventually did come in. Business expense so at least its tax deductible We just won't tell the tax man I took a few feet off it for my own personal bus!! If the front main seal is indeed leaking then the radiator will have to come out and there's a few more hoses up in there that will get replaced then including a pretty big 3" line on the radiator. A few of the radiator boots up there are Navistar formed and they only come in rubber and at a premium dealer price. We just did all those on the last party bus when we resealed the front main.

-Kevin

 

[Veloc]

We leave the front mirrors on the party buses. It's actually an ongoing disagreement between my business partner and I, ha ha. I like keeping them for visibility when driving late night parties. Nice to be able to double check there's no drunk idiot squatting right in front of my hood before I take off... it's amazing the places drunk guys choose to urinate around 2am. He thinks they look too tacky and we should take them off (I agree with him on the optics point). The ones on the skoolie will be coming off when I get closer to being ready to paint the bus. I guess there's no reason to wait that long, I'd save myself some ducking if I did them now

If the mirrors are tacky and not keeping with the theme, may I suggest RV side cameras. They are unobtrusive, can be painted to match and can go anywhere. The picture is a representation, not a recommendation.

Personally, I'd rather err on the side of safety than class. A tacky mirror is far better than an injury/death lawsuit.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

May I suggest RV side cameras. They are unobtrusive, can be painted to match and can go anywhere.

These are exactly what I'm looking for for the TSLABUS cameras - the smaller flush-sitting cameras that look like the ones integrated on my car's front fenders.

Personally, I'd rather err on the side of safety than class. A tacky mirror is far better than an injury/death lawsuit.

Yup! That's what to date I've won the mirror argument

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Got some work on the bus done today with the storage compartments before it got too hot to be productive.

I grabbed a few measurements and came home and spent the evening in my air conditioned home office working on a to-scale floor plan. Here's what I've come up with:

For reference, here's what I'm working with...

It's pretty close to the crude drawing I'd done when I first started this journey. About the only significant change was reversing the toilet/shower from the closet/laundry. The locations for the wheel wells dictated that.

I went back through all of my research on water tanks, solar panels, mini splits, etc to make sure the products I intend to order have the dimensions for the spaces I want to fit them. It's also looking like the bathroom and closet area will fit nicely over 2 windows with no overlap, so I'm leaning towards a clean delete on those with skoolie.com panels.

A couple things I'm still questioning...

• Inter-connecting the 4 individual grey tanks, best way to go about for balancing/monitoring. Unless I order a custom tank, the 4x46 gal option gives me the dimensions to fit between the fuel tank and the engine A/C condensors while keeping my clearance still above the fuel tank.
• Should I use a manifold for the dump or just let them drain down through each other?
• Since the tanks are square (not sloped), should I slope them in their moutning brackets for draining? I image that will mess up my balancing between tanks.
• How do I make sure I can get some grey tank treatment solution into each tank after dumping
• All 200 gal/1600 lbs of water behind rear axle... on a 20,000 lb vehicle that should still be ok?
• Best location for stabilizing jacks. I think the front ones will be easy to find a spot behind the stairs/battery box. Rear ones a little more challenging, maybe right behind wheel well? That's about where the air bags are for the suspension

I'm sure I'll continue to tweak this over the coming months and I'm hoping you guys will have some useful insights as always!

-Kevin

 

[fo4imtippin]

Enjoying the Youtube videos. Good progress! Hey i see you have a TPMS. Which one do you have, and do you like it? Wanted to get one on mine shortly.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Hey i see you have a TPMS. Which one do you have, and do you like it?

This is the one I have on the TSLABUS:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SBPL5YZ
The party buses have these:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B09F31KLTX

They're pretty close to identical, the only difference I could see is the display of the new one is color versus just b&w. Amazon was sold out of the old model when I ordered the one for tslabus. So far I've been extremely happy with them.

It comes with a range extender which I've never needed to use, the signals get up to the dash just fine (maybe that would extend the battery life in the sensors if they don't have to transmit as strong a signal? I don't know). The dash unit will solar charge, but on the party buses we're usually parked indoors all week long and out driving at night, so I just wired the usb charger to a key-on ignition circuit.

It takes a little tinkering on first install to get the alarms set correctly. By default the high pressure alarm is 117psi I think. I run my tires at 105psi cold, so on a hot day it's not uncommon for us to hit 120psi hot which sets off the alarm. The default low is like 50psi or something too, which is lower than I like. So I adjust them to 80psi/125psi. You can use different ranges for the steers versus the drives if you want. They also have a temperature sensor in them, handy to know if you have a brake stuck and are starting to overheat waaay before you have a fire! :marshmallow:

The tire sending units just screw onto the valve stem. We've had the ones on the party buses for about a year now and haven't had to change batteries yet, so not sure how long they'll be good for. The only issue we had was one of our tires on one of the buses has a cross-threaded valve stem, so with the sensor attached we had a slow leak and wound up having to take it off. It wasn't the sensor's fault, just a problem with the tire itself. The sensors do have a locking nut to make them harder to steal, but we didn't put those on. It's more convenient for me to quick unscrew them by hand in order to air up a tire than go hunting for that little wrench...

One of my drivers ordered a set for his RV after seeing them on our party buses. He's been super happy with them too.

 

[Wildfloweramanda]

Impressive

1 Acquisition
....
9.9 Install Window Treatments/Blinds
...

Constructive feedback, as always, appreciated (it's why I'm here )

I ADORE this detailed plan. I am copying it with a few modifications for my specific build. #sorrynotsorry :biggrin:

 

[Dbacks2k4]

It's been a couple of weeks since my last update. I'm sitting in a waiting room, seems like a good time to write and update but I will have to upload some photos later. Youtube videos are all current though.

The storage box refinishing project with truck bed liner is done and they turned out great. I held off on doing the outside of the boxes with rubberized undercoating until I do the whole bus undercarriage and the engine degrease project.

I finished the coolant line replacement and "bulletproofing" of the egr system. Obviously on YT I can't admit to what I really did, but let's just say that egr cooler ain't ever gonna fail again and it don't matter in the least if that egr valve functions or not, lol.

I did replace the failed egr valve with a used part, which turned out to be bad. Mine has good electronics yet but the valve is stuck open. The replacement has dead electronics which triggered a diag code in the ecm along with a 'warn engine' light. The guy sent me a replacement valve I still have to install. In case I ever need to take the bus to a shop or dealer, I need "stock" egr. I figure can somewhat easily swap back in the original cooler I'll keep in a storage box, but the valve must be good to do that.

The reprogrammed tcm came back from Charlie Ball at express transport. I took the bus for a test drive, about 45 mins through town, down a back roads 55mph two-lane blacktop, then back via interstate 80. The 6th gear was fantastic. 1700rpm at 55mph, 1900 at 65, and 2100 at 75. Even hit 80mph with ease at one point passing a truck. Not a single hiccup or sputter with the engine, my suspected fuel/IPR issue early on in the acquisition was apparently the original egr valve beginning to fail.

Last project was rerouting the exhaust tailpipe. Original was piped out through the rear bumper. Ironically enough, Iowa DOT requires rear exhaust for party bus conversions and almost every bus we bought for party buses had side exhaust we had to have redone. I've always argued it with the DOT officials... side exhaust is perfectly safe for school kids but not intoxicated adults?... They generally agree but don't have the power to change the regs. Anyway, on the camper bus I wanted side exhaust and this bus had rear. First, Iowa law says nothing about exhaust placement on an RV, second, I don't want the soot sprayed on my towed car, and third, the tailpipe was in the way of my planned grey tank placement. I've never done exhaust work so it was a bit of a challenge getting the old one out and clamping together new pieces for the reroute. I got it done without any welding. My hanging brackets fabrication is a little more (ok a lot more) janky than I'd like but they work. The original brackets going over the axle and along the fuel tank were wrong dimensions for the reroute. Ill do some online research and see if I can find something better.

I sold my interest in the party bus business to my business partner so have been busy transitioning ownership over to him. As part of that deal he's closing down the shop I've been using a bay of for my bus, so I rented a new commercial storage unit and started moving in today. I'm losing my electric door opener, overload lights, running water, floor drains, bathroom, insulated walls, and Reznor heater. The new shop is also significantly smaller... 14 ft wide, 50 ft deep, and 14 ft high. It's also significantly cheaper - so I'll make do. I may do some rough insulation yet to give my propane space heater less of a workout on build days this winter.

Now that the bus is in its permanent build home I'll actually start gutting it and begin the conversion itself. I'm actually still mostly following my original build plan with focusing on the mechanicals first. I still want to do some more prevent maintenance... Replacing more seals, gaskets, brake chamber pancakes, basically anything rubber that is likely well dry rotted after 17 years in the Arizona desert. But my mechanic friend has been very busy and I'm about at the limit of things I'm comfortable attempting on my own. The air compressor is failing and will need replaced too. He assures me I can do it on my own... I'm not so sure

But I'm confident now I have a solid foundation so time to get at the interior.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

First a few pictures from my last post that I never got around to uploading
The refinished storage boxes with the truck bed liner, the rerouted exhaust pipe, and lastly the new shop in its unviolated pristine condition. The test drive really wasn't photo worthy but there's a video on my YouTube channel (linked in my signature) for anyone curious.

Now then....

I made good progress this weekend. For about 6 weeks through Sept and into early October I got absolutely nothing done on the bus. My (now-former) business partner on the party buses and I spent a ton of time finishing that last party bus and dealing with day to day headaches of transitioning the business operations over to him. Whoulda thunk getting all the government agencies updated would be easier than our own bank and insurance company!? We're still wrapping up some details, but we're past the large hurdles now. What's left to be done usually doesn't require my weekends at any rate

Last weekend I spent a couple days getting my new shop organized and cleaned up. As part of moving out of our old party bus shop and finishing the party bus build, my new shop became the defacto dumping ground. Not to mention it was an 11th hour scramble to get out of that shop the day our lease ended, so everything got tossed into boxes and into my pickup and then dumped here.

It took quite a while to get things setup and organized, but I have a much better setup here than I did at our old shop despite less space. That shop was so large that I didn't have to use space efficiently.

However, I definitely need to get some insultation of some sort in my new shop. It's steel construction, a concrete floor, and that's it. My propane heater took the edge off that second day, but only in the back near it. And it was only in the 40s outside. It will be miserable working in there when the temps drop to the teens. I've got a few ideas on how to cheaply do it, but I'm limited by the fact that I can't mechanically fasten anything to the shop itself. And I don't want to spend a ton of money on it... the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Des Moines has some cheap insulation I may be able to leverage.

(no worries, the flame isn't as close to the workbench as the image frame looks like)

Yesterday I brought the bus home for the day. The seats are now mostly out. Since this bus isn't a rust bucket, I used the tried and true vice-grips and impact method of taking out all bolts by my lonesome. It worked pretty well, way more efficient than cutting off the heads. I'm a little sore today though from that many trips up into the bus and back down under the bus

The second and third row from back I wasn't able to get out yet. Those bolts are right above the fuel tank where I can't reach. Those will have to get cut out another day. I only brought a small bag of tools home from the shop and my angle grinder wasn't one of them.

The primary objective for yesterday though was (thanks to a rare late October heat wave) getting the engine degreased and the undercarriage pressure washed.

The undercarriage pressure washing was a job. Ugh, 16 years of mud and muck under there. I pulled the bus onto my sloped driveway to help with water runoff, but without a lift or a pit there's no way to avoid crawling under it on a mechanics creeper and blasting all that yuck right down onto your lap and face. The safety goggles lasted about 3 minutes and got so foggy and caked up I couldn't see what I was doing. Despite the abnormally high temperatures, it was still about 5 degrees too cool and a little too breezy for playing outside in the water.

It's now ready for undercoating sometime soon though. I'd planned to do it yet yesterday but then I got thinking (sometimes that pays off) the point of undercoating is to prevent water from sitting on the metal causing rust, so why in the world would I trap moisture from the pressure washing between the metal and rubber? Wow, disaster avoided lol.

The engine degrease went well. It wasn't horrible to begin with, and the Oreilly's foaming cleanser worked really well. I think I have a small oil leak in the front main seal yet so should be able to see that clearly now. I also thought my air compressor was failing but it no longer appears to be passing oil into the air tanks, so perhaps the tanks just hadn't been purged in a long while when I got it? I'll keep an eye on it, and again now that the engine bay is clean I can watch for anything happening around the part's seals and connections as well.

Anyway, that's it for now. I've been better at updating youtube than this thread but will try to put up pics more consistently. Next steps are going to be getting those last 4 seats out and ripping up floor I think. And one of the days doing the undercoating.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

New video uploaded to Youtube last night.

Made some good progress yesterday. I was in Minneapolis last weekend so didn't touch the bus at all. This week I was down in KC for a business trip and picked up that pesky virus that's been going around the last few years. Made for a not very pleasant trip but this ain't my first go around so overall I'm lucky the symptoms are mild although annoying.

So, yesterday was the first day back on the bus for 2 weeks. I'm still not at 100% so took care not to overdo it. I did finally scrape off the "SCHOOL BUS" vinyl lettering. It came off pretty decent with my heatgun and razor blade.

Better than some of the party buses I've done to date. These were simple vinyl letters and not that stupid 36x14" reflective sticker with the letters printed on the sticker. Those things are usually attached with some NASA-designed military-approved adhesive used in outer space applications or some sh*t. They always scrape off in about 1/16 inch pieces and leave behind tons of residue no matter how much or little heat you applied or how much or how little acetone or other chemicals you try to use. Oh, and if you overheat them ugh do they stink lol. Sorry, end rant. Just glad I didn't have to contend with those again

Anyway, I probably should've done that quite a while ago. I haven't driven the bus too much with them up there... just the test ride out in the country after I fixed the EGR system, once moving the bus from the old shop to the new shop, and once a couple weekends ago bringing the bus home for the degrease. Good thing to have done and not be pressing my luck though.

After that.... and a pop break in my lawn chair... I started removing windows.

They'll all eventually get scrubbed and re-sealed but for now I wanted them out. They have to come out to re-seal anyway and there's no point having them in place while I'm demoing everything else. I've been known to accidentally break a bus window while doing conversions before lol.

They came out pretty decent. I hate those stupid plastic wire run covers so it made me as giddy as a child on Christmas taking them down knowing they were never going back up. There were two sections I couldn't get at as the A/C condensors were in the way. Those will have to come down as well (I'm keeping them, just going to re-fab the case and drain into a new cabinet when they go back up) but that's a project for another day... maybe today.

It appears as if the wonderful folks at Florence Unified School District #1 made a recent attempt to re-seal them. You can see the original factory sealant hard as a brick in there before a generous schalapping of new sealant... Sicaflex maybe.... got applied over it. The new sealant is still pretty wet, makes me think it's less than a couple years old. My hands are still covered in it after scrubbing them raw in the sink last night.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures, time for me to get back down there and get some work done

 

[KeyWestPirate]

Thanks for all the good ideas!


Great looking project!

 

[Dbacks2k4]

After a day of hee'ing and haw'ing back and forth I pulled the trigger on the primary electrical components today.

I'd decided on Signature Solar's EG4 batteries and the 6500EX inverter/charger quite some time ago and the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal just seemed too good to pass up. $75 off per battery, $130 off the 6500 and flat $100 shipping. When I was building out my budget the estimated freight costs were about $400.

I'm nowhere near that point in the build yet. Heck I'm still demo'ing, ha ha. So I'm going to have to find a place in my already cramped shop to store them for a while. The other downside is the warranty clock is going to start tickiing early, but I think I made the right decision. If prices go dramatically down next year I'll kick myself then

I'm still debating on what type of solar panels I want to use yet, so held off on that. And since I'm not 100% sure of placement and wiring yet I held off on all the other "litttle" components (that add up) such as wires, distribution, 12v down-step converters, fuses/breakers, etc.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Long time, no update.

Basically it's too cold here in Iowa to work at my shop comfortably. The insulation and propane heater help, but it takes too long to get warmed up to a "sufferable, but not comfortable" level, especially during the short days of the season. I think it'll help "extend the season" and allow me to work in there before we hit full spring; just not real well when the temps are still in the teens. Here's hoping for an early spring!

In the meantime, I've been buying up parts and tools as opportunities present. For new tools I now have a metal-cutting chop saw from fb marketplace, a new harbor freight drill press, a table saw from my dad's uncle who's downsizing his woodshop, and a nailgun from home depot holiday special.

I've also acquired an external fuel tank. Plan is to plumb my diesel heaters to the new 17 gallon tank I picked up on ebay for cheap. Advantages are not having to drill my primary fuel tank and also the ability to run dyed off-road diesel for the heaters. It's a slim line tank so won't cost me much undercarriage space. I can always siphon a little fuel from the main tank if necessary, although I'm doing some research into tank monitoring systems that would include the heater diesel tank. It already has the probe in it. I'm looking at a system by simarine that looks promising.

I've also been tinkering with my floor plan some. I put a quick YouTube video on my channel about that. If you watched it, yes, I did find a 15 inch kegerator that I think will work perfectly I wasn't looking forward to fabricating my own refrigerator...

I've decided to do a life-size modeling exercise with a bunch of 1x2 timber I got dirt cheap and some cardboard and masking paper. I'm struggling with working on my floor PLAN (including incorporating all the utility connections in) to "really explore the space." Cut to the SNL skit....

Arguably a waste of time, but my inability to visualize a space on paper always winds up with me overestimating the space and resulting in a cramped room. My new bathroom install at my house is a prime example of this. I've played with sketch-up some and even so I'm still doubting myself. And since I'm not on a strict timeline, I'm going to go for it for my own peace of mind. Should make for an entertaining video at least!!

I'm also finished with my network and wifi config. I've made a few tweaks to the configurations and acquired a second lte module with an AT&T prepaid sim. I've deployed that at the shop with a couple security cameras already. I've got too much $ in tools and parts stacked up out there to be protected only by a flimsy padlock. Starlink is on pause mode and I don't have the ability to mount dishy anywhere out there, but the prepaid AT&T connection should suffice for a few cameras. Plus as an IT infrastructure nerd, I like redundancy haha. I'll be making a video about that soon as well.

 

[musigenesis]

Here's hoping for an early spring!

Today on my run I noticed a bunch of flowers coming out of the ground and buds on some of the trees - on Valentine's Day for pete's sake! Doesn't help you in Iowa of course but it's crazy. I grew up in Ohio in the '70s and I remember Winter as something where the ground was completely covered in snow by mid-October and you didn't see grass again until early May.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Finally got the core network/wifi/internet setup finished for the bus.... well, bench tested from the comfort of my home office.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Step 1. Buy a used shop air compressor.
Step 2. Decide to drain the water out of the bottom. Turn petcock to drain, get light mist then nothing. Wrongly assume tank is now void of both moisture and air pressure.
Step 3. Decide to replace said petcock with a more convenient valve on a lead. Remove fitting and get completely blasted with water, oil, grease, and only-God-knows-what brown substance at 20 psi.
Step 4. Utter a few choice words, mostly beginning with 'F'
Step 5. Resist urge to go drink a beer instead and start replacing all fittings and hook up new hose system.
Step 6. Make an unplanned run to Lowes for a stupid 1/4" npt 90° elbow.
Step 7. Finish replacing fittings and feel proud of yourself despite getting less than half of the to-do list accomplished today.