| (no subject) |
[May. 19th, 2008|06:54 pm] |
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This rain is unacceptable. How can i be expected to take test drives in a vehicle without a body in the rain?! |
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| Old |
[Jun. 5th, 2006|08:59 pm] |
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Okay, I just had to go order glasses. I guess I really am a geezer now. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 16th, 2006|05:33 pm] |
Found on an ex-coworker's desk:
Dear Sir,
I've occasionally enjoyed my time here at Tenzing, but I am happy to announce my resignation.
I have no future plans & no job lined up, but I feel this is a much better alternative to working here for a single fucking more minute. |
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| Wall/Door panels almost done. |
[Aug. 16th, 2005|04:35 pm] |
So they're done apart from a couple of more screws (I ran out at 98) and the power window motor covers for the front doors.
rear passenger side wall
passenger door
rear driver side wall
rear hatch
slider
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| Part II |
[Aug. 6th, 2005|08:33 pm] |
So, to continue...
Before ripping out the kitchen cabinets, I had just started on planning out where my new 18-circuit fuse panel was going to go. I ended up deciding to put it inside the under-sink cabinet, under the little false-floor thing. This will allow it to be completely hidden, while still providing reasonably comfortable access to it when i need to work on it (hopefully I won't be swapping fuses often...). The deal is, though, that this is about a foot from where the wires all go now (directly to the aux battery), so a bunch of them need to change length. As I was prepairing to remove the cabinetry, I became somewhat disgusted with the ad-hoc wireing job I have done over the last few months, so I decided to just tear it all out and start over.
I plan to put some conduit in the wall behind the cabinets to try to clean things up a bit, and will be bundling the wires as i go. At the same time, I will try to make future wires easy to add (dunno how...).
So yesterday was the Great Day of Staining. The goal was to get all the panels fitted, drilled, and stained. I almost just barely made it.
I did manage to cut, fit, drill, and sand all panels. I ended up staining all but one of them...because I forgot to remove that one from the van! grr.
Anyway, the panels started life like this:
Bare wood
Go through lots of this:
Sanding (note awesome new sander)
Progressed to this:
'Conditioned' wood
And finally this:
Stained wood
So at the end of yesterday all but one panel were stained.
That left today as the Great Day of Urethaning.
I started by trying to figure out a way to support all the panels on my two sawhorses...
Well, all but two of them fit. Thats pretty good. So the first job was to try to remove as much dust and crap from the panels as possible. So lots of going over things with a clean rag. Then...the finishing.
After closing up all the doors, I started in the center and moved out to the ends. I just tried to avoid bubbles as much as possible, try not to capture too much crap in the surface, and get the edges where I could reach them. I think I probably would have been better off using a thicker coat, as the thicker areas turned out smoother.
I hope to apply 3 or 4 layers on the visable surfaces and 1 on the rear for water reasons.
The results of the first coat are nice, but not perfect. It is certainly shiny, but it isn't smooth. I lightly sanded my test panel (the easiest one to replace) and applied another coat. I feel the first coat wasn't quite ready for sanding, but it worked okay. The results, which are still drying, seem to be much much better. The grain that seemed to raise on the last coat is almost gone on this one. So one more coat (3) should do it!
One coat:
No pictures of coat 2 yet.
Also today I cleaned the crap out of the kitchen cabinetry, and added a hole to the rear of the aux battery compartment so i can run wires from it into the cabinetry without them showing.
At this point it looks like these things will be done in 2-3 days. They will then need between 1-3 days to fully cure before I can install them (though I might get impatient and just install them early and try to not be too mean to them). There is a small amount of sound deading material and insulation to install before I install some of the wall panels.
Well, that is where the project stands at the moment. It at least keeps me from thinking too much.
Oh! also, I upgraded by drill press:
Old
New
Woo! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 5th, 2005|09:42 pm] |
So I've taken the last three days off.
I decided last weekend that I should take some time off since we are probably going to starting a new project at work in the near future, and I felt I should get some time off before that started.
So I've spent the last three days working on my vanagon. Woo!
A few weeks ago I started on the Great Door Panel Replacement Project. This rapidly morphed into the Great Door+Wall Panel Replacement/Rewiring/Sound Deadening/Insulating Project. So basically it spiraled way out from where it started. The thinking being that, 'if i'm going to be removing this bit over here, I might as well remove this bit behind it now as well, since I will want to get behind there in the future anyway'. So, I started by removing all the door panels, but then moved on to removing the easily accessable wall panels as well, then I decided it was dumb to not also replace the wall panels partially covered by the rear cabinet and closet...so those came out...then, i decided the worst looking wall panel was the one behind the main table/water tank-containing cabinet...so the kitchen and water tank cabinets came out as well.
So the interior ended up looking like this:
.jpg)
(Note the nasty fake leather stuff on the upper left...that is what I wanted to be rid of.)
While I had that stuff out of the way, I decided to replace the insulation and add sound deadening materials:
.jpg)
Sound deadener
Insulation (and replacement wall panel!) (and removal of awful 'wallpaper' stuff!)
I didn't want to waste good (and expensive!) wood in an area where it would never be seen, so this particular wall panel is only getting partially replaced. I will splice on (somehow) the old panel below this new section. I plan to replace the fiberglass insulation in the area immediately behind the fridge (since it gets hot back there due the the propane flame), but will leave it out of the other areas, since it just promotes rust. More of the mylar bubblewrap stuff will go in the other areas.
The replacement door and wall panels are made from .25" Europly, which is a sustainably harvested, high quality plywood. It has one almost perfect maple surface, another slightly imperfect maple surface, and 3 inner plys of birch and one other wood. It is almost totally free of voids. This makes it very nice for plywood. The surface stains up very well, and the alternating wood types in the core create a nice effect on the edges. Sadly it is about $80 a sheet. But I only need two, so, it isn't so bad.
The europly panels are held on with stainless steel machine screws and cup washers (i think that is what they are called). I didn't even bother to ponder an invisable attachment mechanism. Doing so would be virtually impossible given the thickness of the panels and the curvature of some of the surfaces (the sliding door comes to mind...). Besides, I sort of like the look of the screws. I explicitly chose stainless steel screws so that they would look good and not oxidize or bleed anything down the panels. I bought 100 screws and washers (from my neighborhood hardware store, Stoneway Hardware) and am probably going to be slightly short of what I need (sheesh!). The screws are spaced either ~8" or ~4" (8 everywhere other than the sliding door, which needed more screws due to the curvature) apart and are usually screwd directly into a 1/8" hole in the sheet metal. Where there is something other than sheet metal to screw into (grr) an 11/64" hole is drilled and tapped. The thread on the tap has nothing to do with the thread on the screws, but it seems to loosen up the metal enough to allow the screw to enter and bite at least somewhat. There are 100 screws here, I don't think anything is going to fall off... So far I have only stripped one of them, so it seems to be working!
So there are 7 panels: driver door, passenger door, slider, driver side forward wall, driver side rear wall,
passenger side wall, and hatch. The front doors are by far the most complicated, because of all the holes required, and the more complicated shape. My van makes them even more difficult due to the aftermarket power window motors, which stick out from the doors a little more than .25". So several holes are required and the driver side (first one I did) took about 200 trips back and forth to the garage and the van to get it to fit well. In the end, it looks like this:
(Missing from this shot is the tweeter that goes along with the woofer in the lower section of the door. You can see the hole for its wires below and to the right of the power window switches.)
The passenger door panel is almost a mirror image of the driver panel, though somehow it turned out slightly smaller (go figure). I decided to just do away with the stock speaker hole. It is in a dumb location (partially covered by the dash board when the door is closed!) and can't easily handle a speaker of decent size. My driver door had already been altered for a speaker in the lower section (though the passenger wasn't, and the speaker was nowhere to be found) so I put the woofer there. The tweeter (these are seperates) sticks out of the door panel and points toward the listener. It fits just below the dashboard in the little crook that is there. It doesn't seem to stick out far enough to risk catching clothing or anything else, though.
I used some of the the original speaker cutout space for the power window switches, since I think the stock vanagon location for those is dumb, too!
The door handle initially seemed a problem, since the detail plastic doesn't appreciate the extra thickness of the new panels. But then I realized all that is needed is a few washers to space the mechanism out an extra .125" or so and everything will fit perfectly! I have to order new handles and detail pieces, though, since the 20 year old ones I have look pretty bad. Also, they should be black, and these are ugly 80s brown.
It looks like the door vents can be altered to handle the extra thickness of the new panel, though I have not done so yet. These also need to be replaced with black, newer versions.
Finally, and most obvious, the gaping hole that is the power window motor cutout will be covered by a surface panel of as yet unknown shape. This is turning out to be the most difficult part of the whole project. It is the only piece of wood for which the shape is not pre-defined. So I have to come up with a pleasing shape on my own, and then somehow draw it and then cut it out...all the while keeping it symetrical, round, and straight where it should be! sheesh. PITA. The first attempt at a sort of rounded rectangle (two circles connected with lines) was a total failure. I am now pondering a totally organic shape that would extend under the woofer and the power window switches...sort of a U shape. I dunno. At this point I expect everything to be complete except for this one piece. Grr. I suppose it could also extend under the door handle...though more effort might be required to move the handle out that far.
My approach in situations like this is basically: okay, so I have an ugly thing here which I want to cover up...it is going to look weird if I just TRY to cover it up, so lets just make it obvious i'm trying to cover something up and make it look interesting.
So the current plan is to do everything else and then ponder the shape and figure out how to produce it. The cover panel will be screwed onto the finished door panel (from the back).
The sliding door panel looks like this:
The shape of the sliding door panel is easy to replicate and cut. No issues with shape or size. There is lots of space here. However, the sliding door is VERY concave. So the major issue here is keeping the panel attached and getting it attached in the right position (which is hard because you have to lean on the panel to bend it in to drill the holes to attach it). So anyway, you put the panel up there, lean on it, line it up, and then put in the two screws on either side of the vertical center of the panel. That holds it in place, then work upwards and downwards with the holes and the screws. This is the one area where I went with 4" spacing on the screws. Only the slides required it, but I tought I should be consistent within the panel, so the top and bottom kept that spacing.
The other issue here is what to do about the door retension mechanism, which sticks out beyond the panel. My plan here is to build up about 5 layers of the .25" europly and shape it into a somewhat pleasing cover. Then screw it to the panel from the back. I think I can fit and sand and fit and sand until the cover fits the curvature of the panel well using just my belt sander (I trust everyone with a belt sander has figured out that they work just as well sitting upside down on a bench as they do right side up! I personally, feel this is why belt sanders have a trigger lock.). The idea here is to make it look like the plywood has sort of grown around the protrousion of the retension mechanism.
The final issue with the slider is that the inner handle touches the new panel due to the extra thickness. I intend to grind off the little inward bend of the handle to avoid this. It would be okay to leave it, but the panel would invariably end up with a 1/4 circle scrape from where the handle touches. The other option is to try to shim the handle out further. Not sure it is possible to do, though, since there is a significant amount of pressure exerted on that handle at times.
...
Well, I am sure everyone is totally facinated by this entry, but it is 2am and Safari just crashed, so I am going to bed. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 19th, 2005|11:28 pm] |
I really like this pot, and yet i can't figure out why.
It is technically broken, as the clay wasn't up to expanding as much as I asked it to, and responded by tearing on the rim. But I still like it. Also, it isn't a particularly useful shape. But still, I like it.
It is thrown from Ky's stoneware. Glaze is Brunning Opal, applied rather thin via dipping. Fired to ^11.5.
[Also, I seem to need better lighting. The darkness of my chosen photography area causes my camera to open itself up too much, so there isn't enough depth of field to get the whole pot in focus. boo hoo. The second image is with flash, so it doesn't have that problem to quite the same digree. I wonder if some normal halogen lamps would work...]
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| (no subject) |
[May. 17th, 2005|01:31 pm] |
So I'm trying to throw translucent pots. I picked up some Grolleg Porcelean clay at Seattle Pottrey Supply on the suggestion of Ky, the master potter at Brunning. It throws like rubbery soup, but is extremely white and trims really nicely. The trimmings are like talcum powder. It is neat to throw with something where my drive to make something as thin as possible is a real benefit.
In the first session with this clay I made some really thin bowls. It is odd to have to finish a bowl within 5-6 pulls, since after that the clay gives up and slumps.
I also made a few slabs with the clay just to see its translucency at a few different thicknesses.
Ky showed me some things he's thrown with this and similar clays, but they were thicker than what I am hoping for, and therefore less translucent.
I put notes in them to let the kiln loader know they were thin...hopefully he reads them before breaking too many.
Here's hoping.
Pictures coming. |
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| Vanagon Projects and Costs |
[May. 15th, 2005|08:33 pm] |
GoWesty: manual, skylight seal, aux battery kit
$129.54
Aux battery:
$150
Speakers
$90
GoWesty: headlamp switch + other
$175.36
Stereo head unit and CD changer:
$350.90
Mondo GoWesty Order: shocks, seatbelts, fuel tank kit, other insanity
$941.69
Gowesty overflow tank seals + valve
$40.00
Mondo Bus Depot Order: window seals, fuel pump, gan, etc
$705.94
Alarm + power locks
$85.90
GoWesty step pad + other
$108.62
Vanagonparts.com order
$50.00
Power windows
$158.90
Gowesty order
CFL bulbs
$26.00
LEDs
$158.38
Satellite radio and new speakers
$203.06
--------------------------------------
Total somewhere around
$3372.00 |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 9th, 2005|09:47 pm] |
glaze glaze glaze, so much glaze.
http://jupiter.okb-1.org/pottery/clay11/00catalog.html
1. Judy's Blue + Cobalt Carbonate on top on rim
2. Carbon Trap Shino
3. Mag Matt
4. Inside: Opal Outside: Judy's Blue
5. Mag Matt with Temoko Black rim
6. In: Opal, Out: Lilac
7. In: opal, Out: Cobalt Blue
8. Cranberry Red / Iron Red
9. Copper Luster, thick (Two dips)
10. "" Double picture. oops.
11. Temoko Black with Opal rim
12. In: opal, out: Cobalt Blue
13. Temoko black / [Other] Black
14. In: Opal, Out: Copper Luster
15. Cranberry Red / Opal
16. Yellow + Cobalt Carbonate on top
17. Celedon + Cobalt Carbonate thick on top of rim |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 15th, 2005|03:16 pm] |
Argh.
Why is working always so up and down? Some days, I'll be sitting on my ass waiting for something to do. Other days, I'm slammed with 6000 things, all of which are supposed to be done in 15 minutes. Sigh. Give me longer range info, people! So I can spread things out!
"Oh, you finally want to run the script I wrote 2 months ago? Great!"
"How about monday?"
"Oh, you want to run it TODAY?"
"How about MONDAY?"
"No, I don't exactly remember how it works."
"Haven't I mentioned my rage at you for trying to get things done late friday afternoons in the past?"
"I'm going to run you down with my van for this. You know that, right?" |
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| Vanagon Update! |
[Apr. 11th, 2005|11:16 am] |
So things are actually moving towards my vanagon being drivable again!
This weekend I:
Finished installing the alarm
Mounted siren (loud!)
Mostly finished installing the power locks
Added a dome light switch to the sliding door
Ran wires to sliding door for lock motor and dome light switch
Sound deadner applied to cab roof
headliner cleaned
over-sliding-door vent mostly fixed (missing one or two fins, but found several in the space behind it!)
finished floor sound deadening
reinstalled floor padding/insulation
test fit carpet
glued down first two pieces of carpet (yay!)
Investigated possibility of rear hatch lock motor. (seems impossible. Rear hatch looks mostly good, though. Will add sound deadner and more insulation. Also, interior panel needs replacing.)
Experimented with using a power lock motor to open sliding door. (not enough power, sadly.)
( Pictures! ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 7th, 2005|03:16 pm] |
A little IT pointer:
If you run the website for a multi-million dollar corporation and are doing a major software upgrade, BACK UP the old version of the software BEFORE you install the new one. Command follows:
tar zcvf /var/tmp/cgi-bin-[date].tar.gz /var/www/cgi-bin |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 4th, 2005|08:36 am] |
Vanagon Project Status
exterior
50% - hookups
100% - replace water fill
0% - door on power
0% - door on city water
100% - Driver door handle reinstall/tightening
0% - Passenger door adjustment
0% - headlight alignment
0% - paint job
100% - polish
0% - wax
100% - front windshield washer fix
0% - CV joints
0% - driver
0% - passenger
100% - window seals
100% - driver
100% - passenger
100% - shocks
100% - front
100% - rear
80% - fuel tank and related
100% - gas tank reseal
0% - fuel pump and associated
0% - check brakes
75% - skylight
100% - new seal
100% - new mechanism
0% - new skylight
0% - find / fix leak in rear - found, skylight
0% - power it...
Interior
100% - new fire extinguisher
50% - Curtain hold back cords
0% - new curtains
25% - wash current curtains
0% - seat covers
0% - reupolster seats
0% - bench cover
0% - recover bench
0% - recover armrest
80% - interior lighting
100% - replace icky interior light
100% - add light above rear seat
100% - add light above cargo area
100% - new dome light
100% - second dome light
100% - fix driver dome light switch
100% - switch dome light from slider
0% - switch dome light from hatch
90% - loft lighting
0% - switch for loft lighting
50% - 12v outlet in rear
0% - new foyer flooring
0% - new cabinetry
75% - seatbelts
100% - rear
100% - passenger
0% - driver
0% - heater blower motor
0% - dashboard realignment
0% - seat heaters
100% - fix sliding door window lock
0% - Wall/Door Panels
0% - driver
0% - moisture barrier
0% - cut
0% - install
0% - passenger
0% - moisture barrier
0% - cut
0% - install
0% - slider
0% - moisture barrier
0% - cut
0% - install
0% - hatch
0% - moisture barrier
0% - cut
0% - install
0% - area aft of slider
0% - final decision on wood and thickness
0% - measure all panels
0% - optimize layout
0% - buy wood
0% - buy finish
Thinking birch now. Actually, maple. Probably not stained. Just sealed. Probably birch vaneered european plywood.
Something weird will have to be done on the front doors. Either thicker wood (1/2" or more) or a bumpout created to take the extra depth around the window motors. Using 1/4" and adding a bump probably isn't impossible. And with the extra layers of the european plywood might look pretty cool.
Attachment is also an issue. I guess I would prefer hidden screws. But I think I will end up using (probably stainless?) screws with decorative washers. This requires drilling a bunch of new holes for the screws, though. Using the existing snap things would be annnnooooying. Likely requireing that they all be glued to the new panels...where they would invariably end up in the wrong places, and then fall off. So, screws.
The finish i think should be very light. But ideally will bring out some grain and depth. And of course has to be pretty impenetrable. All sides of the panels have to be sealed. Moisture barriers are very important in the front two doors. Also, have to do the passenger window seals before doing that door.
Back side of panels may want to be covered with sound deadner. Not sure. Placement would have to be pretty exact.
Have to figure out speaker options.
Have to figure out where to put window switches
Have to figure out handle options.
front doors: 42w x 35h x 19h
slider : 43w x 33h
hatch : 59w x 17h
awea behind slider: 63w x 18h
area above that : 18w x 21h
area above cabinets: 36w x 9h
95% - Carpet
100% - Under-carpet sound deadner
100% - Removal of cabinetry for carpet install - not bothering
100% - removal of seats for carpet install
75% - fix front leaks before carpet install
90% - glue down carpet
100% - power locks
100% - driver door
100% - passenger door
100% - wireing to both front doors
100% - slider
100% - rear hatch - ordered new lock mechanism
100% - wiring for both
100% - power to control box
100% - extra control switch - purchased
100% power windows
100% - driver
100% - passenger
90% - alarm.
100% - box mounting
100% - power
100% - siren
100% - fix driver side dome light switch
100% - add dome light switch to slider
0% - add dome light switch to hatch
100% - find dome light circuit for attachment to alarm
100% - tilt switch
100% - led?
100% - turn signals
100% - ignition
0% - starter interlock
0% - window rollup/down module
50% - sound abatement and insulation
100% - driver door
0% - passenger door
100% - slider
100% - hatch
100% - roof
0% - wall behind cabinets
0% - floor under rear seat
90% - sound system
50% - better speakers
0% - mount subwoofer amp
0% - heater box squishing - :( plastic
100% - aux switch. needs mounting
0% - aux input jacks
Camper equipment
0% - Fridge recall thingy install
0% - Stove lid strut
0% - Water heater
0% - Flow control at the sink
0% - Propane heater
100% - propane tank repair
100% - removal
100% - cleaning valve
100% - cleaning tank
100% - reinstall
100% - fridge LED replacement
0% - fridge lighting
90% - Aux battery
100% - buy
100% - wire
100% - make fit
100% - charger
0% - decent fuse block
0% - poptop
0% - clean/polish pop-top
0% - new canvas
Computer
0% - Computer system
0% - lcd screen
0% - Wireless antenna
0% - Bluetooth phone integration |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 1st, 2005|05:04 pm] |
1. explain the origins of your blog name.
I am overly geeky.
2. explain the origins of your blog picture.
It is a picture taken by my webcam. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) meinoel liked it and edited it into an icon. I thougth it was sweet.
3. how often do you check other people's blogs?
Hmm. Maybe hourly?
4. are there any blogs that you check regularly where you don't personally know the author? if so, please list.
No
5. in the last year of entries that you've written, which one is your favorite? please give the date and title.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/audin/16114.html |
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