I took yesterday off from the van build, because I woke up with a very sore wrist. I think I pulled some muscles when I was pulling insulation off of wires. I took a bunch of ibuprofen and it felt better today. Still, I decided to take it easy and not try to strip insulation off of any wires.
I had hoped that today I would be going to the lumber yard to pick up some 1/2″ thick Baltic Birch plywood, but when I called the lumber yard they told me that they still didn’t have any in stock. That’s three weeks in a row now. They told me they would call me when they get some in. Unfortunately, not having plywood prevents me from finishing the electrical cabinet and any of the other cabinets. So, hopefully it comes in soon or I may have to drive further to pick up some from another lumber yard…somewhere.
Basically, I did as much non-electrical stuff as I could do with the materials that I had on hand. I have ordered several items that haven’t shown up, yet. So, I was limited in what I could do.
I started the day working on the lower bunk…again. I had one more leg that was crooked and needed to be shimmed. I also adjusted the stops on the lower cushion to be sure that there was enough room for the back cushion to sit down when it was transformed into a bed. I received the safe yesterday, and I “fit” that into the van and programmed a new combination into it. I think this safe is going to work out great. I also made a list of all the items that I needed to accomplish before I could bolt the bed down.
I worked on one of those items next, which was to install moulding around the driver’s side window. I purchased some pine moulding from Home Deoot and I used my chop saw to make all the miter cuts needed to put the moulding around the window. Some of the angles were a little non-standard, so it was a little bit of a challenge. In the end, it turned out good. I applied stain to the pieces of moulding and let them dry. I’ll try to put a couple of coats of polyurethane on the moulding before going to bed. Then I’ll be able to hang them around the window. I’ll give you a picture of the final result.
I measured the electrical cabinet and the lower bunk for the holes that I would need to drill into the aluminum extrusions to secure the cabinets to the unistrut in the van wall. I started drilling the first of two holes into the electrical cabinet and about half way through the drill bit caught and broke off. Fortunately, there was a small sliver of the drill bit sticking out of the hole. But, when I used a needle-nose pliers to pull on the broken half of the bit, only a small shard of the bit came out. The tip of the bit was still deep in the hole and too far in to reach it with my needle-nose pliers. I put another drill bit into my drill to try to drill out the broken drill bit, but all that accomplished was to have my drill walk into the side of the hole. I then tried to drill the hole from the other direction, but two days ago I mounted the back board onto the cabinet and it interfered with drilling it from that side. It could be a possible option, but would require undoing a lot of work from two days ago.
I Googled possible solutions and didn’t get much help. But, it did give me an idea to try. I took my smallest flat-blade screwdriver and poked and prodded at the broken end of the drill bit. It didn’t help much at first, but when I put a little more effort into it the broken drill bit moved….a little. I kept working it back and forth, and it started moving more and more. Eventually, I was able to use a magnet to pull the broken drill bit out of the hole. It took a lot of time, but at least I didn’t have to disassemble the whole cabinet!!
Then, I was off to visit my friends at Ace Hardware to pick up a new 1/4″ drill bit. With that new drill bit, I was able to drill the rest of the holes into the electrical cabinet and the lower bunk.
I’m taking a few days off from working on the van to do some hiking and camping with my brothers in Kentucky. I’m really looking forward to having a little adventure. The time away should give enough time to receive several of the items I have ordered, but haven’t received. And, hopefully that includes some plywood.