Monday, December 31, 2012

It's a crappy job but...(pun intended)

So even though we aren't going to have a potty we still need a place for the grey water(sink) to drain to. I read about someone else on the VSTF cutting their original tank and repairing it with a 3M Fiberglass repair kit, so that's what I did.

Here is the original tank that the original toilet and sink drained to, the thing was massive and nasty. Imagine a 50 year old tank whose only job was to collect filth. But I survived, and saved myself a lot of money. 


Tank cut to the new size, once again I used my Festool Trion Jigsaw, also if you do this wear a respirator, fiberglass is nasty stuff to breath and guess what else is in that tank.


I cut the end cap off the piece of the tank that I was not going to use to make up the other end. What you don't see is me scrubbing the inside and soaking the tank in a 50/50 bleach/water solution. 


Tank glued and patched back together, notice the notch, this is so it fits around my built-in nightstand. I am doing a leak test in this picture, the new tank holds 10.5 gallons. I also replaced the drain on the bottom. 





Wednesday, December 5, 2012

When Pigs Fly, or Canned Hams






This is a tutorial on how to rebuild your original Shasta wings, I only recommend doing this if you have the original edge trim, otherwise I recommend buying them.
I had one complete wing and one missing its core, the original cores had long since been rotted and actually shrunk, so using them as a template was not going to work. I used the original skins as a pattern.



ROT, ROT, ROT!


I chose to use Western Red Cedar, its light and fairly rot resistant. Some people use PVC boards but I am not one to reinvent the wheel or the wing, after all the original Douglas Fir lasted for 50 years!


After you make your cores you will need the following tools

1) Shears
2) Sharpie Marker
3) Leather Gloves
4)Tape Measure
5) Combination Square
6) Pizza Cutter
7) 4ft Level or Straight Edge
8) Blanket
9) 0000 Steel Wool(not pictured)
10) Windex(not pictured)


From this point on wear gloves! I used 26 gauge Aluminum, it was the left over from my roof.


I traced the wing core on to the Aluminum


Using the hand shears I carefully cut the pattern out. TIP: Don't close the shears all the way, if you stop about a 1/4" before the shears close you will get a clean cut and avoid little pinch dents.


I used the Combination Square and Straight Edge to transfer the score pattern from the original to the new blanks. Then put the blanks on the blanket, use the pizza cutter and straight edge to score the aluminum. I did three passes on each line applying moderate pressure.



Use the 0000 steel wool and windex to buff off the marker lines, make sure to go front to back, and not up and down or swirl.

Assemble, make sure to use Stainless Steel Screws. Patience is needed when installing the skins and edge trim. Predrill all screw holes


Install using #10 Stainless Steel Screws 8x 1 1/2" and 1x 1 1/4" used at the tail.