Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Acrylic lid continued:
It will be easier for me to describe what I'm doing if I include a diagram. This is a layout of all the pieces I've cut from the acrylic sheet.
This is a side view. Pieces "Top A" and "Top B" have a slight incline from the end pieces to where they meet in the middle. The high point in the middle is where the vent tube will be installed.
I had previously joined the edge of "Top A" to "Side A" using Weld-On #3 solvent cement and capillary action. This was my first try at joining acrylic and I was more than happy with the results. I let it set about a day then removed the clamps. The joint looked perfect and I stressed it without any problems.
Everything looked good until I started dry-fitting the other pieces. That's when my previous bone-headed mistakes came back to bite me. I should have known better.
In this picture "Top A" is joined to "Side A". I'm dry fitting "Top B" while "Side B" is just laying on the bench waiting for it's turn.
Mistake #2: I hadn't dry-fit the pieces before I started gluing. Now when dry-fitting "Top B" I find that it doesn't mate up against it's common edge with "Top A". Not even close.
With "Top A" already joined on one side my options on getting the two to mate as close as the Weld-On #3 required were limited. I used a new sanding station I just bought for this project but I could never get the two edges a tight as they needed to be.
But I had a backup plan. Considering ahead of time my skill level I had also ordered Weld-On #16. This was a thicker solvent cement with the ability to fill small gaps. It's not as thick as airplane glue but thicker than #3. Small warning. You don't squeeze it out of it's tube. It's thin enough that it just flows out.
That helps correct Mistake #2 but now I'm bitten by Mistake #1. When I was doing all the edge sanding on both Top pieces I should have clamped them together and sanded them as one piece. These two pieces started out the same size but with varying amounts of edge sanding they are now a different width. This becomes obvious when I dry fit "Side B" onto the edges of the two Top pieces. So back to the sanding board. I lucked out in the fact that "Top B" was wider so it was the one that needed sanded down. If it had been "Top A" that would have been a real hassle.
Get all my mistakes corrected and clamped together for more gluing.
Beside the squeeze bottle, a hypodermic needle comes in handy for applying the Weld-on #3. I don't know if all hypodermic needles are made from the same material but the one's I had laying around didn't react with the Weld-on #3 and worked fine.
Final step was to glue on the end pieces then do a test fit onto the top of the battery box.
Looks and fits OK.
Now to test it. I'll substitute a water-tight test for an air-tight test. I'll admit to wussing out at this point. If it failed the water test I'd have to wait till it dried out before I could fix it so I just went ahead and reinforced all seams with the Weld-on #16. Even the one's I thought I got just perfect.
Since the Weld-on #16 is runny I would tilt the box so that whatever seam I was treating would be the lowest point. After an hour the Weld-on #16 would set-up and I'd move to a different seam.
After all seams have set-up, fill with water.
Success! Not a single leak.
continued -
It will be easier for me to describe what I'm doing if I include a diagram. This is a layout of all the pieces I've cut from the acrylic sheet.
This is a side view. Pieces "Top A" and "Top B" have a slight incline from the end pieces to where they meet in the middle. The high point in the middle is where the vent tube will be installed.
I had previously joined the edge of "Top A" to "Side A" using Weld-On #3 solvent cement and capillary action. This was my first try at joining acrylic and I was more than happy with the results. I let it set about a day then removed the clamps. The joint looked perfect and I stressed it without any problems.
Everything looked good until I started dry-fitting the other pieces. That's when my previous bone-headed mistakes came back to bite me. I should have known better.
In this picture "Top A" is joined to "Side A". I'm dry fitting "Top B" while "Side B" is just laying on the bench waiting for it's turn.
Mistake #2: I hadn't dry-fit the pieces before I started gluing. Now when dry-fitting "Top B" I find that it doesn't mate up against it's common edge with "Top A". Not even close.
With "Top A" already joined on one side my options on getting the two to mate as close as the Weld-On #3 required were limited. I used a new sanding station I just bought for this project but I could never get the two edges a tight as they needed to be.
But I had a backup plan. Considering ahead of time my skill level I had also ordered Weld-On #16. This was a thicker solvent cement with the ability to fill small gaps. It's not as thick as airplane glue but thicker than #3. Small warning. You don't squeeze it out of it's tube. It's thin enough that it just flows out.
That helps correct Mistake #2 but now I'm bitten by Mistake #1. When I was doing all the edge sanding on both Top pieces I should have clamped them together and sanded them as one piece. These two pieces started out the same size but with varying amounts of edge sanding they are now a different width. This becomes obvious when I dry fit "Side B" onto the edges of the two Top pieces. So back to the sanding board. I lucked out in the fact that "Top B" was wider so it was the one that needed sanded down. If it had been "Top A" that would have been a real hassle.
Get all my mistakes corrected and clamped together for more gluing.
Beside the squeeze bottle, a hypodermic needle comes in handy for applying the Weld-on #3. I don't know if all hypodermic needles are made from the same material but the one's I had laying around didn't react with the Weld-on #3 and worked fine.
Final step was to glue on the end pieces then do a test fit onto the top of the battery box.
Looks and fits OK.
Now to test it. I'll substitute a water-tight test for an air-tight test. I'll admit to wussing out at this point. If it failed the water test I'd have to wait till it dried out before I could fix it so I just went ahead and reinforced all seams with the Weld-on #16. Even the one's I thought I got just perfect.
Since the Weld-on #16 is runny I would tilt the box so that whatever seam I was treating would be the lowest point. After an hour the Weld-on #16 would set-up and I'd move to a different seam.
After all seams have set-up, fill with water.
Success! Not a single leak.
continued -
