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
Kitchen Cabinet, Post #18
Replace the wood screws holding the pump and accumulator to the back panel with bolts and nuts.
It's now time to create a greywater tank for the kitchen cabinet sink. First thing is to find what space is available. Take some measurements from under the van then transfer that info to a pizza box. I'll be using a DiCarlo's Pizza box since it is made of cardboard that is similar to posterboard.
For those of you who are not familiar with DiCarlo's Pizza it is a regional pizza chain mostly located in the Upper Ohio River Valley area. If you grew up in the this area, as I did, then there's a good chance you think of DiCarlo's like manna from heaven. A few months back Parade Magazine listed it in their "America's Best Pizzerias: The Honor Roll". The DiCarlo's Elm Grove location is just off the I-70/I-470 split so it's easy to get to. Just be warned that there are no chairs so you have to stand while you wait and they don't take credit cards. I always make sure to grab a couple boxes worth whenever passing through my hometown of Wheeling, WV which is why I have the boxes handy.
The greywater tank will go under the van in the area between the passenger side frame beam and the side cargo door. In this picture you can see I've removed the shield I built for the Webasto heater fuel pump to allow more room for the tank. So the size of this area dictates how wide I can make the tank. I don't want the tank to extend too far below the bottom edge of the van so that gives me the height. I'm moving the cardboard along the frame beam checking clearances.
So using those measurements as a cross section the next decision is how long to make the tank. Since two 5 gallon tanks are the fresh water source I thought that six gallons would be a good size. That will hold a one complete 5 gallon tank with some room to spare. I usually don't stay in one space more than 3-4 days and will be dumping the tank after I leave so six gallons should work. That gave me the length of the tank.
Once I had the measurements I started thinking about what to make the tank from. Had original thought of making it from metal but once I had the dimensions and did the math that would be a lot of metal. Someone had recently posted in a forum about constructing a tank by cutting out styrofoam blocks in the shape of a tank then fiberglassing over the styrofoam to make the tank. After enough fiberglassing was done to build up the tank, dissolve the styrofoam from inside. Thought that might be a possibility so got on the Internet and started reading about making your own fiberglass tanks and found another way. Make the tank from plywood then epoxy the plywood to make it water proof. Decided I'd give that a go.
Still had plenty of scrap plywood laying around. Used 3/4" for the bottom and the ends since they might have to deal with rock hits. For the long sides I re-used more of the left over floor panels. By the way, this time I was able to get the biscuit cutter without injuring myself.
Here the plywood tank is partially built. I'm checking the fit before gluing on the one side.
There were two bolts that extended from a muffler hanger through the frame beam. I cut off the extended threaded part to make room for the tank.
Made a couple changes for fit.
Here is the completed tank. The topmost plywood piece is not attached.
For epoxy using US Composites 635 Thin Epoxy Resin System. This is all new to me so before starting read the epoxy guides at West Systems.
It's a two part system that is mixed in a 3:1 ratio. I didn't want to mess with graduated containers so I invested in a electronic scale from Harbor Freight. I checked with US Composites and they wrote that ratio by weight is still 3:1.
Covering the outside of the tank with a layer of fiberglass.
Folded the cloth and trimmed to fit then stapled in place. This gave me mixed results which I'll cover later.
To position the box upside down I added a couple of 2x4 pieces to the battery frame cover I'd made before.
continued -
Replace the wood screws holding the pump and accumulator to the back panel with bolts and nuts.
It's now time to create a greywater tank for the kitchen cabinet sink. First thing is to find what space is available. Take some measurements from under the van then transfer that info to a pizza box. I'll be using a DiCarlo's Pizza box since it is made of cardboard that is similar to posterboard.
For those of you who are not familiar with DiCarlo's Pizza it is a regional pizza chain mostly located in the Upper Ohio River Valley area. If you grew up in the this area, as I did, then there's a good chance you think of DiCarlo's like manna from heaven. A few months back Parade Magazine listed it in their "America's Best Pizzerias: The Honor Roll". The DiCarlo's Elm Grove location is just off the I-70/I-470 split so it's easy to get to. Just be warned that there are no chairs so you have to stand while you wait and they don't take credit cards. I always make sure to grab a couple boxes worth whenever passing through my hometown of Wheeling, WV which is why I have the boxes handy.
The greywater tank will go under the van in the area between the passenger side frame beam and the side cargo door. In this picture you can see I've removed the shield I built for the Webasto heater fuel pump to allow more room for the tank. So the size of this area dictates how wide I can make the tank. I don't want the tank to extend too far below the bottom edge of the van so that gives me the height. I'm moving the cardboard along the frame beam checking clearances.
So using those measurements as a cross section the next decision is how long to make the tank. Since two 5 gallon tanks are the fresh water source I thought that six gallons would be a good size. That will hold a one complete 5 gallon tank with some room to spare. I usually don't stay in one space more than 3-4 days and will be dumping the tank after I leave so six gallons should work. That gave me the length of the tank.
Once I had the measurements I started thinking about what to make the tank from. Had original thought of making it from metal but once I had the dimensions and did the math that would be a lot of metal. Someone had recently posted in a forum about constructing a tank by cutting out styrofoam blocks in the shape of a tank then fiberglassing over the styrofoam to make the tank. After enough fiberglassing was done to build up the tank, dissolve the styrofoam from inside. Thought that might be a possibility so got on the Internet and started reading about making your own fiberglass tanks and found another way. Make the tank from plywood then epoxy the plywood to make it water proof. Decided I'd give that a go.
Still had plenty of scrap plywood laying around. Used 3/4" for the bottom and the ends since they might have to deal with rock hits. For the long sides I re-used more of the left over floor panels. By the way, this time I was able to get the biscuit cutter without injuring myself.
Here the plywood tank is partially built. I'm checking the fit before gluing on the one side.
There were two bolts that extended from a muffler hanger through the frame beam. I cut off the extended threaded part to make room for the tank.
Made a couple changes for fit.
Here is the completed tank. The topmost plywood piece is not attached.
For epoxy using US Composites 635 Thin Epoxy Resin System. This is all new to me so before starting read the epoxy guides at West Systems.
It's a two part system that is mixed in a 3:1 ratio. I didn't want to mess with graduated containers so I invested in a electronic scale from Harbor Freight. I checked with US Composites and they wrote that ratio by weight is still 3:1.
Covering the outside of the tank with a layer of fiberglass.
Folded the cloth and trimmed to fit then stapled in place. This gave me mixed results which I'll cover later.
To position the box upside down I added a couple of 2x4 pieces to the battery frame cover I'd made before.
continued -
