My Transit Connect build so far

[tradesman]

To attach rare earth magnets; first sand the magnet with 80 grit just until you see the copper layer under the nickel plating. This creates some grooves for the epoxy to bond to. Wood has enough natural grooves that is doesn't need to be roughed up. Then use a slow setting, two part epoxy. If you have enough thickness drill a small recess the diameter of the magnet to keep it located. Mix the epoxy thoroughly, put some on the magnet and press gently into place. 
Slow setting epoxy takes hours to get to the gel stage before the magnet doesn't move around so you need to make sure the area is level or you've taped the magnets securely. Don't clamp them as you don't want to squeeze the epoxy out of the joint. Epoxy needs to be in the joint to work properly, unlike wood glue which moves into the wood. Leave them to cure for 24 hours and then it will have reached most of its strength.

 

[Vannautical engineer]

I am a professional in the construction business, and I tend to shy away from using glue, unless it's something like repairing a broken furniture leg.  I have done a lot of repair work in my decades in this business, and repairs are made a lot more difficult when the assembly was done with glue as opposed to nails or screws.  I tend to think of those who construct with glue as perhaps overconfident that there will be no second thoughts, no need for modifications or alterations down the road.  I like to build in ways that are easily dis-assembled, in case changes are desired later on.  Screws and bolts are best for this.  Admittedly construction in a vehicle is much more challenging than standard construction, but with sufficient creativity, there are usually ways of doing it with screws and bolts.

I get it, but in this case I don't see any way to do it without using some kind of adhesive. The panel is 1/8" plywood, so paper thin, no screws are going to grip into that. Thicker plywood would be needlessly heavy and much harder (or impossible) to get to conform to the curved shape of the door.

I guess you may be able to run a bolt with a nut/washer though it. But aside from not looking very good, then the next problem is the fact that the magnets are also only about 1/8" thick, have no holes to run fasteners through, and are too brittle to put any holes into. Oh and also you can't have any head of a fastener protruding from the magnet because it needs to stick directly to the steel of the van wall. You can get magnets with a countersunk hole in them, but they are much thicker and stronger than I need in this application, making it difficult to ever pull the panels off again, and again you've got an ugly bolt and nut on the other side of the panel.

Using a glue in this case is far and away the best solution, even if it is more permanent than using fasteners.

 

[Zmann]

"Nuts and bolts nuts and bolts...we got screwed...!

 

[Vannautical engineer]

Put the magnets on the panels with Gorilla Glue last night. They seem pretty well stuck now. Here's hoping they stay that way. This is attempt number 3 at sticking them onto these panels. :dodgy:

In other news, I'm hoping to fit my Inverter under the passenger seat to save space. That means remote mounting an outlet and switch. I decided that I'm going to use this hospital grade outlet because it's illuminated, so I can use that as the indicator to tell me whether or not the inverter is turned on. The outlet was a little pricey, but I couldn't find any other outlet with a simple power indicator on it. Either way since it's hospital grade it will probably outlast the van itself. I could have used a GFCI since a lot of those have indicators, but the inverter already has a GFCI on it, and I've heard that two GFCIs wired in series can act a little weird.



I also found this wiring schematic for the Xantrex remote switch online. This will make it easy to make my own remote switch, because I don't really have a lot of good panel mounting space, and I don't feel like buying the official Xantrex switch or finding a place to mount a big panel that does nothing but turns on and off my inverter.

 

[abnorm]

^Just plug a power strip into the inverter instead of that pricey receptacle............

 

[Vannautical engineer]

^Just plug a power strip into the inverter instead of that pricey receptacle............

Yeah I know I could. But a lot of stuff in this build is all about going to the little extra effort up front to avoid all the little annoyances later, like fumbling around with both hands to plug/unplug a socket into a power strip. There's no great spot to solidly mount a power strip either that wouldn't be in the way or look bad. I really want the nice clean look of a real electrical outlet. Overall I want a nice quality build that's better than you'd expect for a van this small. Just kinda want something I can show to people and be proud of the craftsmanship, at least for someone who isn't a woodworker.

 

[highdesertranger]

Or many extension cords have a power light, or a real low level night light plugged into the outlet will act as a pilot light. Highdesertranger

 

[66788]

Apparently Gorilla glue works pretty good. I was never a believer until I saw someone put in in their hair the other day. That stuff is pretty good!

Now you know why it's called "Gorilla" glue.  lol.

 

[Vannautical engineer]

Who wants to stare at ugly puck lights when you can have the beautiful soft glow of COVE LIGHTING! 



I had been eyeing up the structural support beam for a while, knowing I could do something really cool with it. I made this little light fixture out of some 1/8" plywood and a spine in the middle made from a thin strip of 1/2" plywood, bolted up to some plus nuts in the structural support beam. I don't have the electricity wired up yet, I just wanted to run it off of a 110V adapter to see how it would look. I think it's pretty good.

I made it by sticking several rows of warm white LED strip lights on the top side of the plywood, pointing up towards the ceiling and outwards.

I'm not done with lighting yet, I got more ideas. 

 

[VanFan]

I, too, like "soft" LED cove lighting, and have a strip in the van with an LED compatible dimmer.  Enjoy yours!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Lighting is everything! You know you're professional when you use good lighting!

 

[Vannautical engineer]

I, too, like "soft" LED cove lighting, and have a strip in the van with an LED compatible dimmer.  Enjoy yours!

Yeah the LED strip lights came with a dimmer that I will definitely work into the final product. I'm definitely going to add more strip lights in places too, but all hidden.

Ideally you want more lighting than you actually need, on a dimmer, because LEDs run more efficient and cooler if you drive them below their maximum output. I'm not sure I'll get to that point, but we'll see.

 

[Cammalu]

That looks NICE!

 

[Vannautical engineer]

Thanks.

It's all about the little details. Soldering together strips of LED lights on the front ceiling light...

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Nice work. Just remember, you can only pull so many amps through those strips before they catch fire or you deal with voltage drop. Stick to the manufacturers specs on watts per foot over max distance.

 

[Vannautical engineer]

Thanks, good point. I wasn't really thinking about it. But in any case, the way I'm using them is cut up and positioned into multiple different fixtures mounted around the van, connected with wire. I think the longest run I have between the end of a light strip and the main wiring I have feeding them all is about 10ft. And they come in a spool of I think 35ft, so I'm fine.

 

[Vannautical engineer]

I got the rest of the lights in. Only problem is right now they are lit from a car battery that does not belong to this van. Gotta keep fleshing out the electrical system from here. I love these lights. This just took the build from "hey that's not bad" to "wow, I built this!?" 

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Damn, you're on a whole new level now!

 

[Vannautical engineer]

Yeah, it's amazing what $40 worth of LED strip lights will do.

Those lights along the sides were pure dumb luck, too. There's a body line on the inside of the van where it kind of bumps inwards right there. Initially I was going to trim the panels that go along the upper walls much shorter so they would just set right on the metal of the body and you would see a little line of the sheetmetal showing through. I thought it would look ok. But then when I was trimming the panels down to size. I realized that if I left them a little long, they would overlap the lower wall, and I was thinking "hmm, I bet I could squeeze an LED strip into this little crevice." Sure enough, it looks great.

 

[Cammalu]

That’s really looking like it’s going to be an awesome looking build.