It was nice today getting to work in a warm van! The heater continues to purr/roar nicely and it keeps it toasty in there. I did order the muffler today so I will have a little more work when that arrives, but as it currently stands we can use it as much as we need.
Today again started with the electrical cabinet. I just did a little bit of setting up with positioning the inverter and drilling the vent hole. After messing with that some I got distracted and moved on to finishing up the microwave cabinet.
The finishing touches on the microwave cabinet included figuring out a way to secure the microwave itself, adding a fan to help cool the microwave and refrigerator, installing the bottom of the cabinet, which will be the piece that actually attaches to the top of the refrigerator cabinet, and working on the electrical.
First I cut a hole for the fan. The fan will blow air out the side of the cabinet into the wardrobe. The microwave instructions actually say it should have a foot of clearance, but I don’t think I have ever seen a microwave like that! At the very least, using the fan when the microwave is running will pull plenty of fresh air up from below. Pulling the air up from below will also cool the refrigerator so we will run the fan if we find the fridge is working too hard.
In order to secure the microwave I just figured out where the feet would naturally sit and then drilled holes for sheet metal screws. The screws will go right up into the base of the microwave and should hold it securely in place.
With the rest of the small projects complete I installed the base. Of course, this required a couple trips in/out of the van to ensure I was mounting it in exactly the right place. It does not exactly match the dimensions of the refrigerator cabinet and I had to make sure it both bolted correctly to the wall and sat correctly on the refrigerator.
Finally, with the base installed there was no reason to not put in the van. I haven’t yet screwed it down to the refrigerator cabinet, but I’ve started wiring it up so if I have to take it out it will be a real pain in the ass.
I got most of the wiring done. The fan had to be connected to wires that would take it to power and to a switch. The fan wires that went to power had to be spliced into the existing wires for the dimmer switch. The LED dimmer switch had connections in both directions. The heater wire had to be rerouted into the proper place. And, finally, the AC power had to be brought into the box. I did not wire the outlet yet because I’m going to exchange the outlet I bought for one that will work better with stranded wire. The electrical stuff is fun, but I take my time!
A quick test of the lights confirmed the lights were powered correctly and the fan worked.
I only took one trip today to Ace because the machine screws that came with the fan were not long enough for my installation. I got the right #8 machine screws, but for some reason I then grabbed #6 nuts. Perhaps I have a compulsion to go to Ace every day because now I have to go exchange the nuts in the morning. That will guarantee me at least one trip tomorrow! When this is all done I’m going to add up the number of charges I have at Ace. It’s going to be ridiculous.