SAVING MONEY AND HAVING FUN TOO
If necessity is the mother of invention, then high costs are her offspring. So when Des Thomson got a quote for $900 for vacuum moulding a shower base for a camper van he was building — even though he had already made all the necessary moulds — he declined and ultimately did it himself for $50. And that included setting up the necessary workstation from which he could make anything else that caught his eye.
The result was a shower base that was not only as good as the one he avoided paying $900 for but also now reproducible for the equivalent of small change. And given that he is helping his local Menzshed build even more camper vans, he has saved a considerable amount of money in the long term.
That first campervan
Des’s foray into campers began with the twin-pull-out conversion of a Toyota van, for which he manufactured two fibreglass telescope-like pods that extended 1.8m beyond the back door — a project which featured in Issue No. 76 of The Shed in January 2018.
