Tiny House On A Steel Soldier “Redux” Expedition Build

[BrandonBellrose]

My daughter Alayah and I quickly frame up which will be a Roman style tub and shower.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

Next we started tacking up our first roll cage/wall/dinette seat combo. This is the seat that the kids will be strapped into with a full roll harness seat belts. So over building strength into this area was of great importance to our steel concept. Building the back support again out of 2” tube 3/16” thick. The bench seat was also going to be a slide out cabinet drawer for storage.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

After roughing in kids bench seat we mapped out the first bed support that would also hold the opposite dinette bench seat. The bed support being a 2” tube that would support the M109a3 from side to side impact roll. We attached the tube to a m109a3 frame member on each side.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

Roughing in a tube roll cage inspired kitchen counter frame was next.

 

[CARMAN]

Yes !! East Coast is on the planning board..

The overland East show is in NC this November. I plan on attending with my slide in and 1 ton dodge. ( since I have made 0 progress on a 5 ton overland ) If you bring an "overland" vehicle you can camp on site.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

The overland East show is in NC this November. I plan on attending with my slide in and 1 ton dodge. ( since I have made 0 progress on a 5 ton overland ) If you bring an "overland" vehicle you can camp on site.

I’m sure I will be done by November, so that wouldn’t be a bad idea.

 

[CARMAN]

Maybe New England in the fall for awesome foliage color. Then Washington DC for the monuments. That's my neck of the woods as I grew up in Fairfax. Work there now but live outside the beltway. More bang for the buck out here you just pay the price with the commute.

https://www.overlandexpo.com/east/

 

[BrandonBellrose]

Alayah (13yrs) is stepping up her A-Game

Alayah and I rough in lounge/flip up bed slat frame. On the right side of the bed frame will be a slide out drawer hiding a gray water plumbing exit. On the left side will be a custom 65 gallon 37”long x 30”wide x 15”high fresh water tank.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

Maybe New England in the fall for awesome foliage color. Then Washington DC for the monuments. That's my neck of the woods as I grew up in Fairfax. Work there now but live outside the beltway. More bang for the buck out here you just pay the price with the commute.

https://www.overlandexpo.com/east/

That sounds great!!

 

[CARMAN]

Alayah and I rough in lounge/flip up bed slat frame. On the right side of the bed frame will be a slide out drawer hiding a gray water plumbing exit. On the left side will be a custom 65 gallon 37”long x 30”wide x 15”high fresh water tank.

The heck with all that. You had me when i saw BOTH the dish and cloths washer! Nice! Oh well back to work for a while.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

R&R break!!

Alayah and I made some great progress but we started burning out a bit. So it was time to take the m931a2 on a altitude snow run high above Philipsburg, Mt in full snow melt. We chose Red Lion Rd knowing that the snow was still deep with the summit reported at 10’.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

After taking a good R&R break we jumped back into the race. Pulling out our calculators we figured out the galley and appliance placement/layout. Being on the road for extended times the family (of 5) wanted a full working kitchen/house on wheels all in 96sqft. Not as easy as it sounds. But we are chipping away at it. This was our rough in results, with scrap plywood countertop mockup. Math is working in our favor.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

When we felt that we had solved our final layout, we locked everything up on the galley side when we rough tacked in the upper cabinets in.

 

[quickfarms]

Starting the tack up with my Lincoln Electric 3200 weld/pac burning .030 flux core. I quickly became displeased with the quality of my welds. So I ordered a Miller Multimatic 200 mig/tig/stick inverter welder, welding the frame with C25 argon/co2 mix .030 wire. My wife wanted a better shower/tube solution, so I decided to cantilever a larger tub/shower out the back of the m109a3. We purchase a Hypertherm 30xp Plazma cutter so cutting the tub/shower hole would be easier then with a cutoff wheel.

I am not a fan of the 110 volt welders. The little 220 volt Lincoln's are good machines.

I have found flux core wire to be an interesting animal. After using it exclusively for almost 30 years I have determined that there are issues using the off brand wire.

I have good results with Lincoln NR211 in .035 and .045 on the smaller Lincoln 220 volt machines.

Running .045 NR212 in a Lincoln 216 runs circles around the smaller machines.

Flux core welding does produce splatter and slag but with proper technique it is minimal.

I have also found that penetration with flux core is better that mig welding.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

I am not a fan of the 110 volt welders. The little 220 volt Lincoln's are good machines.

I have found flux core wire to be an interesting animal. After using it exclusively for almost 30 years I have determined that there are issues using the off brand wire.

I have good results with Lincoln NR211 in .035 and .045 on the smaller Lincoln 220 volt machines.

Running .045 NR212 in a Lincoln 216 runs circles around the smaller machines.

Flux core welding does produce splatter and slag but with proper technique it is minimal.

I have also found that penetration with flux core is better that mig welding.

I have 14yrs under my belt with flux core, and have had many successful projects. Even with my 110volt welder if I took my time i could pull off strong welds that have done their jobs over the years. I had my sharp 1 1/2” chisel by my side for splatter and never worried about much of anything. But with this project a large portion of the welds on the inside will be visual and will give the aesthetic feel of the “Steam Punk” steel mixed with gloss birch wall panels inlayed between the steel beams. I’m going to match all the flat surfaces with the white oak floor, by hand laying up a 1” thick white oak counter and dinette table. I wanted my welds to be more attractive. Comparing the two welders its like comparing eating a Domino’s pizza vrs visiting a $50 made with love brick oven Pizza. I sometimes crave Domino’s and enjoy a no fuss to my door pizza. But when in the mood I’ll still drive 80 miles to have a glass of wine and a expensive brick oven pizza. They both do the job they were intended for.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

After recieving shipments of a Airhead toilet and a Springfield Marine 3-stage pedestal for our dinette table. It was nice to see after dry fitting that our measurements panned out.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

The placement for the TV monitor was a bigger project than I thought it would be. Issues being the TV needed to be in several different positions through the day for different living scenarios. If my wife was alone in the truck cooking, she wanted to be able to see the TV in the galley. If the kids were strapped in thier roll harness seats on a cross country trip they would need a different angle. Last being if we had guests and we were lounging in the seats as a lounge that would also be different again. So I ordered a 4” electric actuator and made a pivoting frame that the TV would sit in and would give everyone thier perfect angle when the need arrived.

 

[quickfarms]

I have 14yrs under my belt with flux core, and have had many successful projects. Even with my 110volt welder if I took my time i could pull off strong welds that have done their jobs over the years. I had my sharp 1 1/2” chisel by my side for splatter and never worried about much of anything. But with this project a large portion of the welds on the inside will be visual and will give the aesthetic feel of the “Steam Punk” steel mixed with gloss birch wall panels inlayed between the steel beams. I’m going to match all the flat surfaces with the white oak floor, by hand laying up a 1” thick white oak counter and dinette table. I wanted my welds to be more attractive. Comparing the two welders its like comparing eating a Domino’s pizza vrs visiting a $50 made with love brick oven Pizza. I sometimes crave Domino’s and enjoy a no fuss to my door pizza. But when in the mood I’ll still drive 80 miles to have a glass of wine and a expensive brick oven pizza. They both do the job they were intended for.

Your analogy about comparing the pizzas and welders is so true.

The 110 machines are outclassed by there 220 volt big brothers, but are still hobby machines. The commercial machines like either of our big machines run circles around the small machines. Your Miller is just more portable than my Lincoln 216.

The wire feed mechanism is so much better, more consistent, in the commercial machines.

I welded my sons college bed with the small 220 machine then cleaned the slag and splatter and clear coated it. He likes the contrast of the raw metal to the wood prices.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[BrandonBellrose]

TV mount worked beyond expected, so we were excited to tack in the hidden shelves behind TV that would be the entertainment cabinet for Scull Canyon computer, PS4, and audio. This cabinet would also hide the heater/air conditioner blower allowing the air to dump through the bottom of the back portion of the cabinet. I would still have full access to the unit for cleaning, but would not have to look at it. Air would be drawn into the unit via the kitchen galley row of cabinets.

 

[BrandonBellrose]

Your analogy about comparing the pizzas and welders is so true.

The 110 machines are outclassed by there 220 volt big brothers, but are still hobby machines. The commercial machines like either of our big machines run circles around the small machines. Your Miller is just more portable than my Lincoln 216.

The wire feed mechanism is so much better, more consistent, in the commercial machines.

I welded my sons college bed with the small 220 machine then cleaned the slag and splatter and clear coated it. He likes the contrast of the raw metal to the wood prices.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yea that contrast between raw/patina steel vrs wood is so cool. You don’t see that look anymore like in the old days, but you just feel right when the fabricator pulls it off. Its sad that everybody wants to hide thier metal framing like its a red headed step child.