Fixing the welder setup

I ran errands in the morning.  Last time I had said my welds where better but I'm still not happy with them.  I'm doing MIG welding and the way it works is a small steel wire passes thru a copper tip.  The copper tip electrifies the steel which then arcs to the pieces of metal I am welding.  I decide to pick up a new tip to see if it helps, it turns out the size of the hole in the tip I was using was 0.005" too large.  When I put the proper size tip on it was like night and day.  I spent the rest of the day redoing some of previous welds and a couple of new ones.

Expenses to date $4,081

Waiting on an answer

My new landlord had said he know a welder.  I decided to see how much it would cost to have him weld it up for me.  Unfortunately the welder didn't get back to me until late in the day and he was leaving for northern Alberta that evening.  I kept myself busy with a few things I had been neglecting.

Expenses to date $4,073

More welding

To make up some time loss due to rain I took the week of July 8th to 12th off from work

I borrowed the big welder from work again.  I tacked the supports for the bay window in place.  I also tacked the cross braces in place, these are just in case the outriggers try to twist the frame.  The braces will transfer the load to the other side keeping the frame square.  Next I tacked the rear bumper.

It might not look like I'm making much progress but keep in mind when it is not raining it is sunny and hot!  I'm wearing jeans, respirator, long sleeve shirt and leather gloves when ever I'm welding.  Good thing Kelowna is so dry because I'm sweating buckets.

Worked so hard that there are no pictures!

 Expenses to date $ 4,069

Happy Canada Day!

More of the same. I finished placing all the living room outriggers!  Everything looks level, fingers crossed!  The rear outriggers have to support the extra weight of the loft so they have to be closer together (12" vs 30").

Here is the detail for the joist hangers.  To make more room to keep the waste water pipes from freezing I'll be using 2x8s under the bathroom instead of the 2x6s used under the rest of the floor.

Moving day

I tacked the rear left outriggers in place and prepped the right rear (grinding off the paint, measuring and marking locations).  In the evening I build a large plywood box to house my solar panels, batteries, inverters and tool at the new build site.  Sunday morning I packed up my stuff and moved.  In the evening I continued on with tacking the outriggers in place.

Expenses to date $4,032

Rainy days

June in the Okanagan valley was very wet and July started the same.  All that water slowed down the build by a couple of weeks.

I have only received part of my order for metal, Spartan Metal was backed up with too much work but I didn't need the rest of the order anyway.  During the week I went over the design and decided to add 3 more out riggers per side.  This dropped the load on each on to 230lbs.  I also realized a was missing a cross bar.  I think I changed my order about 4 times but Joel was patient with me.  The rest of my order was finished today, I quickly ducked out of work to pick it up.

Expenses to date $3,928

Starting the welding

I'm mostly done the design side.  I'll be sending the plans off to the SIP manufacturer once I'm done the floor and I'm hoping for a fairly quick turn around.

The bearings on the rear axle of the trailer are both completely shot.  I'll probably end up replacing the axles with 5000lbs axles (they are currently 3500lbs).  I need to bring the trailer 2 hours north to pick up the SIPs so I'll have to replace the bearings.  On the plus side I'll be able to sell the axles and make some money back.

I did the math on the weight of some of the main components.  Just to give an idea of how it all adds up.

SIPs	3100 lbs
Loft floor	250 lbs
Siding	1300lbs
Interior paneling	1100lbs
Roofing	600 lbs

Total 6350lbs

5000lbs will be supported on the 10" outriggers, this means each of the 16 outrigger will be supporting 300lbs.

Build progress!

Saturday I picked up some of my metal order so I could get started.  I also grabbed the MIG welder from work.  I spent the rest of the day getting the trailer level, practicing my welding, prepping the trailer and cutting the steel.

Sunday I started welding the angle iron to the trailer.  My first attempt was a disaster, the welding was not going smooth and the section where not level or in line.  It took most of the day and frustrated I called quits after only welding 6 sections.  I decided to go pick up the wood for the joists and managed to get them cut.

First thing on Monday I strung a string between the the start of the first piece and the end of the last piece.  This established a straight and level line to use as a guide.  I cut 2 sections off the trailer, cut new angle and welded them back on.  This was way easier and gave very good results.  I transferred the start and end point over the the right side of the trailer and did the same trick with the string.  An old guy selling house number signs dropped by while I was doing this, as it turns out he is retired welder.  We chatted about the difficulty I was having with my welding.  He gave me a few pointers for setting the welder and it became easier.

With another round of storm cloud threatening rain, I finished the day having welded all the joist supports and temporally placed the joists.

Expenses to date $3,695