Hi guys. Been busy the past two weekends cutting and welding. We now have the complete steel frame welded including door and window frames. For the person that asked, we went with steel over aluminum because the welds are easier (don't need a spool gun also), steel welds hold up better than aluminum during vibration, steel is cheaper, the frame will be painted and also is not exposed to the outside, weight not as big of an issue for us.
I will get some more pictures up soon. We have made a test frame of tube steel that we Sikaflex 252 bonded some 0.050 aluminum sheet. It is incredibly incredibly hard to squeeze out the 252 with a hand caulk gun so a pneumatic Cox gun is on order. The test frame is probably dry but I am giving it a few more days then I am going to paint it and leave it outside for a few weeks. It seems to be incredibly bonded. We used some 1 inch square by half inch thick rare earth magnets (these could pin a small child to the fridge next to his artwork) to clamp the aluminum to the frame on the test piece and will do the same on the final skinning.
We have the Thetford toilet now on hand. Our plans are to have an outside hatch to remove the tank for dumping. Examining the actual toilet, this is not a big deal at all and will be easy to install.
We bought some 1/2 inch 4 foot by 10 foot ACX for the roof and probably will Sikaflex that to the roof joists this coming weekend if the pneumatic caulk gun arrives. We also might bend and Sikaflex the 1/4 inch double layer marine ply around the front roof curve. After the roof ply, then the belly wrap (1/16" aluminum) then the walls (also 1/16" aluminum), then 2 inches of pink foam board R10 insulation, then 1/4 inch mahagony ply interior walls, then something for the final roof layer.
