I asked Tom Knapp about the wobbly wheels and he offered to fix them if I sent them out. He said he made 2 small "dies" out of brass. You pull the wheels off the axle and press them back on with these dies. You don't need a lot of force, the idea is they will be pressed on straight using the lathe to keep them straight. Once I popped the wheels out I tacked the outside with ACC at the center where the axle pokes out. Tom said the problem is the plastic insulator "top hats" and the fact that the wheels aren't machine assembled. I didn't send my wheels out to him, I just figured I could make the same set up he would use myself. Just took brass rod and bored a hole with a drill bit the same size as the wheel treads. A drill press or arbor press may work as well, but a lathe keeps both sided centered. Here is mine: That is a all plastic wheelset in there for the photo Hope that all makes sense.
Way cool Chris, Mine is wobbling too, huge thanks for the photo, now I understand all of your comments. I have a small busy bee lathe, so I should be able to do the same. Thanks again Ben
I should add that I have 2 of these chassis, both wobbled. I was able to get 2 wheelsets perfect and put them both on one chassis. The other 2 wheels I couldn't get perfect, but were better than when I started. I would check with Tom or Jim at Searails to see how to get new plastic bushings if you can't get them straight.
Well! It's been a year since my last update, I think it is quite time to show my latest projects, even if I am still working on the Ohio crane and Street car manuals and their assembly improvements. All those construction equipment were started last February. There is 7 to 8 different models in there, 3 Kenworth trucks design, a dump truck, a Low Boy trailer and a logging truck not shown here. There's also a Road Grader, a Cat loader, an Excavator, a bulldozer, a Tiny skid loader (the size of a thumb nail), the hardest parts are the hydraulics cylinders, it make all the parts stay fixed, and everything has pivot joints I still didn't find out how to make stuff move, when I install all the hydraulics details.
3D printed models are not as bad when you compare the amount of time needed to assemble only one model. For instance my Cat loader has more than 205 individual parts (not completed in the pic). The Low boy trailer has more than 95 parts and mostly all of those models seen here take a full weekend per unit to assemble. not counting the paint. only exception, the skid loader take around 3hrs. So making those available as kit? I'm not sure about that.:question: Ben
Come-on Ben, a lot of us can not count, but we sure do like to assemble your kits. I've been real good and never spilled the beans of one of your long-term projects. Put me down for a couple. ...don
Hi Ben, I love the heavy equipment models! Very nice! You need a crawler frontend loader to add to the bulldozer. I really love the 80's style CAT excavator and a 235 is on my list to rapid prototype. I've always lived by the philosophy the more parts your model has, the better the surface finishing and paint job you’ll get .... I'd break down my shapeways models into even more parts then I already do but I fear half the parts would be missing or broken before they even ship them out to me.... -Jon
Very nice projects Ben. I like the tractor treads, really look good. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
Peterbilt logging truck This Peterbilt logging truck is taking a little more time to design and assemble than I would prefer. I had to build a jig to assemble the the front wheels fenders, because the Peterbilt fenders have a small gap between the side of the hood.
Finally Finished! My picasa album https://picasaweb.google.com/112488631516994596395/ConstructionEquipments#
That logging truck is Awesome Ben! It makes me want to get back into the hobby... Just a couple more months.
Ha ha! Don't forget that "you" are the one who had inspired me to start stuff like this in the first place. Specially seeing what could be done with a laser! Ben
Very nice. I would love to be able to add one or two of them to my module. Will you be selling kits for these?