PHPaul

Hydraulic hoses installed and a little paint. Have some artwork for decals for the loader, just need to print them out. I'll wait on that until I have all the decals ready, hate to waste a chunk of decal paper for one little decal.

I think I've found something on TinkerCAD that I can modify to work.

No joy at either of those sites. I'm assuming your prints would be resin? Technical question: Can an object designed for resin be printed in PLA?

Looking for frame-mount tow hooks to use on my logging truck. I did a search, but any results that included a source were from 5 or more years ago and contained dead links.

Before After Before After. Need to redo the joint between the boom and the stick, larger cylinder interferes with hinge.

Thanks, Dennis! Waiting on a couple of glue joints to cure before I post some pictures of the mods.

I spent the day redoing the grapple head at 75% of the original. Looks MUCH better. Also redoing the main hydraulic cylinders with larger barrels. Don't have that back together yet, but thinking that's an improvement as well. Also got the stabilizer legs roughed out. As soon as I get everything mocked up with the modifications, I'll post a couple of pictures.

Here's what I have so far. I'll be adding hydraulic hard lines and hoses. And stabilizer legs of course. Looking at it (compared to Gary's most excellent example) I think the grapple is quite a bit out of scale. Thinking I'll re-do that.

Very nice! Like the suspension set up.

Wow! That's outstanding, Gary! That'll be a big help and also confirms some assumptions I had to make on mine. Thanks!

A little more progress. Working on the loader boom and figuring out the geometry. Also working on the operator's position atop the boom tower. The pins for hydraulic levers looked good originally, but in the pic they look a little out of scale. I'll probably sand the ball ends down a little if I can, or replace them if not.

Nice! I have that kit that I'm using as the basis for a logging truck. I might steal a couple of ideas from your build. If that Detroit option was ever done in 1:1, I bet it was a miserable potlicker to work on!

Thanks! I did a test run of the technique on some scrap using baking soda hoping for a little less drastic effect. Results were what I was looking for scale-wise but I used spray enamel and let it dry so it was quite a job to get down to the "rust". I'll do another test with acrylic paint, I suspect that will work better.

I use TinkerCAD. Freeware, does pretty much everything I need at my level. I tried Fusion360 but it was WAY too much for what I do and I couldn't be bothered to climb the learning curve.

Several cold and rainy days this month so getting an little bonus bench time in. Working on the log loader. Mast, rear boom mount, hydraulic tank and seat 3D printed, the rest being scratch built from plastic shapes. Finished loader will articulate and swivel.