ShakyCraftsman Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 (edited) Hey all Well I'm at it again, yupp another project in the works. I'm starting a Cat 374F L excavator. This is a 83 ton excavator that will look great on my lowboy trailer that I'm also making. Like I said this will be almost entirely from scratch. I purchased a Cat C15 resin diesel engine from Jamie at Moluminum. I also found some tracks that are from Bruder toys (found these thanks to a post by yh70). These are actually for there 1/16th scale mini excavator, but they work out perfectly for the Cat 374. This view shows the real Cat 374F L. This view shows a closer look at the body of the excavator. this is my 1/25th scale drawing of the big Cat this is a top view of the Cat 374. this view shows the Bruder tracks. this view shows the other side of the tracks. side view of the tracks. end view of the tracks. There 1.25" wide which is 31.25" wide in 1/25th scale or 30.0" wide in 1/24th scale. Tracks for the Cat 374F L come in 28", 30" and 35" widths, so these work out to be perfect for the middle size ones. this view shows the temporary undercarriage setup that I made to figure out how many track sections I would need. The 374 actually has 47 track shoes/links, I think I have 45, so close enough for me...lol. more of a top view of the tracks sitting on my lowboy build. Well that's it for now be back with more updates soon. Ron G Edited January 28, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopar - D Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Ron you are doing some awesome scratch building here and I’m glad that you’re willing to share your WIP here. I’m going to be following you on this one to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 28, 2021 Author Share Posted January 28, 2021 Thanks Mopar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRIPTROIT 71 Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Great looking project! I’ve always wanted to do one of these but didn’t think that I could pull it off, and the kits are so expensive. Looking forward to seeing seeing more of this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 28, 2021 Author Share Posted January 28, 2021 (edited) Hey all Small update for you all. I have the bodys base pretty much done. I made it out of some 0.06" thick black plastic sheet. this view shows the bodys base from the operators side. same view but more from the side. rear view of the base. view from the front of the base. this view is from the side opposite of the operator. top view of the bodys base. The operators cab area is in the upper right. Directly opposite of the cab is the hydraulic tank. Then behind that is the fuel tank. In between the cab and the hydraulic tank is were the boom pivot and boom cylinders will be, also the swing motors will reside there. The rear most area is were the Cat C15 engine will be. Well that's it for now be back with more updates soon. Ron G Edited January 28, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopar - D Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Ron your not wasting any time on this excavator. Awesome work so far you know it would be great if you could make this a kit. I’m sure you would be able to sell a bunch of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincen47 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 What a great project, and what a great start. I’ll enjoy riding along with you on this one, for certain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Mopar - D said: Ron your not wasting any time on this excavator. Awesome work so far you know it would be great if you could make this a kit. I’m sure you would be able to sell a bunch of them. Yeah, that would be nice, but that is an incredible amount of work and cost. If I was 30 years younger maybe. I don't know why some big company hasn't picked up on making some neat construction equipment models I think they would sell a ton of em. Ron G Edited January 29, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterNNL Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 This is Way outside my wheel house but the drawings are stunning showing a real knowledge of the subject.The finished model with that trailer will be a real attention grabber. You had better be ready to answer a million questions when you display it so start building a work-in-progess scrap book right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotnitro? Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Ready to watch another fantastic build develop! Seeing your abilities to fabricate parts on your lowboy trailer, this will be another killer build The one big piece of construction equipment that was available aka Michigan loader was a huge model. Your right though , stuff like this would be incredible to have available, but very costly . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Force Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) Intersting build and this I'm going to follow. I'm a construction worker and we are building a bypass road around our city right now, and we had one of these at my work last year...in fact we had two for a while as the rock crushers also had one, I tried the one in the picture below out... it was fun and it's for sure a powerful machine. They are not there anymore and the largest excavator we have on the sight right now is a Cat 352F, a couple of Cat 336's and some smaller Volvo EC 220, 240 and 250 excavators. Edited January 29, 2021 by Force Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 Hey Force COOL!!!!👍 Ron G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) Hey all Small update for you. I have got the main boom pivot and the boom cylinders mounting bracket done. this view shows the bracket in place on the body base. I also have the main deck surface added to the base. view of the pivot bracket from the front. I made this from 0.06" plastic sheet glued to 0.03" plastic sheet in irder to get to 0.09" thickness to form the 4 sides. In between these I used some 0.04" x 1/4" plastic strips to make the 2 towers/pivot points. I then glued these to a piece of 0.06" thick plastic sheet stock to make the pivot bracket. Well that's it for now be back with more soon. Ron G Edited January 29, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilrathy10 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 This is too sweet!!! Very nice work, so far, for sure... Man, those tracks look amazing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Force Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) Nice progress. I wish we would have more construction equipment as model kits, perfect for loads on trailers. I remember I built an excavator model kit back in the early to mid 70's, a club had a youth project to attract more young people to the club and we were a few kids there and each of us picked out a kit we liked to build wich was either donated to or bought by the club, I picked the excavator as I have allways been attracted to heavy machinery and trucks and we were building model kits there for an hour or two once a week for a while. I don't remember much as it was around 45 years ago but I think it could have been 1:24th scale because it was quite large, it could also have been a Hitachi or something like that as I remember it was moulded in orange plastic, I don't know the manufacturer of the kit but I think it could have been an Asian company. My skills weren't that good back then as I could have been around 10-12 years old at the time so it didn't come out that good, and i threw it away after a while...wich I now deeply regret...because I might have been able to restore it if I still had it even tho' it was kind of a glue bomb, but I don't have anything left from that kit. I still wonder who made it and I would like to find another one, but I have not seen anything like that since then. Edited January 30, 2021 by Force Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrKerry Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Great work so far! Gonna be an awesome build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopar - D Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Ron you have to keep feeding us your progress of your excavator it’s awesome how you are able to create all the parts to put this all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) Thanks guys I really appreciate it. Hey Force Hasagawa makes this one in 1/35 scale. It's kinda of a smaller one though. Ron G Edited January 30, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Force Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Thanks Ronald, I know about that one, it's too new so it´s not that one, the kit I built was of a larger heavier excavator in the 25-30-35 ton range...but as I said...it was a long time ago. Well keep up the good work and you have my attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 (edited) Hey guys Another update for you all. I've done some more work on the base. I added the main pivot bearing surface to the bottom of the base. I made a pivot pin piece that will actually become part of the undercarriage frame. I also have both of the 2 swing motors done. this view shows the bottom of the base with the bearing surface added. this view shows the bottom of the base with the pivot pin for the undercarriage sitting in place. this view shows the boom pivot bracket, pivot pin for undercarriage and the 2 swing motors. this view shows the pivot pin piece. top view of the swing motor. side view of the swing motor. this view shows both of the swing motors. I had to grind the bottoms out of some 1/8" thick plastic sheet glued together to make it 1/4" thick. The rest is made from 1/2" & 5/16" plastic tube with some 0.03" thick plastic sheet top pieces. The bolt heads are from Meng, 2.2mm and 1.8mm heads. These you have to individually cut off of the plastic piece they come on. Then glue each one (36 of em) on to the motors. Then I added some brass wires for pipes and hydraulic line connections. this view shows the 2 swing motors in place on the boom pivot bracket. this view shows the boom pivot bracket sitting in place on the base. top view of the whole thing sitting on the tracks. Well that's it for now be back with more updates soon. Ron G Edited January 31, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gotnitro? Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Awesome fabrication. !!! Enjoy watching these projects develop from a pile of plastic and photographs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 Thanks Nitro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopar - D Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 29 minutes ago, gotnitro? said: Awesome fabrication. !!! Enjoy watching these projects develop from a pile of plastic and photographs X2 Ron this is fantastic to see all the detail steps that you are doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 Thanks Mopar I try to show as much as I can so anyone interested in trying can use my posts to help them build one of there own. If anyone wants any extra information please just ask, I'll be glad to help. I'm not getting any younger and I won't be around for ever, so any help I can pass along to the younger/or inexperienced builders the more I'm doing my part to keep our hobby going. Ron G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakyCraftsman Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 (edited) Hey all Well today started off like every other day. I went down to the model bench to start working on the 374 excavator. I started drawing the rear view in order to get the counter weight right, when I realized I messed up...🤬😤. I made it to narrow! I made it 9' 0" wide which put the boom pivot bracket off center, plus it just looked to narrow, so I made it 10' 6" wide with a 10' 0" track gauge instead of 9' 0" that I had it. It looks better and way more proportional now. this view shows the newly modified base. top view of the new base, way more proportional now. bottom view of the base, you can see the piece I had to add to the middle of the base. this view shows the boom pivot bracket sitting on the base. Hopefully I won't mess up again...yeah, right who am I kidding...lol Ron G Edited February 1, 2021 by ShakyCraftsman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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