BK9300

Finished work on the conveyor hydraulic drive motor; worked on hydraulic hard lines and fittings along side of sander; fabricated the pre-wet fluid pump box and the valves for the pre-wet tanks. Got a good start on the truck’s main hydraulic tank and valve body manifold; made the exhaust muffler and mounting bracket. Lots of small stuff made here, but took more hours that I thought would be needed! I kept breaking the resin hose fittings from Top Studio, so, I drilled them out and used brass rod (1.0mm or 0.5mm) for the 45's or 90's as needed - used aluminum rod for hard line and white metal pipe fittings from Wild West Scale Model Builders bunch of little items in this pic, from left; pre-wet pump unit; hopper end-gate and lift cylinder; sand conveyor speed sensor; finished conveyor hydraulic motor; ladder; hard line runs; pre-wet tanks and their related valving (and part of an ever changing punch list of things left to do!) some other items added (prior to painting) - main hydraulic tank; valve body manifold (lower left); muffler and bracket support pre-wet tanks and valving mocked in place start of front support for hard line runs two of three hard lines mocked in place valve bodies, hydraulic conveyor motor, pre-wet hydraulic pump unit mocked in place the white metal "T" fittings will be joined by a hose that equalizes fluid levels in the tanks Lots of plumbing to do after painting - thanks again for your comments!

Thanks, Jeff - I do appreciate you following along and your supportive comments. Hope you're carrying on with the project(s) on your bench.

High praise, Gary, much appreciated - I certainly can lose a number of hours in a day working on this!

Started work on the sander’s fender mounted, pre-wetting fluid tanks. Our trucks had a system to apply a spray of this liquid, a salt brine, to the sand (sometimes the salt as well) as it fell into the spinner chute, in an effort to make it adhere slightly better to the road surface – traffic and big trucks could quickly blow the sand out of the travelled portion of the road. Adding the brine to a salt application at the spinner could help the salt get into a soluble state quicker and begin working on compact snow or ice quicker Patterns for the pre-wet tanks - one on each fender of sander assemble tanks - the sand conveyor drive motor has been started; the square and rectangular blocks represent plastic electrical boxes for the sanders/plows lights (brake lights, flashing lights on wing plow, etc). A portion of the sand conveyor is seen in upper right filler spouts and caps for tanks added; most of ladder finished - needed to add stair tread to ladder steps and used CTM mesh tank mocked in place; ladder taped in place with lower portion unfolded lower portion of ladder folded up sand conveyor hydraulic motor mocked in place had to have a shovel at the ready! more on the sander in the next post - thanks!

Excellent job, Robert - well detailed!

Great detail work on your engine and interior!

My apologies, Jeff - terrible mistake - looking at one of his earlier posts. Won't happen again! Regarding the measurements, I keep using my Sketchup model for a reference - the Sketchup model was made from actual measurements and some of the items I did find online

Hey Gary Jeff (sorry) - there were no D handles on the screens of the truck I took pictures of and it didn't have the chain protector you describe. Inside the hopper of this truck were four side to side braces - two just under the lip at the top edge and two lower ones, about half way down the sides. Seemed to me that these braces were providing support to keep the hopper from bulging in the center - could be wrong though!

A super clean build - and a seriously organized workspace - speaks to your attention to detail in the build!

I don't know if there is such a thing on this forum as too many pictures, but I have lots for this build and I do appreciate you dropping in to have a look. So, more pictures ! . . The main build work on the sander is going to be a couple more postings yet and then a couple more in the future, once I get to the hydraulic lines and wiring. Work in this post deals with construction of the six, grate screens on top of the sander – they have an interesting hinge system – they’re not bolted hinges - that allows them to be opened to scrape frozen bits from the side of the sander, or to remove them entirely, if maintenance inside hopper is needed. Also added sand conveyor tension adjusters at front sides of conveyor frame made a little jig (bottom center) to place the 'angle iron' for the grate - needed to make, and drill, lots of cross pieces for the grating rods to go through another little jig (bottom right) to make sure each grate cross piece drilled at same location grate rods fixed in place with CA glue, then onto the next one (of six) the center "I" beam is where the hinge system will be - the upright, vertical sections of channel at both ends of "I" beam, along with the hinges and the weight of the grates, keep the grates in place. this might seem obvious, but when lifted to vertical, the end grates can be slid into the one inch edge of the channel and out of their tubing hinges hinges in place and the open grate can now be slid (to the right) and removed from the sander - other grates on this side can now be removed as well sand conveyor tension adjusters - the end on view of the channel piece under the fender is for a future mud flap Off to do some test painting in the little paint booth I ordered (no lacquer painting in house, so out to little studio shed in back yard) Thanks!

Thanks for the heads up - I'll keep a lookout for your work! (I do remember Ken)

Thanks for the kind words, Charles! Have followed many of your incredible builds over the past few years. I continue to be amazed at the encouraging nature of commenters, in all categories on the forum - it is an inspiring environment. I was based in central British Columbia and we got decent amounts of snow. I've got a video made for our company that I should post over in my thread - background music isn't for everyone, but the videography (drone, Go-pro's) of the trucks working was great!

That’s an impressive trailer! I’m still intrigued by the laser cut panels. Do you know anything about the equipment used to cut the panels? Would be interested to find out. Thanks

Jeff, much appreciated - what’s up next on your bench? Jurgen - thanks for stopping by - the colour scheme on your DM800 refurbish is looking good!

After setting the plows aside for safe keeping, continued work on the sander (some work had been done on the sander frame earlier in the build and then set aside); built the sand conveyor frame; added sander body ribs and sander side and end body panels; cut out and assembled pieces for sander chute and spinner; added fenders and fender braces to sander frame; laid out some parts and a drawing for the sand conveyor building sand conveyor frame - clips are holding strips to sander sub-frame, to align conveyor frame front to back sander body ribs cut out and installed - cut outs in ribs on passenger side are for future hydraulic hard line runs to the sand conveyor, sand spinner and the pre-wet liquid pump again, noticeable to many, the pictures of the truck frame don't match with progress posted in earlier pics - tried overall to present pics separately, for different portions of build, but I did go back and forth between various parts of the build - not always organized and often not organized at all! 0.5 mm side panels for sander hopper prior to bending into shape with steel ruler - brass square tubing keeps hopper from bulging in the center, but also simulates the "J" edge around top of real sander hopper end panels installed and joint puttied Turns out, easiest way to deal with the sand conveyor was to build it separately and, after painting, simply slide it into the opening in front of conveyor frame another round of plastic surgery with trusty razor saw, for sander chute (more patterns from Sketchup) completed sander chute and spinner - spinner hydraulic motor to be plumbed later in build. Vanes on bottom of sander look adjustable but are static added fenders to sander frame and cut out fender braces braces installed quick hand sketch of sand conveyor (it is partially assembled, in front of sander) - used resin printed Decalcas motor cycle chain, from Spot Model, for conveyor chain and sprockets Thanks to all those who have looked in as well as those who have commented - much appreciated!

The sander on the actual truck was a Henderson, FSH II - might even have been one of the stainless bodies we were getting into at the time. I'll be posting some pics later this afternoon. Thanks Jeff

Jeff, good to connect with you again! The weathering is outstanding - I doubt I'll ever attempt that because I'd botch it big time. The detailing is amazing - great job!

Hi Jeff - been a long time since I was last in Nelson - I'd bet the other thing that last guy to use the truck left you was an empty fuel tank! The front plow is modeled after one of the newer (in 2010) Henderson 'speed' plows - they didn't look to be as tall at the outlet as the older Frinks. As it happened, a couple of the older front mast, plastic lined, wing plows you mentioned found their way into my pics of the subject truck (pic below). The wing plow was made by Tenco, but had a steel plow surface, with what looked to be a plastic like finish sprayed onto it - I guess with the kind of rear wing mounts I'm modeling, clearing the no posts was left to the graders. Thanks for checking in, Jeff (great video!) plastic lined, front mast wing plows Henderson front plows Tenco rear wing

Going to be an awesome model.

Your printed parts appear so clean - is that a function of the model’s scale or set up of your printer or post printing sanding (or all three)? The quality of the print looks amazing.

I agree with Steve - the plumbing looks great - where do you get the different air valves you use? Great job on the trailer!

Appreciate the info!

Apart from your cad work, it’s amazing to think that this project, which will likely be another fantastic build, has its beginning in these few parts!

Jurgen, nice updates to this Mack, including the new bumper. Do you have to do much work to the bumper after its printed to get it where you want? (I've no experience with 3D printing)

Great looking pair of trucks, Steve