Western Star 4900 SB - Bridge Inspection Truck

[BK9300]

22 hours ago, Scott Eriksen said:

I've seen Cat-track  material somewhere ...I think R/C stuff ,,,might be worth an innerweb search

I did have a look around at what's available for cable carriers that might work.  The searches quickly led to several kinds of carriers, or drag chains, for CNC routers and 3D printers, but the smallest turned out to be too big.  I may be leaning towards 4 mm, Wave springs as a possible solution.  An unsolved problem at the moment!

Paint booth still down for a day or two, so, until I'm back at the plow truck, more puttering with ideas about how to start in some of the Snooper's fabrication.  Like for the plow truck sander, I did an 'exploded' view of the main tower's upper section. 

 

Exploded view - counter weight assembly, tower support frame, slew drive motor, Boom 1, parallel levelling arms for tower 2 and the upper portion of tower 2, at the end of Boom 1 -

 

Can't say enough about how much help the 3D model will be to me, for figuring out a path forward.  Itching to get started! 

Edited August 4 by BK9300
typo

[Randy D]

WOW!!  this is going to be an epic build Brian.  So many  cool parts to create!

 

Randy

[BK9300]

16 hours ago, Randy D said:

WOW!!  this is going to be an epic build Brian.  So many  cool parts to create!

 

Randy

Thanks, Randy - no shortage of fabricating required here!

[BK9300]

Still don't have my paint booth operational yet, so, did some work refining the slew drive bearings for the two towers on the Snooper.  The outer ring gear that I had test printed needed to be modified, to include the inner portion of the bearing, so I could attempt to make the tower(s) rotate and be posable.  My version of a drive bearing is not like the real deal, but should allow me to seat the outer ring between two halves of the inner ring and end up with a unit that rotates (manually!)

 

Main tower drive on 3D model -

 

Sample, real slew drive bearing -

 

I plan to make the inner portion of the bearing in two halves, out of styrene, and glue (bolt?) them together around the resin, outer ring gear.  For now, @Bren is test printing everything in this modified design, to see if it is workable -

 

 

Still testing out other ideas in the 3D model, working out more 'how to' stuff.  Should be back to the plow truck later this week!

 

 

Edited Saturday at 06:49 PM by BK9300
typo

[Biggu]

Another world class build coming ....................  I'm sitting quietly in the front row..... eyes wide open....

[BK9300]

9 hours ago, Biggu said:

Another world class build coming ....................  I'm sitting quietly in the front row..... eyes wide open....

Thanks, Jeff - should be able to start in on it, in about a month!