Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Welcome to the forum Joe. Glad you like the work you see around here and trust me when I say everyone starts out as a newb at some point in time.

Thanks for taking intrest in my build and to answer your questions in order here you go.

1) The rams or cylinders as you call them are all custom made by me. I turn them down on my lathe and have a vendors post if you'd like more information on them.

2) Using the rams with my Hitec radio works great. I can use the sticks on it just like a full size excavator that I run so it makes it alot of fun and very simple to pick up.

3) I am currently just in mock up of the electronics as well but I will not need to be running a speed control as I'm not running an actual motor in this machine.

4) I modify the servo's pots and make a custom output shaft for the final drive of the servo to get them to rotate 360 degrees and work the rams. You can find multiple places that show pics and vids of how to modify the servos all over the net and it's quite simple.

Again thanks for the intrest and if you have any questions we would all be glad to help.:rolleyes:

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

your welcome man... i appreciate the help you give to whoever asks and to myself...

is there any way you could draw out a schematic on how your rams are made and how it all works....

i'd like to make me a custom excavator/ log loader with your ideas...

also whats the better size to build these machines? i see 1/16 and 1/14.5...

and another question i have is can you combine servos via a switch on the radio or wire harness to work with one stick? so you can have two rams on the big arm that comes right off the machine work in tandem to one stick on the radio?

i know i ask alot but i'm trying to eliminate the learning curve to all this...

thanks again

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

hey tyler sorry i didn't realize you were trying to sell your ideas for the rams... but anyhow you've been very respectful and i hope you didn't take my noisying around as an insult... can't wait to see the final product and you r doing awesome....joe

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

There is no problem asking questions and I did not take offense to your words about posting pics. I use a very similar method to pumptech and his builds for the rams but I machine my own parts internally to make them look and opperate a little differently. The main difference between them is how they attatch to the servo and that I have made full cylinder sleeves on my lathe as where he used materials that he had on hand.

His cylinders work great and no worse than mine. I just had an expensive machine to make mine look pretty so to speak. If you would like pumptech is VERY knowledgable and has a great write up on making your own rams if you'd like to take a look.

Thanks for the intrest and I hope to get some progress pics up by the end of this week. Have a lot to make up for. :rolleyes:

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Well been super busy this last week at work and around the house so haven't had much time for the excavator but I decided to snap some shots of what little bit I have gotten done. I made a wrist pin for the boom and arm to attatch and need to braze it up tommorow then I will get crackin on finishing the metal work on the boom this week and hopefully get it to the priming stage so I can see what needs to be changed. There are also a couple of shots compared to the stock arm assembly for reference.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r/100_2170.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r/100_2172.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r/100_2175.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r/100_2177.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r/100_2178.jpg

Thanks for lookin and hope to give you guys more progress pics soon so stay tuned.

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Tyler,

great works.

Manfred

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

looks good tyler.... excited to see it all done and working

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Hey Tyler,

Do you have any further progress on your digger.... i'm missing the fun!!!!!!!!!

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

This looks amazing! Just hope mine turns out as well as this.

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Also do you sell them rams? or know anyone that sells somthing along the same lines? they are the best looking screw rams ive seen by far.

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

I'm a plumber pipefitter by trade just wondering what type of soilder you use 50/50, 60/40 etc.

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Any updates on this?

Brian

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

I use a 50/50 on this as I feel that it creates a lot stronger bond on the brass and I can get it to melt and flow much better than my 60/40 I have.

Hey Brian, I've been away and very busy most of the summer but I will be around more often now and be getting back to this build. No updates to speak of as there have been a few months of down time but I will be picking up where I left off in a few days so stay tuned. :D

~Tyler~

Re: Bruder Cat Excavator Conversion
 

Updates????????????