Yes the nuts are all TIG welded to the links. I made a small jig so that I could do both nuts on a link at the same time. It took me about an hour and a half to do it... 156 nuts later I was done!
Yesterday I focused on the track frames and got them close to being finished. I'm waiting on some motors and a speed control so today I will try to build the main lifting rams.
Oh, I haven't weighed it yet but I'm guessing it will be at least 30lbs when finished. The boom arms are 3/8 flat bar and the bucket has 4 servos to operate it so those parts alone are quite heavy.
Thanks