Back to the build.
As you will have noticed there is the huge hole on the bottom where the ESC for the drive motors are installed. Taking my que from the German forum I decided to do a variation on making a cover for it.
Taped a piece of paper against the hole, scanned it in and cleaned it up in Illustrator. glued paper to a metal plate and cut the holes.
Now I only have to loosen the bolts a bit and will be able to take the plate out so I have easy access to the ESCs and wiring should I ever need it. Meanwhile no muck can get in.
That leaves the wires from the ESCs to the motors. A bit of fiddling with scissors and cardboard, transferring to 0.3 messing plate, some bending and double sided tape later that is sorted too. Better would have been to have drilled and threaded a hole and attach it with a small bolt. (The double sided tape only held for 1 week
)
Before installing I inserted a piece of rubber in the slot to hold the cables in. The little red arrow points to one of the 3D printed covers of the drive system. I forgot to mention earlier that one needs to cut a couple of slots to accommodate the heads of the bolts holding the gears/motor to the carrier.
Now we get to the part that worried me the most ... the hydraulics ....
First install the messing tubing on the boom and upper arm. This covers a couple of pages in the manual.
I made a template for the upper arm so both would be in about the same position. I actually should have had them closer to the bucket ... I also cut the provided small screws in half. (this was suggested on the German forum because apparently they strip easily)
As you can see not much place between those tubes.
FYI, the parts are painted. Not enough yellow to be found on this island, only non-eye-hurting paints in large supply were Matt White and Honda Grey ... Also the painting was absolutely painful with long curing times and bad reactions between the primer and paint. Sadly enough no decent spray paint to be had here in Malaysia.
Actually did come out rather nice in the end (if I say so myself)
Next I ran a drill bit through the holes in the boom and upper arm. (need a 10mm, 8mm and 4mm)
Installed the quick release to the bottom of the upper arm. (had to slightly file out the provided openings in the 2 metal bits connecting arm to hydraulic piston)
Fit with the boom very thigh so some sanding of the hinge part required. (you can see a spot of yellow there from one of the failed painting attempts)
Connecting dipper to boom.
Boom to upper wagon
Installing the hydraulic tubing was easy peasy! Cut to size, stick on nipple and tighten the metal bit with needle nose pliers.
Trying on the unpainted bodywork for fit - the counter weight that is supposed to slide over the 2 metal bars in the back didn't quite fit. The openings need some filing - more about that later.
Too finish the installation of the hydraulic lines to the valves, needed to take of the servos. I messed up drilling holes in the oil tank - needs 3 10mm holes to fit the connectors. The middle one was not right. Ended up glueing all 3 connectors with UHU Endfest glue. You can see the oil tank sitting between bucket and carriage.
View from the other side. Hook up pressure regulator etc. To get the filters in the yellow tubing, the wife's hairdryer and a bit of silicone works wonders!
Ready for oil tank
Oil tank in, and hydraulics primed according to manual. It lives - and no leaks!
Operated the valves by hand for the priming.
After that, took it out in the garden for a bit of testing. Sadly enough our back garden in that area is mostly rocky and very hard soil ...
So all my fears of the hydraulics were for naught! Got all worried for nothing.
To be continued
Cheers
Stephan