Quote:
Originally Posted by frizzen
I just read through the whole thread, and this is nothing short of amazing.
If i can make something even 1/100th as awesome as this i'd be more than happy with it.
What made you decide the 9W was 'your' machine to do this epic of a build?
|
Thanks for the compliment.
It all started in this picture here; the spring of 1994 the day this machine was cut up for scrap. That's my 1998 Ford Ranger sitting next to the 9W. I took about 8 pictures of this machine but ran out of film and didn't take more. Originally I was
going to build a Manitowoc 4600 crawler dragline but didn't want to take the time to machine all the track links. About the year 2000 I think, the coal company sold all of their remaining machines at auction and I went and tried to buy the 1:1 bucket from the 9W but was outbid by someone with deeper pockets. My plan was to take the 9CY bucket to our steam show and set it there as a display. Actually the bucket was supposed to be taken to Station Square here in Pittsburgh to be displayed with some of the old steel mill era relics. This machine was bought new in 1939 by one of the big coal and steel tycoons here in Pittsburgh.
After the auction, A friend of mine who is good friends with the auctioneer, gave my buddy a pickup truck load of old parts books and manuals that wasn't sold. I went through them to see what I wanted and found the parts books from the 9W. From here I was able to figure out a scale that would be appropriate to be able to actually dig with. Being a machinist building this thing isn't all that hard for me but trying to get actual drawings and measurements is hard. I originally was going to wire this directly but it would make it too complicated with all the wiring involved so Radio Control came up. Not knowing anything about RC I went to a local hobby shop to ask some questions, only to find out no real knowledge on what I am attempting to build. The man there told me about a forum called "GardenTrucking" This is where I started to learn more about this hobby and met a lot of nice guys in the process. Since then countless hours have been spent on my hobby when time permits.