Re: BareBones Excavators
Hi this is Crit and Johnny from Barebones. We would like to thank everyone for their interest in the BB390 alpha.
Although we have had the Barebones website up for a while we thought we were flying under the radar while we were still working things out and learning the landscape of this hobby. We're glad someone found us and introduced us here.
We are new to the hobby and are learning our way around. As we learned more about it our goal became one of how to figure out a way to get the prices down on construction equipment so we could get into it.
We work in our everyday life as product designers. We are in essence problem solvers for people who need something to work better, cheaper or faster.
Our first love is construction equipment and we have wanted to be a part of the r/c construction crowd for a long time. We have watched this forum and all the cool stuff in Europe, track hoes and front loaders, come along etc. Unfortunately, the prices have just seemed to go up instead of down. The products are awesome and probably deserve their huge price tags but cost is still the main barrier for most of us trying to enter the r/c construction hobby.
We did notice the Chinese finally enter the market with a pretty affordable track hoe but it didn’t, at least for us, fulfill the “cool” factor. When we drive around our town and see construction equipment working we always stop and watch. A Cat 330 is nice or a Hitachi 200 is ok…it helps us get our fix. But when they recently put in a pipeline here in Utah and a Komatsu 850 showed up to dig the trench, man we went crazy. And then when a Hitachi 1200 arrived for the really deep areas now that was heaven!
Also, just walking distance down the street from us is a Cat D10, serial number 1, and a Cat D11 working at Geneva Steel Mill. They’ve sold off the steel mill to China (don’t get me started) and are now removing the leftover slag and selling it for roadbase. When the D10 blew a head gasket we buddied up to the mechanics and hung out while they repaired it. The size of the blade and sprockets and the ripper were freaking awesome. We thought someday we’re going to do one of these in miniature.
What we want is to have the vehicles that we love be available for a good price. We love it all but a big Cat 390 or a big dozer is something to behold.
In our own quest to get an excavator however, it has always come down to the same thing…save up for a lifetime and hope to get one.
That’s pretty much what made us decide to make our own.
And we only really thought that we could make our own because we’ve had some experience doing similar things. I was a special effects artist in Hollywood for years and built the effects and miniatures for Beetlejuice, Predator, Star Trek, Alien and 85 other motion pictures.
With that said though, the other main stumbling block to making this work was that of welding, bending and assembling these things either for us to build or if they were offered as a kit. All the drilling and tapping and machining and brake pressing etc. pretty much kills the project as much as the cost.
So the challenge for us was to be able to take one of our favorite excavators, the Cat 390 and make it without the need for any welding or machine bending etc.
And we were able to do that with the BB390 that you see on the website. The whole thing was put together with nothing other than screws and rivets and formed and hand bent from laser cut guidelines.
The hydraulics on the website are just for show but we have contracted with a major hydraulic manufacturer here in the U.S. that will make them to our power ratings and the ram and barrel size to our scale specification.
What remains to be done is that there are a few dimensions on the BB390 excavator to tighten up as well as making sure the provisions for swing gears and drives fit what’s available in the market but overall it is basically there. That’s why we are calling the BB390 on the website the “alpha” version because it isn’t perfect though it did prove the concept of a no weld or machining model.
For someone who is a maverick modeler the alpha is a great starting point. However, you’ll still need to drill mounting holes, find ring gears and drive hookups and brackets etc.
So, our excavator in all honesty isn’t really finished. We just know how excited we are when we find new stuff so we thought we’d let anyone who couldn’t wait buy one even though its still in its early phases.
We chose the name BareBones because we wanted to provide the hobby with a solid, accurate, workable, strong, all metal shell or skeleton in which you could from now to eternity customize however you wanted.
With the reaction from the forum being so encouraging we are pressing forward with what will call our “beta” model. This version will be the same excavator but will include mounting holes for common motors, right angle drives, swing gear etc. from places such as Pittman or Granger so that there is less modification to do after you buy it.
The final version will be designed to fit specific motors, servos, and pumps and will be basically a plug and play model.
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