Cat 340D Excavator build

[crueby]

Originally Posted by ddmckee54

Chris:

If you move the cylinder are you still going to get the curl on the bucket that you need in the other direction? Don't want to be dropping bits out of the bucket when trying to stack the dirt on top of a tall pile.

I warned you those Shop Elves would weasel their way into this site, told you they were just like germs and that they would spread.

Just don't tell anybody on this site where you've hidden the elves' explosives, or their booze, and you should be OK.

Don

Yes - I took the bucket off, and held it to the side of the stick and moved the cylinder piston to both ends to figure out how much to change the pivot points, so it SHOULD be good now. I hope.... Before, the bucket was reaching the furthest-curl-in point with the cylinder only partway out, and would not go to the furthest-open point at all, stopping when the piston bottomed out - this should re-center things. Also, the distance between the pivot holes on the plates attached to the bucket were too far apart, moved them in so that the travel angle is higher. This should make it match the real machine closer, I had mis-measured things initially and did not understand the geometry of how the movement worked.


I have the changes made, and the parts have been given a respray to coat the new cut edges. Tomorrow will be able to reassemble and test the movement again. In the meantime, started making the rack that will hold all the speed controllers for the motors in a neat row. The rack is plywood, with notches cut in on the sides for the ESC's to slide into. The sides are glued up on a baseboard, when that sets up I can drill mounting holes to screw it to the cab floor plate and start the wiring.