Newbie Scratch Build - D575A Dozer

[Originalrob]

Hi everyone and happy new year to wherever you may be !

This is my first post and I must say I think its harder to start this than the actual build ! I have been a long time lurker and reader of builds ( Coopers D11 was the first one I looked at and envied ) as I had accidently stumbled across this hobby a year ago on youtube. special mention to Titandigs, DR8 and the guy with the Dresser ? excellent builds and I am in awe of such dedication and workmanship. As a bit of history my day to day work has nothing to do with machining or engineering and 6 months ago I brought my first mill and lathe ( smallish). My available space is tiny so I have to be very studious as to what tools and equipment I gather. I have to date I have turned countless £'s ( I am UK based) of brass and steel into worthless chips on my shed floor . I find it very calming and therapeutic ( apart from the cost of the metal itself!)
I thought long and hard about doing a build thread and I figured eventually that I should try and help the next new guy as you longtimers have helped me so far. I figured it may help some others based on the other side of the pond like me and also I can ask critique from the more experienced builders here ( very selfish of me but I'm getting stuck on a few things!). so where to start ?
Well I grew up in the bush in Tasmania and was always around heavy equipment and I remember an old guy with an equally old D8 working on our farm which lead me to the desire to make a dozer of some sort. There are a lot of cat fans here and amazing builds to match so I decide to go another route. I have decided to make this :



I think its mainly a mining dozer and it looks different so here goes !

This is what I have built to date :






plan is for an all steel build with some cosmetic top parts beingd 3d printed (may eventually make everything in steel)

ill post some more descriptions of work done to date and pics ( I am not sure how this posting works )

Cheers

Rob