Cat 340D Excavator build

[crueby]

Some more progress to show - the wiring is pretty much done, still want to bundle up some of them but all is functional. Re-tensioned the tracks, since it was fine when the drive wheel was pulling the tracks from underneath, but going in the other direction where it was pulling the tracks over the top, the plates were bunching up as they went under the track rollers - just needed another 1/8" of movement outwards on the idler wheels. Also started in on the cab - making it out of a thin ply skin and shaped wood formers for where it angles in at the top, plus ply frames around the back:





Next steps will be to add the inner walls and top panels, then can start on the operators cab.




On the background project, have gotten a lot done on the Mann Steam Wagon - 3D CAD model is pretty much done, and I've decided on a 1:8 scale for that build, with a 3" diameter gas fired boiler. The 3D model was done at full-size dimensions, will make a copy of it and scale it down to 1/8, then start generating the 2D drawings for the parts. Here is a screen capture from Fusion: