Volvo G990 Grader

[Vanisle]

That's a great idea for building, using the tabs. It is inspiring to see what can be done. Any idea how long it might take you get this completed? Do you think the building process is going quicker with the tab design? Sure seems like a solid design.

[Stefan]

Thanks for the comments guys!

@ Espeefan & JensR: Yes, as 9W Monighan said, the real one is mostly plates, and since there is in any case quite enough work to be done, I decided to have most of the plates cut in a laser cutting shop. But some parts, like the hose bundling plate, I did myself What to do yourself is of course a trade-off question between time, money, difficulty and fun, but in the case of the plates, everything speaks for having them done. I´ll give you an example, for the moldboard slide guide I´ll need four stainless strips (for the two models I´m building) 487 mm x 9 mm x 1,5 mm (about 19” x 11/32” x 1/16”). Not a big deal, but also not much fun and only four bucks apiece from the cutting shop...

Even by the size of my model there are several small-strain-to-area-ratio parts for which gluing will be quite sufficient.

@ Vanisle: Someone in this thread said that the tab concept is used on some of the real machines, too. And yes, I reckon it´s much faster for a given accuracy (at least the one I want), in particular when you take advantage of the inherent accuracy of laser cutting. Just think of it - once the parts are made you can put them correctly together almost blindfolded.

Regarding the time to completion I´m sorry: What you see started almost five years ago and is surely bound to take another five, if not more (but positively seen, I´ve saved you five long years )

And here´s the hose bundling plate (never shown to anyone, anywhere before ). It´s used at the waist of the machine.

[JensR]

Stefan, not to be a party spoiler, but are these plates a good idea?

How do you prevent hose chafing and so?
I guess you can round the edges, but - not having the pdf of the original at hand - I remember similar plates in other machines having quite generous padding/guidance/radii to prevent cutting/chafing the hoses and wires.