Akerman H14b

[Rimrock]

Hi, I like to publish some pictures of one of my current projects, an Akerman H14b (~30 tons) excavator in scale 1:Tamiya. I am a bit nostalgic concerning the look of the 70's & 80's machines, which I find more interesting than the current 'wind tunnel optimized' machines of to day

I mainly use aluminium and steel, and put it together useing screws and Loctite 330 'heavy duty' glue. The hydraulics will be from Premacon, but cylinders will be of own production. Will run at 20-22 bar pressure. The shape of the Akerman boom/dipper and under carrige is a bit 'tricky' to re-produce, but I like to make it pretty scale true on the exterior, so I just will put in the extra hours concerning both production and planning. I use a 2D/3D CAD software to create the drawings. Did create the 'machine house' during August 2012, and now has continued work on the machine in the start of 2014.

The Akerman company of Sweden produced excavators from the late 30's to the late 90's when the current owner, VME group (Volvo) from 1991, shut down the production. The VME group purchased the Samsung excavator factory in South Korea instead, at a good price after the financial crises in Asia in the late 90's, and started development of the current Volvo EC series.
Akerman had a large marked share in Northern Europe and the machines where rather advanced for their time periode. They were mainly constructed to have a high capasity regarding moving rocks/heavy material, at low cost/ton, with their rather robuste construction and 'oversized' Volvo Penta Industrial engines. The hydraulic system was said not to be perfectly intended for 'fine leveling' concerning the earlier models. In 1981 Akerman purchased the Hein-Werner excavator plant in Wisconsin US, and several hundred machines were produced there until Volvo took over, and shut down the production.
The last 2-3 years Volvo put their logo on the machines, and the H14 was during the 90's renamed EC300. Many of the newer models from the 90's are still in daily operation, and the older models are popular among farmers. A local company have both a 16 ton and a 40 ton machine from the 80's in operation, both close to 30.000 hours)

[Rimrock]

Machine house

[Rimrock]

Counter weight, 'slewing ring pillar' etc.

[Rimrock]

More pictures from the 'lab'..I will use a internal gear on the slewing pillar, Module 1. Will get a rotaing speed of about 7 rpm, as the original. The postion og the gearmotor can be 'finetuned' from above to reduce play, and can also be pulled out from above for maintenence. Will use 2 bearings on the pillar, that can be tighten towards eachother to reduce play.

[Rvjimd]

Very Nice! I like the look of the old machines also, your workmanship looks very good!

Jim

[pumptech]

Awesome build skills sir !! , Going to be a great looking excavator..

[Trucker_Jo]

Wow very clean build! Looks nice

[tc1cat]

Very nice!!! Always nice to have full size machines to make things on Wish I had the room for them

[Rimrock]

Hi all, thanks for the comments) Have some more pictures from the progress, I have concentrated mostly on the boom and stick the last periode. Been milling out the end brackets on the boom/stick. Have glued it all together, but will ad a few screws in addition.

[Rimrock]

More pictures..

[ekim]

Rimrock,

You are very talented. I am very impressed. Also thank you for the history lesson to go along with your build. It is great to know these things and helps give the build the character it deserves.

Michael

[Rimrock]

Thanks for your inspiring comments, Michael This is my second scratch-build, and hopefully won't be the last) I have built a truck based on Tamiya components earlier on. I look forward to finish the excavator, and to get started moving some gravel..

Have nearly completed the stick and boom now. I did discover that I have used a bit too thick plates in the construction so the items got about 25% heavier than 'to scale'. Well, it's about 0.5 kg/1 lbs 'overweight, but there will be no lack of hydraulic power anyway with my pump setup

[D8R]

Nice build, especialy interesting since Åkermans was quite close to where if lived, did also work a couple of summers at their office. Wounder where all drawings did go when they closed office, maybee to some Volvo archive.
It looks like you have a Optimum CNC milling machine, are you happy with this?

/Dan

[ricm]

great project, looking forward to more pics