1/10 Liebherr Excavator R 984 Litronic

[Markus K.]

Hi folks,

after the invitation to this forum i wanna introduce my actual build. I started in August 2011 with the first planings and I hope to finish the model in the upcoming year.

This Liebherr Excavator is normally used in mining and road construction and has a operation weight (backhoe attachment) of 120 metric tons. While I do the R984 my Buddy works on his R9100, whitch is a little smaller (well, not really). While he´s doing the milling parts I do most of the planing, lathe work and sheet metal welding. Sometimes I´ll throw in a picture from the R9100, but till now there are just a few. OK, enough, let´s start with the hardware!

Those parts are laser cut steel and 2mm to 5mm thick.

[Markus K.]

And some more

[Markus K.]

Hi Kevin,

thanks for your comment!

About TIG welding, this is certainly not my job or occupation and not every bead is nice, so I had to learn and practice. For me it was very helpful watch Jodie from weldingtipsandtricks. Most of his videos is about TIG welding, but he shows MIG and Stick, also. The 1st I learned was to change the Tungsten into a new grinded, sharp one once if it got stuck.
Most parts here I welded without filler rod, just heated up and melted the corners together.

Here some more pictures from the under carriage.

[Markus K.]

...and some more. If there are any question feel free to ask!

[Markus K.]

Well, it is the best if you practice again and again. Today I welded a couple hours using grey tungsten and after a while I tested the gold ones. But those didn't work as well as the grey ones, I got stuck very often with the same settings on the welder. Because of this I switched back to the gray tungsten. Pictures from this welding will be posted later.
First some pictures from the 2-stage Planetary gear inside the drive wheel. Gear ratio is 20.36 : 1.

[Markus K.]

Some more from the drive train. The gearbox is shimed with thin brass sheets for proper chain setup. The motors are brushless outrunner with 120 Watt and 760kv.

[dirtpusher9]

Welcome Markus. That's a great start to what will be a big beast when finished.

[doodlebug]

Great job on the final drives! Keep the pictures coming.
Cheer's, Neil.

[Fired up]

very nice

[JAMMER]

Hi did you cut all the internal and external gears in you drive? If you did you did a very nice job. Ed

[Markus K.]

Hi Ed,

just the internal gears are laser cut. In every drive is a stack of 10 sandpaper-cleaned pieces with a complete height of 20mm. Using thicker material is less/ poor quality. The internal gears were bought online. Sorry for the blurry picture, it shows one of the int. gears. The small brass gear was just for checking.

[JAMMER]

Hello so you laser cut the internal gears, I was thinking you cut then your self and was wondering how you did it. Your way is a lot easer than broaching them and also buying the other gears saves a lot of time but you still did a nice job. Ed

[Markus K.]

I don't know exactly because my buddy is/ was doing the milling work. I think, the mill was running about 3-4 hours. We used pre-lasered parts for this. Here some more pictures from the fabrication.

[Markus K.]

Hi Ed, you're right! I asked Michael, who milled the stuff and he used an endmill with 0.4mm radius to match the contour. So it was a 0.8mm mill. Sorry for this and thank you for your attention.

Markus

[Lil Giants]

The intricate machining involved is beyond my scope of imagination.

Do you use any lube on the balls?

[Markus K.]

Joe, of course I added some grease to the balls before final mounting. A grease nipple on a hidden place would be perfect for maintenance...

[Markus K.]

Hi Kevin, sure it´s insane! Before I started this model i planed it in 1/8 scale. Then I met Michael, he was a 1/12 guy. We came together in the middle and choosed 1/10 for our excavators and upcoming models. Well, in 1/10 scale i think the R984 will reach the 120 Kg.
This project is running since September 2011 and there are a lot of things finished, whitch I'll post shortly, so watch out for the counterweight, some reilings, the hydraulic cylinder, boom, stick(s, the R9100 is a little different), hydraulic quick coupler, bucket and of course the chains.

I saw your pics and videos on youtube with your excavator, a 984c, also ;-)

greets Markus

[JAMMER]

Hi Markus you said you used a laser to cut parts did you use a laser to cut the rough gear teeth and then finished them off with the mill or did you cut the hole gear with a mill? It was some excellent work. Ed

[Markus K.]

Ed, I gave Michael the cadfiles and he odered the lasercut steel rings. See attached some pictures, whitch shows the lasercut rings, turning the 5.5mm round groove into the internal gear on the lathe and milling the slew ring carriers out of a 30mm steel plate.

Kevin, you've to wait for motion pictures

[Markus K.]

Good morning,

here the first pictures from the cylinder fabrication. I made them for the R984 and R9100. They are made of brass tubes and chromed piston rods. Gaskets are industrial hydraulic standart. Here you see the hoist cylinders of the R984. They have a bore of 24mm and a stroke of 200mm.

More pictures later today!

cheers!