Knight Krawler

[Espeefan]

Darn nice work on the soldering! The headache rack is looking pretty nice already, and it's not even done yet. I'd say the frame work for your chassis turned out nice too. I have never soldered any brass but you seem to have it down. The joints look pretty good, from what I can tell. Are you using a torch to heat everything up? The fenders turned out nice as well. I never thought about using the pole trailer kit to make something like that. Are they chromed plastic, or metal? This is turning into a great build. I know what you mean about prying yourself off the forum to actually get something done on your truck! I have that problem a lot. Right now, actually!

[TRUCKMAKER]

Originally Posted by Espeefan

Darn nice work on the soldering! The headache rack is looking pretty nice already, and it's not even done yet. I'd say the frame work for your chassis turned out nice too. I have never soldered any brass but you seem to have it down. The joints look pretty good, from what I can tell. Are you using a torch to heat everything up? The fenders turned out nice as well. I never thought about using the pole trailer kit to make something like that. Are they chromed plastic, or metal? This is turning into a great build. I know what you mean about prying yourself off the forum to actually get something done on your truck! I have that problem a lot. Right now, actually!

Hi Nathan, Thanks for the encouraging comments. I am definitely learning as I go, I've changed the type and size of my solder 3 times. Still trying to figure out the best way to clean it up when I'm done, but thats what it's all about, if it came out perfect the first time it wouldn't be any fun. I'm using a small butane torch, .062, 60/40 rosin core solder. The deck Plates/fenders are plastic, they're painted aluminum(?) as received in the kit. I purchased 2 deck plates from Tamiya/USA besides the 2 trailer kits I've got.

Here's some more pictures from things I got done last night. After getting the bunks done and mounted I need to shim the the front bunk up so there isn't as much of a forward slope on the load. I new it was going to be there with the back bunk up on the wheel but wasn't sure how much.



The headache rack is just laying against the cab, still need to build the mounts










Had to go pick up the headache mount stanchion material.


Big load shows the height differance in the bunks! (Will be fixed).

Thats all for now, time to hang with the family, watch the race and get back to work!
Thanks for Lookin' Kent

[uk trucker]

Headache rack and soldering look very neat and tidy,I'm beginning to understand where you are going with the build, looks like a good use for a pole trailer ,or two, Great imagination!

[scalelover]

Looking goog I'm really liking where this is headed. Definitely a different build

--Dan

[TRUCKMAKER]

Originally Posted by uk trucker

Headache rack and soldering look very neat and tidy,I'm beginning to understand where you are going with the build, looks like a good use for a pole trailer ,or two, Great imagination!

Thank you for the words of support on soldering, it helps! The more I go at this I forsee a third traler maybe. I sent you 2 PM's today.

Originally Posted by scalelover

Looking goog I'm really liking where this is headed. Definitely a different build

--Dan

Thanks Dan I hope it turns out the way I planned!

[TRUCKMAKER]

Got a quick update. The shop foreman stopped by to see how the building progress was coming. After we made him happy and got him out of the way, I proceeded to fix the height difference in the log/pole bunks and finally took the dive into the cab. I decided to layer the roof to get the height I wanted vs. cutting up a perfectly good raised roof cap. Now I need to figure out the best way to remove the excess plastic.


Shop foreman, build inspection



Passed inspection On with the build!




Thanks for looking, Later!
Kent

[Espeefan]

Hey Kent, don't cut the top! So are you going to sand and file the cab roof profile to give that rounded look?

[TRUCKMAKER]

Originally Posted by Espeefan

Hey Kent, don't cut the top! So are you going to sand and file the cab roof profile to give that rounded look?

Thanks Nathan, I'll try to remember that! I have had a bad head cold all week and it was the first time I felt like getting in the shop. I had styrene all over the place and thought the way my week was going I'd probably cut the center out of all the plates and it was my last sheet big enough for the roof.
Yes I'm going to carve the roof to the correct proflle to the best of my ability. I'm just not sure how I'm going to do it yet! Filing and sanding will probably be my best bet. Keep watching to see how it goes!

[uk trucker]

Filing and sanding sounds the way to go with plenty of eyeball to check the profile.
Its looking a nice job so far. Guess the cat is keeping a close eye on the job

[TRUCKMAKER]

Originally Posted by uk trucker

Filing and sanding sounds the way to go with plenty of eyeball to check the profile.
Its looking a nice job so far. Guess the cat is keeping a close eye on the job

I think so, just wating to feel better so I dont mess it up!
The cat likes to hang out where ever I am and if I wasn't talking to him when the picutre was taken he would have been in the middle of the bench!

[Espeefan]

To bad you can't just take a router and cut the profile into the roof with that! That or a shaper. What might be handy to get the profile close all the way around, would be to make a styrene template with the radius in it. Then as you file and sand, you could check the radius by placing the template over the edge, if that makes sense? Later on, the same template could be used to spread any filler.

[SWAGGER]

Originally Posted by Espeefan

To bad you can't just take a router and cut the profile into the roof with that! That or a shaper. What might be handy to get the profile close all the way around, would be to make a styrene template with the radius in it. Then as you file and sand, you could check the radius by placing the template over the edge, if that makes sense? Later on, the same template could be used to spread any filler.

Great thinking!

[TRUCKMAKER]

Originally Posted by Espeefan

To bad you can't just take a router and cut the profile into the roof with that! That or a shaper. What might be handy to get the profile close all the way around, would be to make a styrene template with the radius in it. Then as you file and sand, you could check the radius by placing the template over the edge, if that makes sense? Later on, the same template could be used to spread any filler.

I'm not going to get to crazy with it, just try to make it flow nice, I do like the template idea, Thanks Nathan. That also gave me an idea of how to get the correct radius in the template, I'll get back to you on that. Thanks again for helping out, hopefully I get time in the workshop this weekend to get some more done.

[RCTech9]

Nice Build, this will be awesome when finished!

[grumpygrady]

[I am definitely learning as I go, I've changed the type and size of my solder 3 times. Still trying to figure out the best way to clean it up when I'm done, but that's what it's all about, if it came out perfect the first time it wouldn't be any fun. I'm using a small butane torch, .062, 60/40 rosin core solder]


on your solder try a 50/50 with no rosin ,and use a paste rosin and i think you will like it
if you are careful with the paste, the solder will only flow were you brush it on and that helps clean up ,
50/50 solder is the trick that the old timers used to fix radiators back when they were all metal
should find it in the plumbing section of your local hardware store

looking good so far

[MoRockN]

One word, WOW. Super nice looking rig! Thanks for sharing.

[Espeefan]

Originally Posted by TRUCKMAKER

I'm not going to get to crazy with it, just try to make it flow nice, I do like the template idea, Thanks Nathan. That also gave me an idea of how to get the correct radius in the template, I'll get back to you on that. Thanks again for helping out, hopefully I get time in the workshop this weekend to get some more done.

I was just throwing some ideas around. More like thinking out loud, but I still like the router bit idea best, cause it uses power tools! Ha. I'm sure you'll get it looking good. You've gotten this far, and it's great.

[TRUCKMAKER]

Originally Posted by RCTech9

Nice Build, this will be awesome when finished!

Thank you for the compliment, I'm getting there slowly!

Originally Posted by grumpygrady

[I am definitely learning as I go, I've changed the type and size of my solder 3 times. Still trying to figure out the best way to clean it up when I'm done, but that's what it's all about, if it came out perfect the first time it wouldn't be any fun. I'm using a small butane torch, .062, 60/40 rosin core solder]


on your solder try a 50/50 with no rosin ,and use a paste rosin and i think you will like it
if you are careful with the paste, the solder will only flow were you brush it on and that helps clean up ,
50/50 solder is the trick that the old timers used to fix radiators back when they were all metal
should find it in the plumbing section of your local hardware store

looking good so far

Grumpygrady have you seen 50/50 in a small diameter? What I didn't like about the stuff I had was the diameter was to big and it would deposit way more solder than I needed for the joint which made clean up much worse. I used some 1mm 60/40 from our electronics lab at work and it was great! No problems with the joints holding and you can get away with alot less heat. Thanks for the help and compliments, keep watching, more soldering to come!

Originally Posted by MoRockN

One word, WOW. Super nice looking rig! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks MoRockN, lots more work to come, and I still got trailers to build yet!

Originally Posted by Espeefan

I was just throwing some ideas around. More like thinking out loud, but I still like the router bit idea best, cause it uses power tools! Ha. I'm sure you'll get it looking good. You've gotten this far, and it's great.

LMAO You sound to much like me with the power tool thing, why do you think its taking me so long to start this part, I'm trying to figure out what power tools I have to make it go quicker, (I don't own a router) so i'm using my dremel with a coarse sanding drum to carve it into shape! Its actually working pretty well so far. Definitely keep throwing those ideas around, especially the power tool ones and thanks!

[TRUCKMAKER]

Heres an update on the cab. I got it sanded to the shape I'm going with for now. The picture shows it sanded to 320 grit.









Thanks for looking!

[Roadmasters]

That looks really nice, and i think its a first! Keep up the great work, i cant wait to see more!