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The system appears sound and best to over lengthen rather than coming up short I don't know why but I was thinking that you were adding both dozer blades to the front which I could not work out

Thanks LDD.
No, one at a time. He's a Mad scientist, not crazy...

You've all seen a lot of the front side of the dozer blades and I've talked a lot about the rear side. Now it's time to rectify the balance...

This the progress on the main support structure (You'll never guess what it's made of... ) and rough positioning against the tank and blade.


I still need to come up with a brilliant idea of how to attach (in a non-permanent way) the support to the blade. I have a few possibilities to try...

This is shaping up really great~! Frame, support struts, and their braces

I throw my hat into the ring... it´s made from wood...

looking good there mister...

and as for the means to have it placed to the tank... yo can either use magnets... or you use holes and bolts...but the latter could be tricky... better the former then...

That front of the tank... almost has a crab-like face to it. Very cool. Lovin' the plow work.

Looking great, looking strong too.

I would say, magnets, if you need some let me know.

shasolenzabi wrote:This is shaping up really great~! Frame, support struts, and their braces

Thanks Shas.

Viktor von Domm wrote:I throw my hat into the ring... it´s made from wood...

looking good there mister...

and as for the means to have it placed to the tank... yo can either use magnets... or you use holes and bolts...but the latter could be tricky... better the former then...

Thanks Vik.

Red Harvest wrote:That front of the tank... almost has a crab-like face to it. Very cool. Lovin' the plow work.

Thanks Red.

Camkierhi wrote:Looking great, looking strong too.

I would say, magnets, if you need some let me know.

Thanks Cam.
There's a few things I'll try first. I was more worried about how it was going to look rather than the actual attachment. But if I do need magnets, I'll give you a shout. Ta.

As I said, I had a few ideas of what to try for the attachment to the blade. I was going to try out a few today...

...but then I had an idea, just as I was getting ready for bed, that was a combination of a couple of the ideas and scribbled out a quick drawing to remind myself in the morning.

It still looked good in the morning and I've gone ahead and made it.

The slots in the semi-circles are for a hidden piece of plastic inside the other half of the hinge and should hold the blade on firmly and prevent it from "drooping".

While it may look a little far from the tank;
I can make it a little shorter or
It should make plenty of room for the secondary blades that I haven't even started work on yet...

Now need to look at where the pistons will attach.

Could you take a look at the bolts on cams landing pad and use something along those lines to attach the brace. When not in use just put the bolt back into the tank part and I could look like a cabling/tying off part on the front of the tank.

Perhaps front end loader style for the pistons?

Thanks Theo. I will come to bolts and rivets once the structure is sound.

Talking of the structure...
This is the pistons and a view of how the small pistons attach to the dozer blade.

Notice how not-very-straight some bits are down there...

and with the pistons and their hinges done, I can start attaching it to the tank.


The main support structure is still not glued in place yet as other bits need to set first.
Then, I will add the rivets etc...

Also need to add the details to the blade faces and make the mini secondary dozer blades...

It's no wonder most dozer blades you see are straight and attached by a pair of robot arms... that would be so much simpler...

Looking great doc

Distance looks just about right once the secondary blades go in

 monkeytroll wrote:
Looking great doc

Distance looks just about right once the secondary blades go in

Thanks MT.
Yeah, the first time I held it up to the tank once I'd done the main hinge I though it was way too far out (after previously cutting down the main support and thinking it was then too short. The hinge lengthened it beyond where it was originally), But then I remembered that I still had to do the secondary blades and relaxed... a bit.

Also notice that the tank no longer looks short and wide...

Outsranding.

a working system, awesome sauce!

From that angle, it now looks like it's screaming, somewhere between rage and pain... which is a good thing

Gitsplitta wrote:Outsranding.

Thanks Gits'.

shasolenzabi wrote:a working system, awesome sauce!

Well, it's not quite working.
The main support structure is glued rigid as the pistons don't have the friction required to hold the dozer up. So I made the decision early on to not have it adjustable.
The hinges for all the pistons do work, but not the main structure. This helps with lining the piston halves up to swap the blades over. See below.

It is designed to look functioning, so I'm glad that comes across.

inmygravenimage wrote:From that angle, it now looks like it's screaming, somewhere between rage and pain... which is a good thing

That is a good thing. Thanks Graven.

The main structure is now glued on to the tank and it supports the weight of the dozer easily.

I had it in a raised position as I thought this would be better for when (if I ever get around to it) I play the game and needs to sit in/on some terrain. Don't want it looking like it's resting on the dozer.

This shows how the dozer can be detached from the tank.

I still need to do all the piston work on the second blade and I have to find a suitably thin piece of tube/rod for the small pistons as I used more than I expected on the first blade and can't seem to find any more. Need to have a rummage, or I'll just make some putty ones.

I have also started looking at the secondary blades.

Not sure yet, how I'm going to attach them. Got to give them a curve first...

I may go back to looking at my sinks while I ponder...

In other news; my chair bust today, so going to buy a new one tomorrow...

Good progress. With all that support on it, it looks suitably brutal and massive.

And don't cheat yourself with the chair. Get a good one. Your back, neck and shoulders will all thank you. Personal experience here. Had to get a new one recently, after the leg broke on the one I built ~20 years ago.

Looks perfect, and strong.

What size tube/rod do you need?

And ditto on Red's comment about chairs.

Well Doc H, it still looks good anyway!

Red Harvest wrote:Good progress. With all that support on it, it looks suitably brutal and massive.

Thanks.

And don't cheat yourself with the chair. Get a good one. Your back, neck and shoulders will all thank you. Personal experience here. Had to get a new one recently, after the leg broke on the one I built ~20 years ago.

Absolutely. The chair I had was a nice chair, so I wasn't going to take a step back on the new one.

Camkierhi wrote:Looks perfect, and strong.

What size tube/rod do you need?

And ditto on Red's comment about chairs.

Thanks.

It looks like it's between 1.6 and 1.8mm diameter. The white tube that it has to slide into has a similar inside diameter to a cotton-bud / Q-tip stick.
Wish I had some callipers, would make life so much easier when working on these scales...

shasolenzabi wrote:Well Doc H, it still looks good anyway!

Thanks.

I hope you mean 1.6 and 1.8 otherwise that q-tip is going to be painful.

Would a bit of copper wire, used for lighting circuits (1.5mm) be strong enough? I will have a dig around.

Cocktail sticks are a tight fit into a Q-tip....

Camkierhi wrote:I hope you mean 1.6 and 1.8 otherwise that q-tip is going to be painful.

Would a bit of copper wire, used for lighting circuits (1.5mm) be strong enough? I will have a dig around.

Yeah, that is what I meant
I'm still searching through my junk. All the wires I've found so far are either too thin or too thick or too bendy (needs to hold itself straight). :(
and I need to be able to drill a hole through it at one end for the hinge.

monkeytroll wrote:Cocktail sticks are a tight fit into a Q-tip....

and the cocktail sticks I have are too thick. :(

5 minutes with some sandpaper and the sticks are a good un!

Yeah, that is also an option. I will find something or I will make it one way or another.

 Camkierhi wrote:
5 minutes with some sandpaper and SOME SPRUE are a good un!

Roll your own. Tubes, I mean Longstanding practice in papercraft is to roll cylinders for things like ship masts and whatnot. It takes some practice to get it right though, but paper is cheap. I use one of those glue sticks and whatever weight of paper I think I need. for this, 20#. Another option anyway.

Edit: And post #500. Wow, that came along quickly.

Ha Ha Theo.
It's almost as if you think I have some kind of obsession with using sprue for almost everything...

 Red Harvest wrote:
Roll your own. Tubes, I mean Longstanding practice in papercraft is to roll cylinders for things like ship masts and whatnot. It takes some practice to get it right though, but paper is cheap. I use one of those glue sticks and whatever weight of paper I think I need. for this, 20#. Another option anyway.

Oh yeah, didn't think of paper. Good idea.

However, I have found some rods of milliput I rolled out ages ago to use up the excess. Somehow I managed to roll them the perfect thickness for this job before I had even thought about this job... and I found them when I was looking for something else for use on the sinks... Now that's taking forward planning to whole new levels...

Edit: And post #500. Wow, that came along quickly.

Congratulations. They will soon build up around these parts, Mine leapt a huge amount once I started exploring the P&M blogs (I don't even know what I've posted about to get this far north of 3000).

Edit: And post #500. Wow, that came along quickly.

Congratulations. They will soon build up around these parts, Mine leapt a huge amount once I started exploring the P&M blogs (I don't even know what I've posted about to get this far north of 3000).