I dig it. I printed it out and it's in my garage.
I'll give 20.00 to drive it for 5 minutes when it's done.
Deal.
so does he get a back hoe when he turns 4?
Thought about it. I'd actually like to do a tube frame tank track vehicle of some sort. Or a small Jeep. I've seen those stamped steel Willys bodies you can buy and put on lawnmowers. I'd build my own frame though. That will be for child #2. Which, by the way is due at the end of March. Another boy. Cats out of the bag now.
I don't know how I missed this before but I wish I had been following this from the beginning. I would have offered up my services just from some information on the design. I understand why you build things in your garage. There is just not nearly as much fun in buying something. I build my own CNC Plasma and have been looking for a new project. I can think of more than moving snow as work for something like this. With horses, they produce a lot of shall we say "fertilizer" that seams to need moved on a regular basis. Skid loader would be ideal, but not nearly as much of a cool factor.
I don't know if you are willing or if it has been asked before, but would you be willing to share this design? I have been a machinist for 20+ years and recently picked up working with cad, but I am no engineer. so designing something this large is a challenge. Also I live in Northern Il too and would love to come see this in person sometime. I visit my son from time to time in Gernee so not to far out of the way. Oh and if your friend is not have the capacity of cutting larger pieces let me know I have a 4x8 foot table.
I'm going to PM you about a few things. As for sharing the plans, I'm not sure yet. There are some things I still make the old school way and just build it as I go. I try to load those things back into the file but it's not 100%. I want to see how well it works when it's done and then I'll think about what to do.
So I figured I'm over due for an update. It's crunch time now. With the new baby on the way, I'd like to get this thing done so I can focus on the family. This project has been very intense. Now it's all the little detail work to finish up.
Since the pins for the lift cylinder go into a semi-blind hole, I wanted to make some retaining caps. And I felt like learning how to use my rotary table. A little overkill but it was fun.
I've had a lot of people tell me that if I'm going to plow snow, I should make the plow break away in case I hit something. So I made it pivot but I can also lock it in place if I want to.
Made the hydraulic pump bracket and welded it in.
Mounted the pump and filter and started running lines.
Bent the hard lines and running more hoses. I'm glad I modeled all of the hoses in cad. It's coming together just how I expected it to.
Here's the belt tensioner. I'm running out of space. It should work though.
With the new engine being longer, I'm running out of room for a fuel tank. I tried looking for something commercially available (to save time as well) but I couldn't find anything that would work. So I am making my own out of thin wall tubing. I have two. They will be joined with tubing. I'll have just about a gallon of capacity. I bought some Caswell fuel tank sealer to handle my not so perfect welds.
I was playing with the panoramic feature on my phone. Since this is garage journal, here is my workspace. It's a little messy.
And sometimes I don't feel like pulling my wife's car out of the garage so this is how I work.
I hope to run again over Christmas. Do final testing. Start body work. And paint shortly after. We'll see.
Thanks for looking. Hope you all enjoy seeing this project. I started a little over two years ago. I feel like I've come a long way and have learned a lot. Once it's done, I'll be taking it to a few tractor shows around the area. I'll let you all know when I do if you feel like checking it out in person.
