First Snow Of The Year

Had two weekends in a row with about 6" of snow each. More snow is expected this coming weekend as well. So it was time to play....

The little snowmobile was a gift from my parents to my brother, sister and I back in 1989. It's an Arctic Cat Kitty Cat. I loved that thing. My Dad kept it all these years and now my kids had a chance to ride it. So we took it to an open field by my house.

Relaxing.....

Long Overdue Update

It's been a long time since my last update. I've spent the summer planning a garage addition and late summer/early fall building it. This ended up meaning new siding for the whole house and fixing issues that were found once the old stuff was removed. Of course. And other than the concrete work, I did everything myself. The outside is finally done but I still have to finish electric, insulation and drywall on the inside before I can get all of my machines back into place. 

The mining truck is still going to happen and this addition was the first step. The second step is to build a plasma table. Something else I've wanted to do for a long time. So I've also been collecting parts for that as well. It will be the first project in the new garage. I ended up going with a Precision Plasma gantry that uses linear rail instead of the typical cold rolled steel. I'd like to run a router on it as well (for wood only) so I wanted something a little more precise. The rail is very heavy duty and looks to be very nice quality.

 

Precision Plasma Gantry Kit and Speed Demon Linear Rail

 

I'm anxious to get back to some projects and having my sons help me out with them. I still have a lot of design work to do on the mining truck. And I still need to determine some of the parts I'm going to use before I can do more. I'm really trying hard to fit a 3 cylinder diesel in it. First, they are very tall and the additional need of water cooling will eat up more space I already don't have. So we'll see what I can come up with. I don't think it would be right if it wasn't a diesel.  

That is all for now. 

Ryan

Update

I finally made some progress on the dump truck build. However, I took a small detour to build a rotary weld positioner. I needed it to recenter the Hummer wheels that I am using. I'll have a more detailed update soon but here's a preview.

Click the picture to see more information.

Build Guide Now Available

I've finally decided to write a build guide for the mini dozer that I've built. I also include track frame rail plans. You can read more about this guide HERE.

This is new to me so I welcome any feedback in regards to content or pricing. Please contact me using the form at the top of this page if you have any questions.

2015 Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club National Show

The Rock River Thresheree in Edgerton Wi hosted the annual Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club show this year. I have never been to this show before and I've never been to an ACMOC event. So far, I have to say it was the best show I've attended to date. The show had a lot of variety including a steam driven pile driver, a couple of dragline shovels, a big "sand box" for all of the dozers, graders, shovels etc and a steam locomotive that runs around a 1.5 mile track to name a few things. But on top of all that, I was able to meet a lot of great people from the club and see a good amount of vintage Caterpillar equipment.

So I took my sons little dozer around and snapped a few pictures next to the big boys. Click on the picture below to see more from the show.

Update

Started chopping up axles. See the rest HERE.

The New Build Begins....

I've had a renewed interest in my Jeep lately. And I've been offroading twice this summer so far. That's more than past years. Wanting to do some upgrades, I purchased a Chevy 14 bolt full float axle from the junkyard a few weeks ago. I was planning to find a Dana 60 for the front. Don't really need that much axle but I like building things. Obviously.

However, I haven't stopped thinking about the mini truck build. I have more ideas and ambition than I have time or money. The design has stalled a little because of the lack of parts. Like the dozer, I need to know what parts I'm going to use so I can model it properly.

I need to start from the back and move forward to know how much cab space I'm going to have. And I struggled with what I was going to do about the axle. As I was sitting there looking at the 14 bolt, it dawned on my. I needed a fairly narrow axle but I wanted the outer bearing support of a full float axle the handle the dual tire setup. So I went back to the junk yard yesterday and picked up the narrowest axle I could find; a 2wd axle from an S10. I have a plan to graft them together. I'm going to start modeling it in cad and will explain more soon.