OK I'm hooked

[crusher]

Hi I am going to attempt a scratch build of a Cat 330b, 1-14 scale, I have researched what I could find and have ordered a parts manual on ebay, my first question is does anyone have a drawing or info for a valve body? Can anyone enlighten me on track drives, do you use motors attached directly to the drive sprockets or do you hide them and drive with a chain link? And finally what do you use for motors, I will be building pretty well everything from steel so will be fairly heavy. Any help would be appreciated as this is my first build.
Thanks
Terry

ps; hope this is in right posting group.

[RCLogger]

Terry if you checkout my thread starting thread # 16, you can see how I built my CAT 330 log loader. Even my CAT D8 and excavators, alunimum works just fine. If you are planning on running a pump that is 10 bar. 10 bar is enough power for 1/14 scale smaller sized machines. If you use a scale calculator it will give you a good idea on the size of the machine.
I don't build the machines the same as the 1-1, more like ( if it looks right scale )...lol

Liembach builds pumps, spools and cylinders that hold up quit well considering...

greg

[crusher]

Thanks Greg, I will look at your build, I would like to use alum for its ease of cutting etc. but I don't want the machine to bounce around too much so thought using steel would give weight to look more stable and realistic. What do you use for track drive motors to get enough power and still look good in motion? I've seen some builds where the machine jumps around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Please excuse all the questions but I am really working with only what I read on this forum, which has been great.
Terry

[Espeefan]

Terry, just about all the bulldozers and excavators use gear head motors to power the tracks. They are compact, have the torque, and are really simple, in most cases, to lock a chain sprocket down onto their output shaft.

I wonder if the videos you have seen are Bruder conversioned models? Those models are all plastic, and they are pretty cheap to convert to RC. I've never seen any aluminum models jumping around like a chicken with it's head cut off! But I have seen some rock'em sock'em Bruder models do that.

[crusher]

Thanks for your reply Nathan, can you give me a lead on these track motors or where to look?
Terry

[RCP57]

I get mine from the robot shop in Quebec. They don't have a huge selection but they're great to deal with. Servo city is another place guys deal with.

Reg

[RCLogger]

Servo City is where I get motors for my excavators http://servocity.com/html/15_rpm_precision_gear_motor.html

For the hoe swing motor I use this in 6 rpm, wires from the track drive comes up throw the centre, hollow shaft http://servocity.com/html/spg785a_top_mount.html

[crusher]

Thanks guys, that helps a lot. Gives me somewhere to start.
Terry

[Espeefan]

You might consider cordless drill and cordless screw driver planetary gear head motor set-ups too. Either from cheap drills, on sale, or maybe throw aways that suffered from a failed trigger.