Volvo G990 Grader

[dabears]

WOW Absolutly incredible work!!

[Hemi1966]

Stefan, I'm speechless

[RCP57]

If I wrote the words that first come into my head when I see this I would be banned from the forum! This is absolutely increadible! Thanks for posting a description with each picture too!

Reg

[doodlebug]

Wow, the creativity is outstanding, Great job on the home made tooling.

Cheer's, Neil.

[ihbuilder]

absolutely brilliant you are a machinest , right ? sure looks like it great work Stefan

[aussietruckerguy]

thats another amazing model, I can't wait to learn the skills to make a model as good as the ones on this board!!

[gipicarto]

One of the best never seen !!!!!

[kerst]

Absolutely amazing!

Kerst

[egronvold]

This will be awesome when finished. Correct tools are half the job

[Stefan]

Thanks for all your motivating comments guys!

@ihbuilder: I´d certainly love to be a machinist but unfortunately I only do office work for a living.

@egronvold: Agreed. And for just one model (or two as in my case) the making of the tools and jigs is often much more than half the job...


I just shot two more pics, since I realized you might also be interested in the "internals" of the spindle with king pins:

The screw is an M2x16 mm. The king pins have diameter 7 mm.



Stefan

[D8R]

Stefan, the model just getting better and better, where will it stop with detailing, casting part number that's serious modeling! The way using 3D printer is interesting, did you have to compensate for shrinking when casting the pieces? I hope you bring the model with you this summer!
See you,
Dan

[RCKiwi]

Very nice work indeed, very nice! can't imagine what you'll be building in a few years!

Glenn

[doodlebug]

Originally Posted by D8R

Stefan, the model just getting better and better, where will it stop with detailing, casting part number that's serious modeling! The way using 3D printer is interesting, did you have to compensate for shrinking when casting the pieces? I hope you bring the model with you this summer!
See you,
Dan

Hey Dan, see if this link help's? http://www.nonesuchtools.com/pmkr/shrink.html Here's an actual ruler, in metric, http://www.freemansupply.com/FreemanMetricShrin.htm
English measure, http://www.freemansupply.com/StarrettSteelShrin.htm If you have more foundry question's? I may be able to help with answer's.

Cheer's, Neil

[Stefan]

Dan, yes, the (.STL) files sent to the 3D printer had scaled up measurements by, if I remember correctly, 2.5 %. Still, the parts turned out a bit on the small side.

Glenn, in a few years I'll probably still be building on this model

Neil, thanks for the links, they'll help me, too. Would you be able to say whether the described shrinkage cavities problem is normal by this size/shape of parts using lost wax casting? Material was brass CuZn34Al2. I've been considering going to another foundry for some other, still bigger parts.

Stefan

[doodlebug]

Hey Stefan, look at this link, lot's of variable's to drive us insane http://www.scribd.com/doc/51971976/1...TIES-HOT-TEARS
Can you post picture's of the defect's? The wax isn't your problem. How the part is oriented, how it's gated-the hole for pouring and the venting hole. Multiple gate's or hole's with smaller runner's will help with the tempurature differential's of the mass cooling. A bad example would be trying to cast a hotdog with butterfly wing's, the mass of the hotdog will cause the thin wing's to fail, while cooling from casting. Everything need's to cool at the same rate. I would try the other foundry, and explain to them what happened last time. Sometime's it's better to leave a cavity out and machine it in after casting, to keep the cross section of the part more consistent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_defect
Now the disclaimer, my experience was with aluminum and not near the quality of your stuff. Still learning! I tried brass once, that stuff is realy hot! when pouring it.
Not enough help today, hope you gained a few idea's!
The stuff that I cast, looked like a porcupine when it came out of the sand, lot's of small vent hole's, to let the gases out of the mold. I'll have to find the offending part for picture's.
http://www.iron-foundry.com/casting-...-pictures.html

Cheer's, Neil.

[9W Monighan]

WOW, I am really enjoying watching your progress. The clamps on the tie rods are a brilliant touch to the degree of detail you are after. Part numbers cast in another thumbs up! I would like to learn how to do 3D drafting but just can't take the time to do so yet. I have some future parts that may take casting and I want to try the 3D printer idea too. There is a guy in my building who has a 3D printer who I can probably get to run a part for me once I get a cad file.

Oh by the way, Take as long as you want. I have. Someday it will be done. To me, building is more fun than operating some times.

[doodlebug]

Originally Posted by 9W Monighan

WOW, I am really enjoying watching your progress. The clamps on the tie rods are a brilliant touch to the degree of detail you are after. Part numbers cast in another thumbs up! I would like to learn how to do 3D drafting but just can't take the time to do so yet. I have some future parts that may take casting and I want to try the 3D printer idea too. There is a guy in my building who has a 3D printer who I can probably get to run a part for me once I get a cad file.

Oh by the way, Take as long as you want. I have. Someday it will be done. To me, building is more fun than operating some times.

Hey Steve, have you considered DraftSight? it's free software. http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/ I'm still learning it.

Cheer's, Neil.

[Stefan]

Thanks Neil, some very interesting links again. After having googled a bit further on the subject it doesn´t seem that impossible to set up a small foundry in the backyard. Would certainly make a lot of fun, I think. Rather busy at the moment, but will post pictures of the defects a.s.a.p.

Thanks to you too, Steve, for the supporting words. I haven´t made any comments in your thread (yet), but I really admire the detailing on your walking dragline, so I take words coming from you as a big compliment.

Stefan

[doodlebug]

There's a British guy on YouTube, all video and no chatter,
Make's casting fun! I'll find the link and get it posted.
Cheer's, Neil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XJNe...hannel&list=UL
This guy is all action Lot's of helpful video's!

[Stefan]

Hi, here are some pics of the worst "spare parts" I got from the foundry:



In the following three pics the surface was, evidently, intended plane. Didn´t turn out so, though









In this piece there is a 2 mm (78 mil.) by 6 mm cavity, 3 mm deep, in a generally porous portion.


Stefan