Metal Hobi MH-245 kit as Hitachi ZX245 excavator

[Blender]

Chassis is painted and assembled. No issues to report, but i did fish a little piece of grit out of the tower bearing. Now it's silky smooth. Decided to leave the tracks raw black so they don't gum up with paint. Superstructure is still getting sanded and recoated, so assembly is halted.






Pressure sensor for telemetry arrived. It's big, maybe too big but will let me test with it. It's available off the shelf so it was easy to get ahold of. Center hole was the perfect size to tap M4. No need a bunch of fittings. This one runs on higher voltage to output 10.0V at 1000 psi. Should output 4.50V at 450 psi. Didn't come with a calibration curve which is kind of lame.

Also been dabbling with a tool for this machine. A concrete barrier lift mechanism. It's a small excavator so it deserves a small job. The full-scale piece uses a bi-stable latching mechanism to hold the jaws open every other cycle. I'd like to duplicate how they do it, but it may not translate well to a small size. Time will tell. Plan is to braze together the parts without this feature to verify the design is able to lift plaster jersey barricades.