I've embarked on another anti-shackwhacky project - wanna see?

power2.jpg
 
Same hobby, different project...
crawler.jpg


A couple of years ago, I rescued this 1:16 John Deere 420C toy. It had been played with and, inevitably, most of the small bits broken off and the rubber tracks destroyed.

I fashioned all the missing bits - steering levers, throttle, exhaust, air cleaner - and built in "inside frame" dozer blade for it as the toy didn't come with one originally.

I spent a good deal of time trying to find replacement tracks for it and there were no exact matches and what I found in generic tracks weren't likely to fit and stupid expensive. I tried my hand at making my own rubber tracks but wasn't able to come up with a reasonable facsimile or a sturdy enough process.

Occurred to me this morning that I might be able to make individual track pads with my 3D printer. Googled around and got some dimensions on the 1:1 pad options and extrapolated from there.

pads.jpg


I designed and printed 5 versions with minor tweaks between each until I came up with a set I liked. There are "inner" and "outer" versions of the "track chain" portion so they'll interlock. They'll be pinned together with .035 brass wire.

Now all I have to do is print out and assemble 32 pairs of them...
 
Same hobby, different project...
View attachment 202130

A couple of years ago, I rescued this 1:16 John Deere 420C toy. It had been played with and, inevitably, most of the small bits broken off and the rubber tracks destroyed.

I fashioned all the missing bits - steering levers, throttle, exhaust, air cleaner - and built in "inside frame" dozer blade for it as the toy didn't come with one originally.

I spent a good deal of time trying to find replacement tracks for it and there were no exact matches and what I found in generic tracks weren't likely to fit and stupid expensive. I tried my hand at making my own rubber tracks but wasn't able to come up with a reasonable facsimile or a sturdy enough process.

Occurred to me this morning that I might be able to make individual track pads with my 3D printer. Googled around and got some dimensions on the 1:1 pad options and extrapolated from there.

View attachment 202132

I designed and printed 5 versions with minor tweaks between each until I came up with a set I liked. There are "inner" and "outer" versions of the "track chain" portion so they'll interlock. They'll be pinned together with .035 brass wire.

Now all I have to do is print out and assemble 32 pairs of them...
What your need now is a track press to assemble that chain!
track press.png
 
track.jpg


I printed one full set (16 pairs) as two groups of 8.

After printing, they need to be separated from the adhesion mat, cleaned up and the pin holes reamed. My homey-made variable speed micro drill takes care of the reaming and an emery board does the rest of the cleanup.

After 2 or 3 pins were inserted, I developed a technique and it went fairly quickly. I had originally planned to superglue the pins in place, but after a little contemplation, thought better of it. Superglue in the wrong spot would ruin the whole deal. Decided to just bend the ends of the pins over at 90°

One half of the first track is pinned and it flops around just like the real thing. Dunno if I'll get the other half pinned tonight or not (thinking not...) but when I get a full track done I'll try installing it on the crawler and take a picture.
 
track.jpg


I wound up one pad short with 16 sets, which actually worked out well. I had to make an offset (wide on one end, narrow on the other) to join the track.

Having a little problem with tear-out on the holes as they're pretty close to the edge of the piece. As long as all it does is sit on the shelf, it'll be fine. Hope I can take them off to paint and put them back on without damaging them.
 
View attachment 202170

I wound up one pad short with 16 sets, which actually worked out well. I had to make an offset (wide on one end, narrow on the other) to join the track.

Having a little problem with tear-out on the holes as they're pretty close to the edge of the piece. As long as all it does is sit on the shelf, it'll be fine. Hope I can take them off to paint and put them back on without damaging them.
Lookin good
You are a patient guy thats a lot of putzy work
 
Not as bad as you might think. 90% of the pins slipped right in and the few that were fussy were because I got the angle of the dangle wrong when lining them up to stick 'em in. (Ahem...)

I find that my patience level depends on (at least) two things:

I need to like what I'm doing and I love modeling, so there's that.

I need to be able to say "Fut Dis" and walk away in the middle of a project if the frustration factor gets too high.

If I start a project I'm really not looking forward to AND it's something that needs to be done in one whack start to finish, I can run out of patience REAL quick. That's when hammers tend to sprout wings, local Moms bring their children inside and seagulls avoid the area by a wide margin...
 
Fer Instance, the loader project for the tractor got spread out over a couple of years. I'd solder one part, and two would fall off...

Sounds like my attempt to replace the wires to the printer circuit board in a remote control for a CD player the other day! Decided the effort was not worth it and the control went in the trash. CD player sits on a shelf about three feet from my desk and it has most of the basic controls right on the player.

Did manage to locate a place that sells a new belt and just got that installed a few minutes age. $10.00 for a little belt that would just go around the O.D. of a half dollar! I can get a belt for my 24 inch snow blowers for less than that!
 
- - - Did manage to locate a place that sells a new belt and just got that installed a few minutes age.
$10.00 for a little belt that would just go around the O.D. of a half dollar! I can get a belt for my 24 inch snow blowers for less than that!
Hi Ken,
to get that little belt for the wholesale price of mebbe 17 Cents you'd have to buy 'em by the giant box-full, just like the retailer did.
What you paid $9:83 for was the convenience of being able to buy just one of them.
 
Hi Ken,
to get that little belt for the wholesale price of mebbe 17 Cents you'd have to buy 'em by the giant box-full, just like the retailer did.
What you paid $9.83 for was the convenience of being able to buy just one of them.

And if you take into the equation that the CD player has to be a quarter century or more old just finding someone who can supply one just by going by the model number off a Radio Shack player it is amazing it was that easy and cheep!
Of course my wife and many other people would say just buy a new player! She just does not understand the satisfaction one can get from taking a non-working item and make it work again. But she has no problem spending hours on end playing some Scrabble like game online!
 
That teeny little track looks superb DE - but I have never seen a tracked vehicle with a white track....:D
 
...and I wuz thinking, DE, maybe painting them a "rusty" color (they end up that way anyways), and brushing some mud into strategic places, for added realism... :twocents:

No firm decision yet, but the color schemes under consideration are:

1. Virgin yellow, as in brand spanking new, unused tracks.
2. New-ish yellow with some chipping and rust streaks. New tracks with a few hours on them.
3. Mostly rusty tracks with a few flecks of the original yellow showing. Tracks in good shape with a lot of hours on them.
4. Solid rust with mud and grease splotches. Well used but maintained tracks.

Problem is, the rest of the crawler is spotless, and I'm not at all sure I want to weather the whole thing. Thinking #2 is in the lead at that moment.
 
Agree on #2, just enough chipping to show it was just backed off the trailer from the dealer! Now that could be your next project a truck and trailer with the dealers logo on the door heading out the driveway!
 
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