Stabliofarmer

Liking that Barry, what material is the trailer kit made from?

Some cracking buys Stan, the 220 Volvo is next on my list, they look excellent models but a hefty price tag.

Normally it would be possible to find the odd reason why Britains have done what they've done, utilising a popular casting, understanding there's a market beyond the UK buyer etc. but on this occasion it really does feel like they've made a huuuuuge mistake, I guess only time (and left over stock on shelves) will tell.

Yes he did, tractor did well too, he's now bought a Martin Three Wheel truck to get about on the showground, a barmy lad

Landed at the Great Dorset Steam Fair for the week, anyone going come by and say hello, were in the miniature steam section just next to Watford Gap in the playpen. Hitching a lift Flying McLaren Camp set up A very multipurpose Valtra doing some excavations, think a model will need building

The tri-axles are legal on the road up until the point they go over 18.3ton tare weight. So a tri-axle silage trailer probably sits around the 8-10ton mark in steel depending on build quality, possibly alittle less, this means that the most you can put in one and legally travel up the road is 8-10ton of material. You're very unlikely to be able to get a full load of anything around that weight in a body that size. Theoretically therefore these would only be used on farm travelling field to field, of course there are plenty that whole heartedly flaunt these rules, and that's who buy most of these trailers. Big market out in Oz and America for these bigger trailers too!

You've caught my brother, and a corner of my engine hastily leaving the arena having almost ran out of water in the boiler! You'll have to come and have a go if you get over to Astle Park later in the year

Sorry to hear about your incident Mike, it was very hot! I believe there was four separate first aid stations set up by the end of the show dealing with heat strokes etc! We were there with two miniature McLarens, didn't manage to get away from our row so it's nice to see what else was at the show!

Sounds like they can be a bit tricky to prise apart Paul, or this blog post certainly makes a meal of it https://code3landies.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/britains-series-3-full-restoration/ From memory I took one apart years ago and pretty sure I just attacked the domed rivet/pin/screw with a good sharp drill bit and popped the chassis off without any drama.

The finish of the castings look incredible, thanks for sharing

Thanks chaps, pleased with how it's gone so far

I haven't looked at figures no. I'm sure there'll be a good range available to download. I'd love to have the time and finance to incvest in zbrush and learn how to sculpt in it but I think we're away off that! http://pixologic.com/features/about-zbrush.php

The cab construction starting Some more work with the trenching gear Working on the hydraulic rams that support everything. These are left over bits of telescopic aerial that I supply in my kits, as the copper collets go in the kit rams I have managed to keep some resistance between the two tubes by pinching the end of the inner tube to create resistance against the outer tubes inner wall. This has worked well and everything is stiff enough to hold itself up/down. I am happy how things are progressing and with most of the rams out of the way I will hopefully get moving again having stalled for a while. Thanks for looking so far!

With the body work well progressed focus had to turn to the daunting task of the trenching arm/head. I started with the pivot/mount point and then just freeballed from their to see what worked, the photos hopefully show how its progressed. All done under the watchful eye of the forewoman Kipper the Cat who loves to sit and watch progress wrapped around my shoulders.

With the track carriage sorted attention turns to just how to build the rest of this baffling looking machine. I decided that the big boxy body was probably the best starting point. The two sides are cut based on the drawing and some profile details added The side lockers have a tapered shape are built by creating the front and back, spacing them apart and then adding the tapered sides. The body work continues to be built up to create the main shape and chassis. These parts could be 3D printed but I enjoy building with the craft knife much more these days. i spend my day drawing on the computer so its nice to get home and make something phyically.

I've hinted at this build in the workshop topic but we're getting far enough through to warrant a topic now. The Mastenbroek 20/15 is one of the comanies medium size trenching machines popular with UK land drainage contractors. I've fancied building one for a while and while discussing possible dissertation topics with the company MD last year I managed to get some plans that would enable a model build. I had been hoping to make something similar to the Heath bale chasers where there is a more complex kit that could be offered as a finished model or self build kit but at the moment time doesn't allow and a single old school scratch build for myself will suffice. I am using some 3D printing but mostly it is good old fashioned styrene and craftknife. The first challenge of the build was going to be tracks. It is likely something like the Ros Hitachi track base would be the right sort of size but it just wouldn't have looked right to me and so I turned to 3D printing to create the undercarriage. Some CAD drawings of various track parts. The 3D printed tracks, each track link is individual allowing the carriage to drive like a real track.

A splash of paint, some pins, rubber and decals and a finished model appears ready for the instruction manual. The kit version lacks a couple of bits of detail that the scratch built version has but this was necessary to make an economically manufacturable kit. I'm quite pleased with the final outcome and plenty of kits have set off into Scandinavia, the machines native home. Thanks for looking, I hope its been of interest!

The printed parts cleaned up and ready to make silicone moulds from. The silicone poured to make up the moulds for casting. The cast parts that make up the kit. Test fitting of the resin parts and their functions.

The work can now leave the computer and begin to become physical. I am using an Elegoo Mars Pro 2 printer complete with their Mecury cleaning station. Theres is lots online for those interested in the exactities of how it works but basically the printer works as follows: A vat of UV curing resin is suspended over a horizontal smartphone screen A build plate is lowered into the vat until it is 0.1mm above the smartphone screen. The screen shows a 1:1 scale photo of a spliced layer, the light from the screen curing the resin in the shape projected The cured resin, now stuck to the build plate, is lifted 0.1mm and the next photo shown This process repeats until the whole model is printed The print must be cleaned of excess resin using 100% proof alcohol cleaner The print must then be further cured to become stable using a strong UV light (basically a mini sunbed) The final print can be cleaned up with any supports removed The printer showing the vat and the build plate submerged in the vat The screen on the front shows the spliced image being projected on the smartphone screen at the time. You can see the build has just started (1%) and the expected time to print all 634 layers is 1hr 44min (actually ends up about 2.5hrs). When finished the build plate lifts to reveal the printed part (successful or unsuccessful). This view hopefully highlights how the spliced model on the computer lines up with what is printed. The parts are then put in the Mercury clean and cure station. This is the cleaned parts ready to take off the build plate and have 5 minutes in the tanning salon. Once cured the parts are test fitted and any adjustments made in the computer and new parts printed ready to cast from.

I originally set up the 3D printing topic to highlight this build but that has taken off on its own so I will make a separate topic for this build. Within the build I'll hopefully highlight some of the uses for 3D printing while integrating resin casting and considering speed and economy of manufacture. Hakki Pilke are a Finnish brand that build a range of firewood equipment. I originally built a batch of 5 Falcon 35 Firewood Processors in 2018 These were scratch built from plastic and when I shared them to my facebook page the demand highlighted a kit would be a feasible. Time to develop a set of 'castable' patterns was always hard to find and hence 3D printing came into it. The process starts on the computer using the 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software 'Fusion 360'. The components are draw starting with a 2D sketch from which you extrude a basic shape and from the cut and join features until it resembles the parts you want. The individual parts can then be bought together to check the fit. This is the basic window for Fusion 360. I have drawn the cross section view of the main body and extruded this to create the shape shown. Drawing onto the right hand side I create the profile I want to cut out for the splitting area and create a cut command to remove the material. The cuts and shapes become more complex to develop the shape further. The CAD process is probably best related to sculpting, you can either add material to create new items, or you can carve material away to create gaps and spaces. Detailing is being added here such as hinges (new material) and recesses for parts that are cast separately (carving). This process is repeated time upon time to build up each part, then all the parts can be bought together as in the above assembly. When I am happy with the parts and ready to print they need to be save as '.step' files. This is the type of computer file that the 3D printer splicer software can read. To do this they are exported part by part, the photo shows the many parts that will make up the model. In order to 3D print these .step files must be 'spliced'. A process of turning the model into hundreds of layers about 0.1mm high. For this I use a splicing software called Chitubox which is recommended by Elegoo who make my printer. The parts can be manipulated into the best orientation for printing and the supports required to build the parts are added automatically. To highlight splicing this is the spliced model set to about half way through printing, you can see how the model will build up in layers.

Thank you Hajo, yes a lucky find, I havent tried to do anything with the upside down logo, I don't think anything could be done other than grind it off. I intend to heavily weather it so hopefully it won't be visible

Interesting Joe, most screen protectors I've come across shatter if handled incorrectly as they work in a sacrificial way breaking instead of the actual screen. Here I've been using the 0.5MM Glazing sheet from Station Road Baseboards https://www.stationroadbaseboards.co.uk/cart_plastic.htm

Very true John. Opens up a whole world of possibilities and one offs, just this weekend I've made two different wheels for a timber tractor project that I'd never have found something to match, within half a day I had a full set of both sat in front of me, marvellous.

Looking forward to seeing that finished Sean. Printed some 2d views out but yet to get any further, simply not enough hours in the day at the moment!

Lovely bit of a scene Zac