1/32 farmer Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 6 hours ago, Tractorman810 said: i hope your thinking of a kit form of them plank siders james, that could be the catalyst for me buying the marge volvo kit for a conversion, would be very interested in kit form as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 Cheers folks, smooth side is first on the list as it should be simpler, then try a bathtub. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD1968 Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 Very nice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted February 25, 2021 Author Share Posted February 25, 2021 First bit of movement towards the Bulk Tipper Kits. Completed CAD, will come back in a few days, decide what changes need making (Mudguards on the body for starters!). Then start preparing cutting and 3D printing files. Should work out to be a relatively simple to build kit, while retaining a good level of detail. I had intended to produce a basic and a detailed version, but I think cost wise they'll be too similar to bother with both. 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 I'll take two please 🙄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipher172 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Looks awesome, put me down for 1 too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Stabliofarmer Posted March 2, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 2, 2021 A strange weekend, sent a CV off Friday afternoon and was sat in an Interview on Sunday afternoon! Graduate job accepted with some exciting work on tracked dumpers and some more general engineering work. But more excitingly it meant a trip back home, to conviniently laser cut a prototype. Just managed to get it assembled and very pleased with the outcome, everything went together bang on first time. 15 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipher172 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 14 hours ago, Stabliofarmer said: A strange weekend, sent a CV off Friday afternoon and was sat in an Interview on Sunday afternoon! Graduate job accepted with some exciting work on tracked dumpers and some more general engineering work. But more excitingly it meant a trip back home, to conviniently laser cut a prototype. Just managed to get it assembled and very pleased with the outcome, everything went together bang on first time. Congrats on the new Job, the trailer looks awesome as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmd Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 well done on the job James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithy Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 A big well done for both jobs 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
844john Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Same here James, well done on both counts! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valley Axe Man Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Well Done James, sounds like your job will throw up some interesting challenges, trailer looks good too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted March 4, 2021 Author Share Posted March 4, 2021 Cheers chaps, just got to get to the end of the degree now without getting too distracted by model kits! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEP Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Brilliant looking trailer, and well done with the job! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 3D printed parts arrived from Shapeways recently. These are used as master patterns when making moulds for the resin and rubber components. Got lucky here as Shapeways UK produce and ship the parts in the Netherlands and I've heard of people getting hit with customs charges as a result. Luckily this order seems to have dodged them all! 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 A few in the mould boxes And encased in silicone 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted April 10, 2021 Author Share Posted April 10, 2021 Moulds all prepared, and within twelve hours of the first cast I'd worn them out! Got 30 casts out of them but that's not going to be enough so a new set of mould are curing currently. Also working through the instruction manual build which gives a nice representation of what the kit will actually include. Pre-order now open. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
844john Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 Looking very well James! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted May 1, 2021 Author Share Posted May 1, 2021 As some may have seen on my Facebook page the Bulk Tipper kit build was completed a few weeks ago, alongside that the first batch of kits went out to customers. I'll share some photos of a completed kit and follow with some behind the scenes photos of how the kits where produced in volume. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmd Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 Exellent work James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted May 1, 2021 Author Share Posted May 1, 2021 The biggest issue I've experienced when producing kits is making sure that every kit includes every part. A large amount of kits end up over the water in Europe and shipping missing parts out becomes very costly. I spoke to a few friends who specialise in Manufacturing Engineering and they suggested using shadow boards when packaging kits. This allows the laser bed to be cleared immediately and quickly as all parts are thrown in a box in bulk, rather than picking off and bundling as soon as cut. From the Bulk boxes the parts are selected and laid on the shadow board. When the board is full the parts are collected and placed in a zip bag. It's surprising how effective it works, you often find yourself reaching for a part drawn on the board before realising it had been miss placed. Fingers crossed so far there have been no reports of missing parts! An example of the 2mm shadow board. Selecting parts for the 2mm board from the Bulk boxes. 1 mm parts. As there are lots of small and similar 1 mm parts they where first divided into bulk piles of a specific part number. This rapidly increased the speed parts where picked and packed. On one side are bags containing the 2 mm and 3 mm plastic parts then on the other the bags after the 1 mm parts are added. Another challenge was going to be the roll over sheet. The nature of fabric means there is a considerable tolerance on the straps that hold the sheet down. Therefore rather than a finished sheet ready to glue on a pre cut sheet with ancillary parts was provided. Two templates are used to produce the sheet, one for the cut lines and a second to add a glue line where a strengthening wire is added. The complete kit contents. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted May 1, 2021 Author Share Posted May 1, 2021 The rams where another troublesome part, I didn't know whether to supply a ready to fit ram, or cut costs and just supply the aerial and let them cut it down. Eventually I decided a ready to fit ram was required, to cut the aerials is a horrid job and I think it would have put people of buying kits, or certainly coming back. I have managed to speed the process up slightly using a dremel and running batches. I cut 10 aerials at a time, enough to see speed benefits, but not so many that the repetitiveness becomes boring. Each section is cut and put in one of the spray can lids, then drilled and the shim cut, then reassembled. Alot of the resin parts need drilling in some way or another. Some of this suits a hand drill such as the suspension which has slotted holes to give the axle some flex. Others like the wheels need a pillar drill to get them straight and true. For this jigs are used to centre and level the parts. There are various pins and rods, for a small production I would simply put some raw material in allowing the end user to cut what is required. For larger volumes this creates alot of wasted material so everything was pre-cut with these kits. A sliding square is used as a bump stop along with tin snips to cut large volumes rapidly. All these parts are then bagged up as well so they aren't lost in the kit box. The only issue I haven't overcome is finding a pre-cut box the right size for packaging. To get the length of box neccesary to fit a HGV trailer side in the width and depth is way bigger than needed, so alot of air has to be filled. Inventory also takes up a huge amount of space, so parcels where shipped as soon as they where packed! Thanks for looking, I hope that it's of interest to see what goes on behind the scenes! 7 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipher172 Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 Thanks for making the effort to share the details of your process. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valley Axe Man Posted May 5, 2021 Share Posted May 5, 2021 Great work James and interesting with the behind the scenes build and kit preparation, Well done 😃 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted May 5, 2021 Share Posted May 5, 2021 interesting posts james, thanks for sharing, shame you cant find some flatter boxes, that guy who used to do the laser cut barn frames always used a A3 size 2” deep one, that would certainly make car packing easy if you could find them 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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