A little something about the machines I use.
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| Lathe |
I use a small metal lathe for all the round
parts, like the wheels and steering gear.
Maximum diameter is Ø160 mm. and
the maximum length is 450 mm.
The only modification i made is installing
a digital read out on both axis.
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| Standing drill |
The next machine is an old standing drill I got a few years ago.
The motor had burned out so I replaced it with the motor of an old water pump. It runs a bit fast now, and doesn't have the torque it used to have before, but it does the trick.
As you can see from the picture i use it with a hole saw for making the blanks out of the wood. Its also used for making straight angular bores through the parts for the shafts etc.
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| Milling machine |
Finally there is the milling machine. Again a miniature metal working machine. the table is about 600 by 200 mm and has a travel of 400 by 150 mm. I use it to machine the grooves in the chassis parts, and to machine the sides of the trailer.
As you can see it leaves a big mess machining wood. Especially the rear fenders of the tractor are a messy part to make: removing more material then your left with at the end ....
Circle saw |
One of the most important machines in the complete proces is undoubtedly the circle saw. All pieces go at least one time through this machine. In this particular case i was cutting birch by the looks of it.
Some wood comes in roughly cut planks, if I am lucky, but most of the times I get some fine and straight pieces of tree, which I need to cut up first in order to get them through the saw.
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| Oak and Birch tree |
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Oak boards
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Most of the material comes as 60 cm tree stumps. But every now and again I get lucky and stumble upon a load of roughly cut boards or planks. Most of the small old sawmills around here have some fine roughly cut boards in stock. A few boards isn't enough for constructional purposes, but a single board is often enough for me to produce a few tractors or trailers.
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| Band saw |
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| Belt sander |
Besides the already mentioned machines,
I use a number of smaller saw and sanding machines. As well as some hand held machines like a battery drill, chain saw and a sanding machine.
Not all of these are equally essential, they just help to get the job done.
latest addition: a CNC router with all neccesary software,
this enables me to machine parts smaller and more accurate.
as all parts are designed in 3D it's just a small step to CNC machining.
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| CNC router and laptop |
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| Assembly table, this is where all toys start out. |
