The Home Machinist!

Pic of the tracks and one of the trailer axle spindles. Hoping the hubs arrive tomorrow so I can get moving on the laser cutting for the sprockets and figure out my width so I can cut the 1-1/2" Sch 80 pipe axles to size.

The rubber tracks and "trailer" spindles arrived for the mini-dozer, just waiting on the hubs so I can figure out the backspacing and get the track width right. We have about a foot of snow so they have been delayed in shipping.

Looks good John, except a tree branch must have found your signal bridge? I noticed I didn't see your other post about wiring and such until now. I decided the default to green, red occupied was acceptable for my home signal system as it's mostly for novelty and rarely will there be more than just m...

I'm not sure how similar the Speedcat is to the Struck? Mine has the small drive sprockets welded to the drive shafts, I'm not a fan haha. I am planning to draw up and have laser cut new track sprockets to match the rubber tracks, and then I'll likely have to relocate the front axle forward about 2"...

I spent Wednesday night disassembling the mini dozer. The drive sprocket bushings on the rear hubs have been replaced, but the front ones were very sloppy. I was a bit disappointed that it's only 1" axles, so I decided I'm going to beef this whole thing up a bit. I ordered 4ea 3500# trailer axle stu...

I ended up building and connecting our 4,000PSI Oxygen and Nitrogen lines to my workplaces laser installation the year before last. It ended up there was a "gap" in the install scope and the piping guys had already signed off and left, and the machine installers were wondering where the flexible li...

And the project backlog grows haha, I picked up an old Struck mini-dozer through a trade that needs some TLC. The 12HP Briggs flat head has new carb and runs good, but fuel tank is missing so I just ran the engine on a temporary tank. The steel tracks are shot, they have tons of play in the links an...

I ended up building and connecting our 4,000PSI Oxygen and Nitrogen lines to my workplaces laser installation the year before last. It ended up there was a "gap" in the install scope and the piping guys had already signed off and left, and the machine installers were wondering where the flexible lin...

I don't have any new pics to post as of yet, but had a successful Holiday season and Birthday which yielded a 5/8" carbide insert boring bar, 2 dial indicators, a second tool holder, and a MT#3 1/32"-5/8" chuck that pretty much completes my "starter kit" of tooling (thank you Amazon for "wish list" ...

1x3 tubes will certainly allow more pivot of the couplers, but also where the hole is drilled in the coupler and placed in the end of the tube has a notable effect and 1x2 may still be plenty. I used Tom Bee couplers, and drilled the couplers on the dimple provided. Then I drilled the holes through ...

You'd want to make a rack of some sort, like a section of bridge/track to roll the trains onto and then move it with the forklift. I'd want to strap them down just to be safe especially on unpaved surfaces, and include rectangle tubes or something that the forks would pass through so it can't flip o...

Here is a couple pictures a forum member was kind enough to send me, being I'm a ways out from having an of mine actually installed and on the ground.