Hi all. Since my aluminium pack is more or less finished apart from lighting, it’s time for fresh challenge! Seems right to have a decent trap to go along with it so i have made a start this week, gathered a few measurements, and cut some material.
6mm plates, cut to size.
Main shell..
Welded up..
It was hard to keep everything square, but she came out of the welding bay looking good..
Ground the welds down on the bottom and back panel.
There are some slight low spots which i will fill in later with something, they wont really be seen anyway..
Got the bottom plates sorted, no milling machine as it was busy so had to do the wheel slots by hand. The ali plate slots took a decent bit of work to finish , so i went with 4mm plastic for the spacer to make life a little easier
How it all looks at the moment..
I have the trap pedal plate worked out too, but i only had 8mm plate to use, it might be ok, will see futher down the line.
I dont know if this is 100% the right dimensions, but as long as it looks right im happy enough.
Hopefully start work on the cartridge insert this week, more to come.
Absolutely amazing. You are a master artist! Always love watching your aluminum builds - the fabricating, the welding and the finishing - so fascinating!
Thanks buddy the fabrication is all me, but the welding I leave to a friend, I don’t have any real training in that area as yet. I try and get the parts to a decent standard so it’s easy for him to join them together. I love the finishing too, grinding the welds and cleaning up the edges. There are a few parts that will need a good bit of bending sheet metal etc, so I’m looking forward to that
Ok, small update with today’s progress. Battery box fab’ed up and welded. Keeping the nice bead around the bottom lip
Gotta love insulating tape
The bottom plate for the rail system is just sitting in the tray loose. I may cut a slot out of the battery box lid, and extend the handle to the bottom of the chassis, for strength, i will see in time, i know the originals had a short handle post to leave room for the pin connector, but then i’m not one for screen accuracy, i prefer to stick to the original design and use my own preferred bolts etc..
There is alot more detail to this than meets the eye, but im enjoying building something on a smaller scale.
Dam, a lot of hate going on Thank you VS, very kind. Having the tools to build these things is 90% of the job in many ways, also having access to the material needed off the shelf is also very helpful The rest, I just make it up as I go along tbh :walterpeck:
You are too modest! Your work is superb, and a pleasure to see. Yes, you may have the tools and the materials at hand but it’s what you do with them that really sets you apart as an artisan. Bravo.
ps -Allow me to add my name to the ever growing list of hatred!
Im risking more hatred here, but i thought the risk was worth it, and here’s today’s progress
Spent quite a while on/off this week on the rail system for the cartridge insert. Made up by a few small plates, this piece was tricky to get right, and im happy with how it turned out. I used 2mm plate as thats the thinnest i have, i may have to shorten the cartridge height if this makes it sit too high, will have to see in time.
Screwed this in to the trap body and it looks good to me. I have not stuck with the original hero traps for screws and or placement, i favour m4 counter sink high tensile screws for jobs like this, looks better to my eye than old slotted screws..
Since the m4’s are 20mm long, i cut them down on the back side and ground off the rest flush with the bottom so she sits nice and flat in the trap body.
The center rail will go on the bottom of the cartridge when i get it made up.
Just to finish up today, i got the lid drilled and attached, again used slightly different placement for the screws.
Hi all, cant believe it’s nearly a month since I have updated! Been busy etc, and had a few issues with the design of this thing. I didn’t realise that the original traps were screwed together, and since I welded my main chassis, it has made things a little bit more complicated to say the least, as it’s not as easy to modify things now. Anyway, I have a few pics of progress made..
I have made a good start on the cartridge, I kept the main bends simple, and just went for a box as that was easier to do on the press brake.
Had a go at making the 15 pin connection..
This was a lot of work to get right, even though it doesn’t look like it
Last week I started to build the front display, bent out of a single piece of 2mm sheet..
Took ages trying to map this out in 2d, and making sure it had a decent chance of fitting properly.
Result.. hand bent in a vice, i’m happy enough with it.
Will need to get the sides welded up, and see how it looks then.
Awesome update…your metalwork is top-notch, so professional looking! Very inspiring; when I get started on mine it will be the first time that I’ll be working with metal and I have a lot to learn. Thanks for these references - they are very encouraging
