Kodiak AEV 3 Armoured Excavation Vehicle

[wibblywobbly]

I ended up slightly modifying the dozer blade design, and then re-printing the two halves. It took over 5 hours per half?? I did design it to be strong though, I tested one by placing it on the floor and then standing on it with one foot. It took my whole bodyweight and never broke.

Just need to print some infill sections and it will be good to primer, paint and assemble, I'll probably use plastic weld as that gives excellent strength on styrene, and reports on the web say that it works on PLA too.

[AlwynTurner]

Looks great Rob, well done. Seams ready for action? Alwyn

[wibblywobbly]

Finally got the dozer blade all glued together and some filler in, need to sort out the operating mechanism at some point.

[Woz]

Looking good.

Plastic weld is great with PLA as it melts it so you get a very strong bond. In fact it'll be stronger then the layers of the thing you print.

[billpe]

Looking really quite good.

[wibblywobbly]

Looking good.

Plastic weld is great with PLA as it melts it so you get a very strong bond. In fact it'll be stronger then the layers of the thing you print.

I read that somewhere, what I tend to (and I do it on styrene builds too) is tack parts together with superglue, and then squirt plastic weld into the seams. Like you say, it makes any structure rock solid. Just need to be sure that the parts are where you want them when you squirt the stuff in, as it isn't coming apart afterwards without destroying everything.

Superglue will hold PLA very well if it gets a good surface, but is useless on anything that is porous.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon,
You made everything work and this vehicle can stand beside anything out there and shine. Final paint, stowage and weathering should be a treat! Following along.
regards,
Painless

[AlwynTurner]

Looks superb Rob, well done. Alwyn

[HERMAN BIX]

Thats a whole lot of good work Mr Wobbly.
I swear it could also look the part if it was painted 'New CAT Yellow' & badged accordingly !!

Also impressed by the use of printed parts. Must give you guys with the right brains the ability to run amok with your imagination.

[wibblywobbly]

I had to mount the HL elevation unit right back by the battery box to clear the turntable motor. Due to the length of the arms inside of the hull this gave me about 5mm of lift at the dozer blade. The only solution was to print a new cam to go in the elevation unit that was 40mm high, I did this and araldited it in place.

I then printed a block that is screwed to the hull floor and used a very tight rubber band to pull the dozer arm onto the cam. I 'just' get enough movement at the blade to lift it clear of the ground, but it was touch and go.

The blade and assembly is very strong so hopefully it won't break anytime soon.

I now need to refine the electrics, get a decent signal to the three rx boards, and tidy up the spaghetti wiring inside the hull.

I toyed with the three way switch a while back, but wasn't getting a signal through it, this is something that I will have to work on. If it doesn't work out, I will just have to switch the crystals manually on the tx when I want to switch to using the excavator etc.