tournaphil
Well-Known Member
That is awesome would you happen to know where I could buy a rc tractor for my son he would get a kick out of playing with something like that I admire your creativity I don't think I could do something like that
Thanks for your interest Jakebrake. I don't know of any off the shelf RC model dozers that are not simply plastic toys with little electric motors like those in a model boat and wouldn't last five minutes. There are a couple of websites around devoted to making them on a hobby basis. Most though not all seem to be those Cat Bruder models with small electric motors rero-fitted using parts from expensive hobby suppliers. The models I am making are in a differentiated by the fact that they are built using industrial components, not hobby shop lines. So to summarize my builds are really industrial builds. Anything I bought from hobby shops quickly failed, hence I'm using industrial components or I make my own which is way more rewarding. Look at my crawler tracks as an example. Half and half.
You can do that too. Why not consider building one with your Son together instead of buying one at Walmart. I don't know how old he is but that doesn't matter if he's using hand tools. You could draw up the plans together, and teach him skills such as scaling drawings from manufacturers photos and drawings, designing the basic model, creating the plans to send off to a laser cutter and get a shop to TIG the thing together if you don't weld and then start building. There's an awful lot of marking out, drilling and filing and hand work involved in these large models. You can teach him to use hand or 12V hand held drills, the art of hand filing and all the other hand skills he needs. And then he can learn the art of setting up radio control to run it it which case he'll learn about basic electricity. It would be a good project for you and your son to do together and he can learn hand-tool skills and tech drawing then he can make anything he likes.
If that's all too big to start off, you could get a large Tonka metal dozer from Walmart which puts you half way there and fit some motors and controllers and a drive arrangement and install radio control. The bigger the better since it's easier to fit components inside the thing. Again, you'll be doing plenty of hand metal work so you can teach you Son those skills and build it together. Of course that's gonna be a toy, not a scale model. I'll be at BOTW and have a build photo album with me so ask around for me and I'll be happy to show you.