Building A Progressive Thumb

[wolf44]

The 312 thumb redo is about 2 weeks away. We are finishing a gun clubs impact berms and drainage system. This thumb redo will be done in Solid Works completly not card board cutouts this time. I have just upgraded to solidworks professional which will give me full motion sumulation and structural analysis as well as full photo rendering. Hope you guys will enjoy the process of the design and build. I will post this thread in excavators.
If you want to have a look at the solfware http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/fea-cfd-simulation-sofware.htm way cool stuff
Thanks Wolf

 

[watglen]

The solids works, can you recall what it costs?

Beautiful work on hte thumb by the way.

 

[wolf44]

Solidworks professional is about $8500.00 and then there is the yearly solfware support of $2000.00 and then there is the training for the solfware and last but not least the mini super computer you will need to run it. But still way cool.

 

[coalrulz]

wolf44, had my doubts, at first, about building your own thumb. But after seeing your level of expertise and some of the equipment you are working with, let me just say, Sir, very impressive job!

 

[norite]

Nice work on the thumb, you can't buy quality like that. If you ever build a quick attach for a loader I would sure be interested to see how you go about it.

 

[Greywolf0723]

I have an excavator of similar size. Would I be able to get a copy of your part files. I currently have a fixed thumb and would like to build a progressive link one similar to yours. I have a friend with a plasma table, but do not have access to the CNC mills; however, with the linkage ratios I could design one that I could fabricate.