Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

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ppemawm
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Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by ppemawm »

I built this model just for fun from plans available on http://www.john-tom.com/html/SteamPlans.html. The model is a vintage Case tractor manufactured circa 1800's that has a wood fired boiler and steam engine. It is fascinating to me that some originals are still around in fully operating condition as well as many miniatures created by hobbyists which you can find on the InterWeb.

The assembly, with the exception of the gears, was created in one file primarily using the PartDesign workbench. The gears were created in a separate file and imported last as .STEP files. Trying to work on the gears in the master file slowed FreeCAD to an unbearable crawl even with an I7 Quad Core CPU.
View showing the single piston steam engine cylinder and crankshaft assembly
View showing the single piston steam engine cylinder and crankshaft assembly
Steam_Tractor-Left.JPG (281.28 KiB) Viewed 8115 times
View of the multiple gear reduction drivetrain used for the rear wheels
View of the multiple gear reduction drivetrain used for the rear wheels
Steam_Tractor-Right.JPG (289.51 KiB) Viewed 8115 times
Front and rear views.  The two boxes in the rear are for firewood required for the boiler!
Front and rear views. The two boxes in the rear are for firewood required for the boiler!
Steam_Tractor-Front_Rear.jpg (231.57 KiB) Viewed 8115 times
Most of the parts were fairly straight forward to model except perhaps for the worm-gear drive steering assembly that includes crossed chains to turn the front axle. The boiler with the three(3) condensate return tubes was also quite a challenge to create strictly with PartDesign but possible. All of the fasteners are not included but a few of the rivets were modeled for visual effect only. File size is about 31 Mb for the assembly and 21 Mb for the gears both of which I can post on DropBox if anyone is interested in more detail.
Closeup view of the steam engine and valve control mechanism.
Closeup view of the steam engine and valve control mechanism.
Steam_Tractor-Detail1.JPG (144.62 KiB) Viewed 8115 times
Detail of the worm-gear and chains used for steering.
Detail of the worm-gear and chains used for steering.
Steam_Tractor-Steering.JPG (135.04 KiB) Viewed 8115 times
OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6706 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: f86a4e411ff7848dea98d7242f43b7774bee8fa0
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17
"It is a poor workman who blames his tools..." ;)
paulfurze
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by paulfurze »

This is just wicked !
Well done.
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Chris_G
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by Chris_G »

Wow ... really impressive ( except some of your color choices :lol: )
chrisb
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by chrisb »

Impressive, thanks for sharing.
As a sidenote I would like to remark that the steering is not in a working condition: for steering straight both chains are half wound on the steering mechanism. When the steering wheel is turned, one side is unwound, the other is wound up. So this is probably the factory delivery state with a blocked steering.
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triplus
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by triplus »

Looking good.

P.S. I remember somebody was building replica of a similar thing in the past and made some forum threads about it. But i don't know if the project was ever finished or not.
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kkremitzki
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by kkremitzki »

This is great, it reminds me of some of the old tractors I saw at my agricultural engineering department's centennial recently:
http://2o9kb51xfph91b7rki281uu9.wpengin ... 0915-2.jpg

Could you share a link to the files on Dropbox like you mentioned? I'm really hoping to use FreeCAD for a machine design class this fall and I think a model like this would be a great selling point. (Although a timely 0.17 release would be needed too :D )
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ppemawm
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by ppemawm »

chrisb wrote: for steering straight both chains are half wound on the steering mechanism
Thanks for pointing that out. You are so correct, but I was not about to try and model a helical chain. I had enough of a task to accurately create chains from point A to point B in a straight line and connect them to four eyebolts in 3D space!

Maybe someone or I should take that as a challenge. :(
"It is a poor workman who blames his tools..." ;)
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ppemawm
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by ppemawm »

kkremitzki wrote:Could you share a link to the files on Dropbox
Here are the links:
Gears--
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s12aybhpl6myr ... FCStd?dl=0
Master assembly--
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lfccc3y9h784d ... FCStd?dl=0

Be patient, it may take a minute or two to open these large files.

Feel free to use for whatever purpose. Hopefully the files are not too confusing.
Comments and questions are welcome.
"It is a poor workman who blames his tools..." ;)
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NormandC
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by NormandC »

Late reply of mine to say that as usual, your model is awesome - and your patience for building it to be commended! :)

Regarding use of colours in 3D models, I once read that engineers choose colours rather randomly to differentiate parts from each other; while designers will try to choose colours that most represent the part's finish in real life.

I'm in the second category. :D
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Re: Vintage Steam Tractor Miniature

Post by chrisb »

A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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