Monday, January 1, 2015
Overcast,milder, and flurries later in the day
Overcast,milder, and flurries later in the day
Tom Sanders
Welcomes in the New Year
I received a nice year end e-mail from Mr. tom Sanders wishing me a Healthy and Happy New Year. He had send me a step-by-step series of photos from one of his latest projects. THe writing is yellow is from Tom.
Here’s hoping you had a great Christmas (no coal in your stocking) and you are getting ready to enjoy New Years! BTW, do you see and of the Northern Lights this time of year?
What's interesting is to read what Tom write below. It's his knowledge of highway laws of the 1950's. Obviously he's working on a project that requires accuracy. I would never have known that there were combination truck s had I not read what Tom wrote. COme to think of it, I rarely see these "douyb;le-haulers up here in Quebec, not that I travels much! And of course,everyone who has seen photos of those long haulers in Australia will know that these trucks sometimes even haul a combination of 3 trucks behind them!
I am in a holding pattern on the COE Beer Truck project so, since idle minds are the devil’s workshop, I decided to start my next project. This one will be duplicating a Tootsietoy overhaul that I did about a year ago. This will be another one-off assembly creating a specialized “west-coast” hauler from the 1950’s. The west coast had different DOT highway laws and were not so strict as those east of the Mississippi. They allowed longer combinations and that is what this semi-truck double will represent.
To begin, I had found a Tootsietoy Mack L dump truck that had lost its dump body. The chassis is longer on these to accommodate the longer dump body. At one time Tootsietoy considered a modified tractor to this format but it was probably not pursued due to the cost of production. Based on the prototype that I once owned, the concept was valid if the truck either had a longer trailer or that it pulled two of the standard trailers already in production. I chose to follow the second option which was easier to accomplish. The majority of the mods have to do with the tractor. It involves building a new “sub frame” and 5th wheel assembly along with extra wheels and axles.
Tom Sanders
In the attached picture above:
1) I first started a layout with measurements to fit two sets of drive axles where there was only one.
2) Here I jumped to a point where a pair of 1/32” thick brass side-plate sheets,
two axle tubes and a 5th wheel plate were soldered in place.
3) This side view verifies the spacing of the two axles.
4) Now the 5th wheel is soldered to the chassis plate
5) This is a view of the tractor complete and ready for paint.
6) Here it is mocked-up with one trailer
7) Then mocked-up with two trailers.
8) Front ¾ view
9) Rear ¾ view
Ultimately, I hope the truck resembles the original prototype that
looked like the pictures in 8 & 9 (above 2 photos)
This certainly was a nice presentation to start off the new year,
and most of the text and of course the nice photos and content were Tom's.
It's a "lazy day" for me today, and I'm going to the local gym to work out It opens at noon today,and I want to start exercising in the new year. I had dizzy spells for the last 2 years, and the GP (general practitioner and the specialist (neurologist) said that I had vertigo. Mysteriously, on November 2,when I was in Ottawa with my wife, my ear bled, and I smashed my nose with a hair dryer. At that time the dizziness went away. So I said I would start exercising again. At that point I exercised for 2 days!
So I'm back to "normal" now, but the neurologist specialist is sending me to neuro-otologist - a higher specialist to test my hearing and see what the specialist can see.
It's just like the fine toys Tom makes. You have to move up the ladder to find the specialist to do the job properly. Hopefully, I won' be going above the neuro-otologist - and I don't think there are higher specialist at that point!
So to everyone who reads this post,
I want to wish all of the people who have helped with me my blog, and of course
all of the people who drop by to see what I write.
Have a great day, wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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