At this rate, you will be casting and machining engine blocks from scratch to replace obsolete cracked-ones. Just start a new Caterpillar manufacturing division from your workshop. Outstanding work Squatch👍
Not sure why it got so dusty in here when you moved that 3/8 bolt at the end. But it sure did. You're a good man, Squatch. Thanks for documenting this build so well.
200,000 years from now, archeologists discover Squatch's side iron brackets. 5J1113 is long gone, but the side iron brackets remain pristine and are an artifact of significance in the national museum.
Squatch, it's amazing watching you fabricate all these components and brackets. It's stunning being able to see how you do everything and the reasoning behind it. This has to be one of the best channels on the internet.
Right? Toby has turned out to be the cool shop teacher I never had in school. I told him I'll never own a tractor or fabricate parts for one, but I am gaining a ton of knowledge of fabrication skills.
You putting studs in to speed things up reminded me of a quote from an old man friend of mine. "There are only 2 types of people in this world, slow learners and unteachables, I hope you remain a slow learner"
You are a real good fabricator Squatch. It's good watching and learning from you. It gives a person more confidence to do similar work. You are one of the greats on RU-vid.
Great job building that up from scratch, it takes such patients. I Hope Sr. and the Mrs. are doing good and all the best with the garden this year too. Always enjoy your ramblings and the care you take making parts and special tools.
Excellent excellent video! All done without the aid of a break or a sheer. Wonderful example of how you can do it at home. Thanks for all the great ideas that we can all put to use.
Have you considered leaving your initials and date on those side irons to be discovered many many years from now when a new owner disassembles it to do a factory-like paint job? I am looking forward to the application of period appropriate patina.
She is now sufficiently armored up that she can apply for that job at the granite quarry. She will be on light duty at Squatch Headquarters but that did not deter you from engineering her protection to 150% of factory spec. Any job worth doing is worth overdoing, at least around your place. You’ve earned a lot of respect from your loyal viewers. You always leave us wanting more! 🥸👍💥🔥❗️✅
I don’t recall such robust side panels on the later D2s I used to run. I know I took them off on occasion and I think they were simply sheet metal with a rolled edge on top. Also the radiator shield was mounted to the radiator rather than the side panels. Yours provides superior protection. Beautiful job. Like a fine cabinet maker!
Worked at KME years ago. They used to have hole saws sent out and resharpened. The resharpen ones were actually almost if not better at cutting. Never cheap out on blades,holes saws, or bits. Lenox makes the most reliable hole saws and usually can buy combo pack for good price. We always had idiots undersize holes that you had to enlarge. Just find threaded rod same size as arbor(smaller arbor usually goes up to 1” or about) and stack hole saw. The first hole saw acts as guide or center and second cuts hole. If you find right size threaded rods, make sure you run a nut on before stacking. If not you end up ruining threads as all pressure is on them instead back of saw. Still have the ones I made with stainless rod. Uses last for friend putting pool. Electrician cut small 2” inch and needed 3” thru foundation. Spyder has a cement holes saws that stacked just like metal ones. Ended up ruining 3 inch saw, but 25$ fix. Holes saws just work better if they have a outer or inner guide.
I have drilled a lot of holes with hole saw. I have found that if material is thicker, by 2 x , than the depth of the gullet on the hole saw tooth , the life of the saw and ease of drilling is improved by drilling a chip relief hole on the inside of the saw line, tangent to it. It provides relief for chips to fall out and nothing shows then the hole is finished.
You need to get a couple of 1-1/2" short lengths of pipe, drill a couple of mounting holes & screw one each to your saw horses so you can stick the nozzle of your welder in them to hold it when your not using it. Or...Use that holesaw & put a hole in each saw horse plank & drop the nozzle into that.
Next time you have a project we’re you are drilling a lot of large holes in plate like that you have to try out Champion CT7 carbide tipped hole saws. They’re a little bit pricey compared to a regular hole saw, but once you use one you’ll never want to go back. I’ve bought a handful of them in different sizes as I need them and have a pretty good assortment of them now. Can’t recommend them enough. As always keep up the great work, love the videos!
Great job. Like you've done this type of work before. Now to paint them and unpaint the other panels and get them all to match. Oh, you need a bumper to go with that.
Love your videos! When I was young I worked at an excavating company. Started out in the shop doing the bull work for the mechanics. But as time passed they apparently felt I was more suited to moving the heavy equipment from job to job and wherever else it needed to be. But to the reason for this comment, if I were to ever refer to a machine as “driving “ I would have been excoriated and ridiculed. The terms of the time were to “operate” and to “move”. Not a big deal but that’s the way it was for me in the twenty years I worked with heavy equipment. Wish I could remember all of the machines model numbers but do remember I moved many D4’s and up to D9’s plus many loaders such as 955 and 988’s. Many older models than those but my memory isn’t what it once was. Love watching! Steve
Gorgeous reproductions. Four or five years ago, at a parts swap in UK i saw one of these (drain side) in mint condition, with the original paint, worn, but mint. From a distance, and had i not seen your video of you making them, i wouldn't be able to say it's repro. Just 'chef's kiss'.
For those who want hole saws that cut faster than bi-metal ones. There is Tungsten Carbide Tipped, ones available. But use it only in pedestal or radial arm drills. Also use cutting oil.
A handy tip to make your hole saw last five times longer - drill a small (say 1/4” or 5/16”) hole in the waste so it just touches the circumference. When the hole saw is cutting there is then a gap for the chips to fall through, and the hole saw blade doesn’t get choked up and overheat. Especially necessary on thicker material.
An "ol timer" gave me some good advice once. Use compressed air with a hole saw. It blows the chips away and keeps the teeth cooler. Never use any cutting fluid on a horizontal piece It makes your chips stick and will break off the teeth faster...
Squatch, You really are an artist with your knowledge and various other skills. - But do you have any concerns about all that beautiful new steel rusting - any rust prevention for those new parts?
Excellent piece of craftmanship. Keep up the good work. Love the looks of those new shiny pieces of metal. All clean, no rust. Those welds are pristine. Like a work of art. I loved to watch my dad weld. The look and repetitiveness of the bead is very pleasing to the eye. Does your eye twitch when you see a bead that doesn't have an even spacing in the bead lol! I know they would look great with a fresh coat of cat yellow, but then they would look out of place with the rest of the patina. Look forward to seeing how you will create that on all the pieces you have to work on. Do you etch or weld your mark? Date it?
Those blocks that Cat welded on the side brackets looks like 20-20 engineering after finding how much fit and strength they really needed. Probably decided after the first D2 ran.
What can I say that hasn't been said already.... fantastic video and great info ... Thanks bud. I'm late watching that's cuz I'm outside trying to have some fun too, I can't let you and Ricky B. have all the fun.
Looking good. I never have understood why people are so obsessed with measuring to the center of the hole for everything. Since the holes are the same size, measuring to the edge would be more accurate and showed that they were even.
You are doing a great job of restoration work very patience and attention to detail I would rather watch you then any things else ! ? Except watching Kamala !! Well ! I do need my comedy !!!
Turned out really good👍👍 One thing that had me puzzled though was (on video at least) you took a measurement from THE FLOOR for your finished heights of the side rails/ bracket position? Surely datum points from the machine body itself would have been correct, too many variants in this method, floor levels, track wear etc to accurately measure it? I did notice the height of each side rail was different to the 'D2' badges on the radiator shell but, I suppose they themselves may be mounted at different heights? All that said, wonderful piece of fabrication and appreciated by an old fabricator👍👍
I thought that must be how you've been doing it because it takes me a good 20 to 35 minutes to get 2 and a half holes drilled with a cooled magnetic drill. That 97 percent through befor turning on the camera. One to remember.
Hey Squatch! Any chance you're making it to Rose City Threshing and Heritage this year for the construction theme? Guys are driving me nuts if you're coming or not because you have the superior collection!
Did you use a weld-through primer where the bracket is welded to the side iron? It looks like there are some small gaps where moisture can get in. If not, how do you plan on sealing this area?
Are you going to "patina" the rails? Or just let them naturally age? Also, when you're hole sawing off camera, are you cutting dry? Or just dry for the last 3% money shot? Those kick out bends are the most impressive feature of the rails. You really nailed it good. Looks as good as if made in the factory.
As a lover of all things Caterpillar I hate to bring this up, but weren't those original welds on the original side rails kind of crappy? It seems the weld separated from the base metal rather than bringing it with the bead when they broke. That's the result of poor penetration and welder/material setup from what I understand. Admittedly, I've made a few of those myself, but I'm not Caterpillar. Would those pieces have been jobbed out to a subcontractor or something? Your welds are glorious, but I just can't believe the original welds left the factory like that. What do you think? I know they endured a lot of stress over the years, but I've always been told that a proper weld will not separate from the base material--it might break near it, but not pull away.
