Steam powered tonka truck

[scalebowler]

Was browsing ebay to see about possibly finding a trailer or something for this truck to pull (was thinking of hooking a camera to it and pulling that around) and came across a little rusty tonka wagoneer with no back wheels. Thing has a lot of surface rust and is missing the back wheels but it looks like it is just surface rust and dirt and I want to buy it to restore. I all ready have the back wheels and would only need to take it apart, strip the metal parts with some acid and electrolysis and then put it back together. Looks like a fun little project.  (maybe I will construct a model jeep showroom to display these trucks in )

[scalebowler]

Ended up buying it and it should be here soon. These little trucks are kind of addicting

[scalebowler]

Well I got the aluminum for the steam truck frame but after facing one section the computer on the milling machine crapped out on me (machine limits need to be reset which is something I can not fix myself) so I only have a aluminum block with one smooth side. Can't even lay out any of the other parts on this stupid thing because of that stupid computer because the part is still not at the correct size and if I layout the parts now I risk scratching off all the marks when I mill down the other side.

[scalebowler]

Here are some pics of the truck I bought to restore (pics from the ebay listing). Thing looks like something you would find on a farm field in deep weeds but I do see some potential for this to be a very nice looking little truck

[scalebowler]

Emailed the manufacture of the CNC controls for the milling machine to see if they could explain that error to me. I got a response with instructions on how to reset the machine limits but pretty much they are blaming me for screwing up the machine. I had nothing to do with it getting all screwed up. At least the teacher knows I did not screw it up. Oh well off to design the flywheel and crankshaft now

[scalebowler]

Amazing! After one hour of electrolysis with the new car battery charger that rusted up tonka wagoneer body shows more progress than the steam truck's body did in 5 hours. Might not even need the acid dip after all (maybe phosphoric acid for corrosion protection but I don't think I need the HCl) Work on the steam tonka truck will continue on thrusday. Hopefully I the machine will be back up and running so I can have something worthy of taking a picture of (instead of a nice shiny block of aluminum with rough edges which I know everyone is dying to see  )

[scalebowler]

Spoke too soon. This truck needs the acid dip. No big deal. Just need to buy some new gloves and a few big boxes of baking soda.

[scalebowler]

Did not make much progress on the steam truck today but I did make some good progress. Got the aluminum block mostly squared up and part of it has layout dye on it. Really making me mad though since I should be much farther along but because of that damn computer issue I am so far behind schedule. At least next week the teacher will be there early and I will hopefully get at least one section of the frame done.

[scalebowler]

Well here is the block of aluminum that is destined to become the lower frame of the steam truck. Due to computer issues on one day I was very far behind and so far only have 5 of the 6 sides squared up but it is almost to the correct length and once that is done I can start machining the frame. I hope to have this part finished by next thursday.

[scalebowler]

Hmm seems that the first 5 or 6 pages the picture links changed and were not displaying anymore. I went back through and matched the numbers in the image file links and I think I put the right pictures back where they belong