The John Deere Mod

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Finally, a somewhat decent day today. Too bad I spent some time at the dentist office .

De(con)struction of the case has been more or less completed! Here's some pics from the last hour or so:

Removing rivets with my Dremel

6 rivets later:

And the poor Dremel has had it--forgot to charge the battery! No problems though, I've got backup resources:

Now we're talkin!

Top removed:

And the pile starts:

Drive chasis removed:

And now for something completely different:

This is what happens when you touch a hot rivet. Instant callous!

Anyway, back to work. Here we have the mobo tray almost out:

Somewhere along the line I got the front panel off as well:

Wonder if Tiger Direct would take it back now? :p

And finally, something's gotta be done about these feet. There gonna be gone soon, as I don't think I could save em...plus they're flimsy.

We'll see what the weather is like this weekend...might be able to at least prime the skeleton.

[jdbnsn]

I don't think you would need to go crazy with the bondo to build the contour you have in the sig. You could build a frame with ribs using styrene or plexi or whatever, panel it, then fill it in with small amounts of bondo and sand out the edges.

[Drum Thumper]

I'll do some research on this tonite, thank you for the heads up!


Edit: I've got something in mind--more details to follow, as I gotta make a trip to Pacific Steel and price some...items...

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Been a while since I've done an update, as Mother Nature seems to only want to behave while I'm at work. If nothing else, it's given me time to plan some more and slowly start buying supplies.

The SO and I might be heading out to my parents for Saturday. If thats the case, I'm gonna probably do some quick and dirty welding on some 1/2" angle iron that I've got laying around out there--it's all part of the 'Master Plan' for this case.

I also bought some styrene to play with today, along with some cabling for the case.

And I'm still kicking around some ideas for the breather cap assembly. Once I get some dimensions from a tractor, I'll be set.

Pics (if we decide to jet out to the 'rents place) coming this weekend. Maybe.

[m4gnum]

I know what you mean about trying to pick up hot rivets. I once got a screw thread shaped burn on my finger and thumb as I went to pick up a recently Dremelled bolt shaft.

[FPMachine]

Neat work. That framing will work out well for the mod I have planned.

[Drum Thumper]

A quick update--took advantage (hell, I still am lol) of the nice spring weather and got the top side of my mobo painted with 1 layer of paint!

Before:

After:

More to come as the afternoon progresses I promise!

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A couple more pics:

I was a bit worried about the rippling, but upon further inspection, that is a flaw in the mobo tray itself. I'm gonna let this cure for a few days, wetsand, and lay another layer or two down.

If the weather holds, I might start painting the rest of the skeleton in the morning/early afternoon before I head to work.

[xmastree]

Hmm, see that 'after the storm' pic? See that tractor in your sig...

Coincidence?

[Drum Thumper]

Hmm, see that 'after the storm' pic? See that tractor in your sig...

Coincidence?

LOL. Was wondering if anyone would catch that. Inside front page of last Sunday's paper.

As for it being a Coincidence...I'm going to take it as a good sign!