Before embarking on construction I emailed I-Wei Huang, the guy behind Crab Fu, to get his advice on what was involved. I thought following one of his designs that I'd seen to work would be sensible. There will be plenty of problems to sort out even with a "proven" design, no doubt.
I-Wei wrote back quickly (thanks very much!) and gave me plenty of advice. I've decided to go with:
- An old Tamiya tank base for tracks and steering. They have a single drive, twin-clutch gearbox that should make hooking up an engine reasonably straightforward
- A Wilesco marine engine and boiler. Marine engines are the right choice because they can be stopped, started and reversed without having to physically spin up a flywheel first.
- A Mamod SE3 as an alternative boiler, because they are high output and have a superheater, in case the Wilesco boiler can't keep up
Most of this will come off eBay I hope. There seems to be plenty of bits and pieces, plus there's always the excitement of opening the box and hoping the item description hasn't been given the Estate Agent treatment.
Whatever I don't use will either go back on eBay or form the basis of the next project if this one's a success.
Comments