More like 10,000 lbs of Evergreen! 
—mike
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It is a very specialised tool called “The bit of wire you use to hold parts for priming”
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Oh, OK Thanks.
For the '43 Ford Jeep restoration we used wire coat hangers. 1 : 1 scale to hang parts on for priming and painting.
Again, I thought it might be some sort of engine lifting jig:
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Long time no scratch Nick! Nice to see what you’ve been up to elsewhere - more jaw-droppers, except now the lower mandible stays in place & the rest of the head blows off instead. Stunners all & as we know what a difference daylight makes.
Never heard about the cube challenge but it reminded me of something it took way too long for me to wise up to. When building something substantial from styrene, I used to mindlessly butt-joint & glue panels etc. with sometimes messy results, until realising I could first add my own locating brackets/bars/tabs just like many kit parts have. Duh, obvious in hindsight but maybe not so much for beginners.
And I’d agree with Mike about some Evergreen rods being strangely ovoid in section, particularly the finer ones so wire’s often a better alternative 
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Stick, I would love to see more on that Peterbilt.
I seem to have a “thing” for winch trucks and headache racks.
An International with a Tulsa winch:
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@justsendit, hey Mike - glad to be here! yes, slicin’ an dicin indeed - 
and @165thspc, Mike, thanks - I suppose I have indeed cut, drilled, filed, carved, sanded and glued a fair amount of evergreen!
And, as you both know, it always works just right the first time, every time!! haha - no, actually it doesn’t always go just as planned - but, that’s fine with me - all part of the fun!
@Dioramartin, hey Tim - glad to see you dropped by! Hmmm, as I remember, aren’t you the guy who decided to take on that epic dio? the one with some research , a bit of scratchwork - and whatnot??? well, I know you are!
Yes, that cube task - As I haven’t forgotten about that “suggestion for beginners” - seems just ridiculous! and certainly not the sort of task that would inspire anyone to get into scratch building. I agree with the points you raise above - adding some small framing members for sheet or other parts to rest on works great.
I use a lot of thin metal rod too because it is strong - and stays straight when you want it to. I also use metal rod to pin parts together fairly often - when connecting resin to styrene, or on parts that I can just imagine getting snapped off during the build otherwise.
Back to Evergreen, I’ve received a few oddly shaped rods too - a bit annoying, but it hasn’t caused me too much grief:
This is based on a Ken Block (RIP) Ford - and as you can see, like his, I decided it would be a good idea to make a tube chassis. Evergreen to the rescue - for joining these, I take a rat tail file to the butt or miter joints (just like a fish mouth tubing cutter in real life) and file in enough of an opening to allow for a pretty clean connection. For this application, it 's ok if the rod is slightly out-of-round, but it is essential that it can be bent.
I used metal rod for the rear sway bar - worked fine, which was ultimately important because this is an independent rear axle, and the rigid wire helps to keep it from snapping off the chassis when I move it around. And thinking about the “cube” - check out the fuel cell - yes, I used backing to keep the corners square and flush.
His version of this rig is all black, with BIG Monster Energy decals. I couldn’t find any of those, so went ahead with the two tone hot rod look 
@165thspc, well Mike - I’m a fan of Tulsa winches and oil field trucks in general - they are brutes!
The goal was to make a Peterbilt 6x6 with bed winches and front PTO all linked via drive shafts and chain drives:
A guy did some research just to grasp how all of this works - and discovered the chain drive. In this case, the lower gears are from some white metal O scale rail car brake locks, while the upper gears and chains are resin, which were supposed to be used for a 1/12 scale motorcycle kit. If you look closely you can see the upper and lower gears, shaft and u-joint connecting to the PTO, upper gears, and chains.
As I know you are the king of suspensions, take a look:
Unlike that camel back of yours (wow! btw) these represent conventional leaf packs. As you can see, they are drilled, pinned and attached with fake U-bolts. The semi-circular block above the pack is commonly used on heavy truck axles.
Around the back:
Oh the good times - all of it!! This was tricky - I wanted to keep it posable, and as you can see, there are several pivot points - making it a PITA to first figure out, then to install and keep the axle clocking and alignment where I wanted it.
There is a pair of single and double clevis’ above the centerline of the walking beams, which allows the axles to tilt under the frame. There are two links inside the rails to keep the axles centered, and two torsion rods to allow the axles to tilt vertically, and independently of each other. The axles connect to the walking beams with more pivots! brackets and pins at each connecting point.
I decided to make the Hendrickson rear because it’s heavy duty and flexible:
I came up with the clever idea that this should be posable. Yeah, that was another good idea.
and what it looks like done:
Cheers and carry on with the scratch work -
Nick
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Thanks for the instant gratification on the Peterbilt. It is amazing!
Also WOW on the brass leaf springs!
Thou shalt be knighted in my kingdom forth with.
Question: "Front PTO???
What are you referring to here?
Or do you mean the front axle drive, as in 6x6 all wheel drive?
Could it be the PTO powering the front winch?
Buff,
one quick addendum if you will. On my PZIII, the turret skirts require a wood base, so the skirts don’t damage the radio antenna. For mine, I actually steamed the bass wood much like ship builders do for wood planking.
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The projo rack of my ex-Renwal M55 is composed of more than 200 individual pieces of plastic sheet, strip, and rod - not counting the projos from ball pen points, see above.
The projectile rammer and the projo hoist were totally scratch built, too.
As was the powder containers rack. Note arresting mechanism below left gunner’s seat.
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That curved wood trim on the turret skirt is intended to act as an insulator. If the antenna were to touch the metal skirt while transmitting it would short out. Probably would not damage the radio but your message certainly would not be getting through.
Also one would not want to be touching that antenna when the operator hits the transmit key. It would be sorta like peeing on an electric fence.
Thanks though for this info because I never noticed this small wood detail before.
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Robin, you are most likely correct. I define the PTO as the point where the auxiliary drive line begins, as in where it comes off the engine, transmission or transfer case and not as being those things driven by that auxiliary driveline.
I am no doubt over thinking the process or the definition.
Not trying to argue, just trying to illustrate.
Rear of transfer case on Mack NO showing PTO.
(Lefthand photo from the TM. - Right photo is of my model.)
Mack built their own transfer case/PTO combo and had this in stock before the war. Their PTO comes off to the rear, most likely because it was previously used to drive the hydraulic pump that operates their dump truck mechanism.
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My thinking is that the “nn-box” has one PTO facing forward and one facing aft to cater for power needs in both areas of the vehicle. The front PTO would thus be intended to power any powered equipment at the front of the vehicle (winch, pump, starter equipment for other vehicles, whatever).
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And that right there is the PTO and not everything else driven by it.
A winch is not a PTO - The winch is driven BY the PTO.
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Quoting myself:
“Could it be the PTO powering the front winch?”
Please explain the semantic difference between my statement and this:
“A winch is not a PTO - The winch is driven BY the PTO.”
Merriam-Webster has this to say on the noun ‘power’:
and the list of synonyms for the verb ‘powering’
Links provided for easy reference in case the need should arise, which I hope it will not
but one shall never be too sure about anything
The Cambridge dictionary may also be perused to reveal the following morsel of knowledge
concerning the present participe of the verb ‘power’:
" to provide a machine with energy and the ability to operate:"
In this context the front winch would be the ‘machine’ that is being provided power by the PTO:
“Could it be the PTO powering the front winch?”
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Ok. You win. Pick up the marbles.
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@165thspc and @Uncle-Heavy , hi Mike and Robin. Sorry to be a bit late to the “take-off” of this spirited discussion!
To clarify - the Peterbilt model is intended to represent a six wheel drive truck that is equipped with a power take-off unit which is used to mechanically drive winches mounted on the truck.
For axle power, a driveshaft extends from the rear of the transmission to a transfer case (located behind the cab), which in turn directs power to front and rear axles via driveshafts. Transfer cases usually include a high and low gear range, and the option to engage or disengage the front axle (and sometimes used to disengaged rear, while keeping the front axel engaged).
The power take-off (PTO) is an accessory power connection, which in this case is mechanical and attached to the transmission. An interesting attribute of some mechanical PTOs is that their speed setting/control is driven by the gears in the transmission (multiple forward and reverse speeds). This usually requires the PTO driven accessories to be operated by the driver who must remain in the cab (ie controlling engagement of the unit, acceleration, and gears). I have seen PTO driven, front bumper mounted winches controlled at the bumper - I don’t know how this works.
Like the transfer case, the PTO can have forward and rear power output shafts. In this case, the rear output shaft transfers power to the bed winches via driveshaft located beneath the truck’s frame and driver’s seat. Gears are attached to the driveshaft, and located directly below/in alignment with gears that are attached to and ultimately power (the) winches.
The front output shaft of the PTO is connected to a driveshaft leading to a winch is located in the front bumper. This winch is a direct drive application (ie forward facing PTO drive shaft is connected to the winch via u-joint and related gearing). You can see roller fairleads and opening for the winch line in the last photo - you don’t see a winch line because by the time I was finished rigging the other three winches and gin pole rigging, I was sick of rigging!! What you can’t see is the front PTO driveshaft is installed, and it clears exhaust, steering, and front axle - easy… I finished this model about a month ago - and just wanted to be done with it!!
A bit more on PTO’s - in many cases they are not mechanical, and are instead transmission driven hydraulic pumps, which can power various hydraulic accessories, including winches, cranes, stabilizers and on and on. You will find PTOs of one sort or another on most tractors and dozers, and many trucks to power various accessories. Hydraulic PTO accessories can be operated remotely, so the operator does not need to stay in the cab (ie a crane, stabilizers, tow truck components etc.).
Quite a coincidence BTW Robin, the image from FABCO you show above - turns out, FABCO was started in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one point they had a factory in Emeryville (CA) which is very close to where I live! The company had a long run, from about 1917, to about 2017! they have since been sold, and I don’t know the company status.
Chain driven Tulsa winches are indeed still in use, as are Tulsa hydraulic winches. I understand the chain driven units are still used because of their relative simplicity of operation, reliability, and general safety, all of which is relevant in the application shown, which is a gin pole bed truck - which according to Wikipedia is:
“Gin poles are mounted on trucks as a primitive form of mobile crane, used for lifting and relocating loads, and salvage operations in lieu of a more sophisticated wrecker .”
These trucks are often used on remote construction sites by various industries for equipment and material handling - and need to deal with poor site conditions/bad weather etc - hydraulic lines can break and when they do are very dangerous to those nearby.
And to dig really deep into this, some old mechanical PTO’s were controlled by power splitters, located in remote transmission splitters, or from the forward facing, rear drive axle.
All part of the fun of scratch building - research is required!
OK - enough fun with the specs! Happy model building -
Nick
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