Question on model names

[clemsonfor]

Everything you do to keep these great tractors alive is greatly appreciated!

I agree. It may also be hard to gauge or capture the added value of your investment as well. Many folks will buy a whole list of parts from you because they know you reproduce that knuckle or spindle or something else that no one has. I guess my point is, someone came to you cause you had that part that was NLA and because you had it and there happy you did they want to do business with you, so they go ahead and buy filters all the bearings they need, seals, and gaskets etc. Stuff you might not have even sold if that person had not seen that initial rare part with you.

 

[bmaverick]

There are some very slow selling & very expensive to reproduce stuff that is hard to get right now like maybe the YM1300D/YM155D 4wd knuckle castings and some of the YM1510 4wd knuckle gears. Stuff like that.

Aaron, there are a few machine shops across the country making fabricating old tractor parts as 1,2,3,4 knock-offs. Could the gears be made that way? Some shops have laser cutting or water jet cutting or CNC Wire-EDM. The trick is, having an actual part or a reversed engineered CAD model. I've done a few parts in SolidWorks-2018 already. Before this covid thing, I was engineering parts for Deere. The parts are now in production. Also, it's not just the part shapes either. Japan metal grades per JIS are not like out ANSI metal grades here in North America. Even the sheet metal gauges are different. Some things are very close though that the reproduction wouldn't be any issue.

 

[HoyeTractor]

Aaron, there are a few machine shops across the country making fabricating old tractor parts as 1,2,3,4 knock-offs. Could the gears be made that way?

We have contacted many custom gear shops here in the US over the years and were just never able to make anything work out on those smaller quantities. The setup costs just seem to be a killer on those which I can understand. I had a few gears made by a small shop here a few years ago that turned out great but they were something like $500ea with a 20pc minimum... and then the shop was closed down when we tried to re-order. It was a relatively complex gear though. The latest gear we shopped around was a small spider gear and the best quote was something like $12-$15K to make the first gear and I think each additional gear was only something like $5-$10. You have to sell a lot of them to ever cover the cost of that first one though.

 

[FleetMan]

A couple thoughts, any techies on the forum that are familiar with computer printing a gear? When on active duty, USAF, my Field Maintenance Shop had a tracing machine we used to make parts which were no longer being manufactured. Sometimes the tracing and machining could take well over a day but you ended up with an exact replica of what you needed. Cost - ???.

 

[bmaverick]

A couple thoughts, any techies on the forum that are familiar with computer printing a gear? When on active duty, USAF, my Field Maintenance Shop had a tracing machine we used to make parts which were no longer being manufactured. Sometimes the tracing and machining could take well over a day but you ended up with an exact replica of what you needed. Cost - ???.

Fleetman, 3D metal printing a gear is costly too. It's called Direct Metal Laser 3D Sintering. GKN is the biggest name in this area. And a bit pricey.

Like I mentioned, I use SolidWorks with an add-on product called CAMnetics/GearTraxxs. Camnetics It does wonders making the 3D CAD models. However, adding up the costs of the software can put you near $4K and then the computer at $1K.

If we were talking toy tractors, plastic gears would be king and really cheap. But, metal gears are where our tractors engines shine for doing all the grunt work.

I really understand Aaron's ordeal. There are a few mom+pop places that bought CNC machines on the auction block for pennies on the dollar. Just time, labor and material costs these people look for vs. a full blown ISO9001 certified shop.

For straight cut spline gears, these can be knocked out easy and the cheapest. Beveled gears, ring gears and spider gears are not cheap to reproduce, let alone knowing the steel hardness requirements too.

If part dimensions are known for a gear, there are gear manufactures with some common gear offerings. However, that takes manpower and time searching.