Well congratulations. You have reached a new level of crazy, IMO
...And I like it:thumbsup:
Of course the big question is always "Why?" Was it for fun? Did a load of steel tubing fall off a truck in front of your house? Because unless you need something custom that cannot be found commercially, it is almost never cost-effective to roll your own. So I ask - What was your reason?
Interesting question:
The excavator will be cheap for me if I don't pay myself a salary ... I bought raw material and standard industrial parts that were relatively cheap because they were produced in high volume. Other than the tracks, I didn't buy any excavator parts, which are almost all overpriced, a spare parts excavator costs several times more than a full excavator.
And then the parts of my excavator will not be expensive to replace.
I only contracted out the cutting (I did the drawings myself) of ten CNC plasma parts for the entire project. Someone who had parts of the project fabricated, machined, cut out in a workshop at $ 80 an hour, the bill would have gone up quickly.
So for me the excavator costs less than a used excavator in good working order. Probably the equivalent of an old excavator that is inoperative or in need of restoration or has been fired without the cost of restoration, but an excavator in need of restoration requires that certain parts be replaced by excessively expensive original parts, some major parts cost more than the market value of the excavator.
Small commercial excavators of this size are mass-produced in an automated, cast-part, and non-hand-sculpted manner one by one. Equipment and parts purchased under contract very large volume. To succeed in having a sale price around $ 45,000 cd and give a guarantee
The first commercial prototype (built by a large team of different specialists) should cost more around 1 million without guarantee absorbed by the thousands of copies sold afterwards.
I'm going to buy only 2 mini parts for my diesel engine (the only used component on my excavator is the Yanmar engine) and they are outrageously expensive for their sizes, that's what scares me about restorations. The future will tell me if it would not have been better to install an affordable new gasoline engine instead of a used diesel engine.
In addition to having some particular specifications almost essential for me:
Low floor that reduces the overall height and fits into a residential garage (7 feet) (I have to store it in 3 different places in standard garages)
Tracks larger in relation to its weight to sink less on wet ground, easier to get out of a hole with the help of the hydraulic arm, but the disadvantage is that it will be less stable (it will move more easily when there is restriction on the bucket)
Adjustable angle scraper
Travel speed of 6 km / h (small commercial excavators = 4 km / h)
Transportable on the road without the need for a large capacity trailer and a large capacity truck!
I don't have the space to put a big trailer on my lot and I don't want to buy myself a big truck to haul it 2-3 times a year.
Commercial excavator with the same reach as mine and the same hydraulic power weighs 6000lbs plus a heavy-duty trailer around 1500lbs so 7500lbs to tow.
My excavator approximately 3500lbs plus axles and therefore pole less than 4000lbs to tow.
In addition to the money saved by self-construction (so well valued) which would not be huge if we added value to the time invested. There is the challenge and the satisfaction, I have very little satisfaction in buying a vehicle already built, which is easy for all people who have money or credit unlike designing a built vehicle with technical feature and a unique look.
