the roofpieces finished

In the meantime the upper side profiles are also welded together.
So the coming days the most interesting work will start : building this all together.

Steady progress

uppersides also started :

It takes shape

Another update, seems we are making a big sled, but a real big one ;-) Today the assembling of the subparts was started. On the photo's you see the underside on which the rollers will be mounted. It should be possible with this construction to cross a real trench, time will tell. The "sled"shape is laying on another construction for a heavy gate, creating a flat underground. Thanks to Dirk and Herman !

Only a day later already other news worth mentioning. Robert had been working out a solution to fix rubber pads on the track plates so we will be able to drive it on normal roads. After het weldingworks Robert will also take care of the framework getting able to ride. Looking out to it.

Finally welding has started. After delivery of the raw bended plates by Mol Transport Solutions which took them some more times than I expected we were already in the beginning of May. This caused also troubles in the workscheme of Herman Persyn our local weldcompany who once did also did the welding work at the former yellow framework. But I can nog prove that welding work started half June and it's going with some interruptions strong. Up to now the several subparts were assembled and we foresee to start assembling the whole  framework next thursday July 4th. But enough on planning. Photo's below give some impression of the subparts welded together these last weeks and give also an idea about what it's gonna be if you compare with the drawings. After this assembling phase, Robert and Vandaele Machinery will be back in the game, getting this monster on tracks and providing it with the motor and hydraulic drive. We hope it will be soon riding on the chains without major problems. In the meantime a solution for the trackplates and the rubberpad upon it will be constructed. Later more on this. We won't promise anything but in september october you might be able to spot a strange vehicle in the streets of Poelkapelle ...
We strongly advise you to give it way, otherwise it might crush you ;-)

A first trial at Mol Transport Solutions

As announced, in april we will start welding together the pieces of the proposed strong framework.
Today I was able to see a bending test at Mol Transport Solutions in Sleihage, a local builder of heavy transport vehicles. I was already long before interested in this firm, but one needs the right contacts to be introduced to be able to present the tankproject. Thanks once more to Robert Vandaele who knew somebody who knew upon his turn somebody we did get the right connections. Paul Messely in the end took us to Mols and besides the making of the trackplates they finally also will provide the pieces for the framework. It happens by coincidence that our local welder Herman Persyn,who did the yellow framework some years ago works in subcontract for Mols, so the way to proceed and work again also with Herman this time was a logical result.
The photo shows a testpiece of the C-profile where the rollers will be bolted on  at the underside, but shown here upside-down. For comparison I laid Philippe Gorczynski's original trackplate of Deborah up it.

This is nothing more than bended plate of 10mm thick in the same order of bendingresistance as the profiles of the undercarriage of an excavator. The order for all of it was given green light today and we hope at april 1st we can start the welding together !

In reality it will be upside down, the rollers being bolted at the short ends and those rollers rolling upons the chains of an excavotor where track plates will be bolted on, upon their turn being bolted on them rubber pads. The image below shows a partially framework, so you can see the different profiles.

Engineering and drawings finished ...

Finally, I can say now that the engineering and the resulting drawings are finished. It was difficult to come to a common accepted solution, everyone has his ideas and wishes. But time goes on, money is there and the project manager, after listening to everyone involved, finally took the steering levers and headed in the direction he thought is the right one. Right now contacts with firms, able to help us, are laid and this should result in the start of the making of the strong framework in the next months. Before summer this should be finished so that Robert Vandaele and Vandaele Machinery of Oostrozebeke can make a moving framework from it, using the already available motor and hydraulic system from the former setup. This should hopefully result in a moving framework in the beginning of September. We are aiming for a trench-crossing capable machine that is reliable and can also ride on the normal roads (so with permanent rubber pads on the track-plates). For this track-plates with the right curved corners Robert already proved to be able to make a decent solution. An initial trial was welding half tubes to a plate and then manually cutting and deforming the tops. This version was shown in Cambrai for the 95th anniversary of Cambrai day last autumn. A subsequent trial starts from plates alreayd in their length bended into the right profile.
Further manually working this results gets already nearer to what is should be. But this is certainly not yet the last step, although approaching. The best solution would be using a dye to stamp the form, but this woulc cut to much in our budget.

The image below is from the hand of Dirk Vinck, already involved in the very first yellow framework,doing the drawings. This is how the strong framework will look like. The rolls, sprocket and idler are also already placed. I hope to be able to show you the same in a couple of months on photo's and if you are around in real life. Once again, thanks for all who have made this possible so far.