# Did Ya ever wonder---



## Brian Rupnow (Nov 20, 2009)

What a fork truck looked like with its dress off??? I picked up a contract on Tuesday---Went down to London and picked up a fork truck, brought it home in pieces, and reverse engineered it this week.--Which is to say, I disassembled it all, measured all the pieces, and created "To Scale" 3D solid models of it. What you see here is 3 eight hour days and one "travel day". On Monday, I will begin to design a "New Improved" version, re-using some of the existing drive parts, with a completely new chassis. I love this stuff!!! After spending most of the past year reading fiction novels and creating "Make work" projects, damn, its nice to be doing some real work!!!


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## Twmaster (Nov 20, 2009)

Nifty drawings Brian. Nice to see you getting some 'real' work too!


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## Kermit (Nov 20, 2009)

Would these improvements have anything to do with how the batteries in those 'damn' things have to be wrestled around to change them out?

A self contained, self transporting capable, battery container, that could be 'attached' to the lift truck without using another lift truck in the process, or the backs of two or three young men, would be an area of improvement I would like to see.   Just unhook from the charger and push it to the truck and let it 'attach' itself.

 ;D  

But I'm sure the people paying have you working on what THEY want,  :big:
Kermit


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 20, 2009)

Most of the units I have seen have a "battery module" which consists of a number of 6 volt batteries wired in series with a charger built into the module.


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## Cedge (Nov 20, 2009)

Brian
Nope..... not after the second or third one I had to rebuild.....LOL 

Steve


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## black85vette (Nov 20, 2009)

Nice that you got work and nice for us to see some of the real work you do. Thm: Pretty cool stuff. Out of my league. I'll just stick with EZ engines. :big:


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## cfellows (Nov 21, 2009)

Hey Brian, congrats on landing some fulfilling work. I would probably find that kind of work more terrifying than fulfilling, but it all depends on where your comfort zone is. Having said that, you're obviously quite good at what you do!

Chuck


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 27, 2009)

So here we are at 72 hours and counting---Another 8 hours and all the detail drawings will be done and sent to the fabricator to start building.


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## ariz (Nov 29, 2009)

sure Brian in your work you're terribly competent, and very fast too... what you have done in less than 1 week I can't do in a year
well done :bow:

but, you live in Canada and you picked up the lifter in London, Great Britain?


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 29, 2009)

ariz  said:
			
		

> sure Brian in your work you're terribly competent, and very fast too... what you have done in less than 1 week I can't do in a year
> well done :bow:
> 
> but, you live in Canada and you picked up the lifter in London, Great Britain?



Ariz---No, that was in London, Ontario, about 200 Km from where I live. Because of our British heritage, many of our cities in Ontario bear the same names as major cities in England.


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## Tin Falcon (Nov 29, 2009)

London Ontario not too far from Mexico or Rome.
Tin


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## ozzie46 (Nov 29, 2009)

Is that Mexico,MO and Rome,GA ? :big: :big:

 Ron


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## joe d (Nov 29, 2009)

Actually, Rome NY and Mexico NY would be closer to Ontario.... :big: :big: :big:

Joe


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## ozzie46 (Nov 29, 2009)

OK, OK. :big: :big:

 Ron


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## Mainer (Nov 29, 2009)

A working model in about 1/4 scale would be pretty neat...


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## Brian Rupnow (Nov 29, 2009)

I just busted my butt all weekend (12 hours) to get this thing ready for the fabricator for Monday morning! There is a total of 64 detail and assembly drawings. I have to download some software tomorrow that will let me batch plot all of these drawings to .dxf files so they can go to the cnc plate cutters. I am now up to 84 hours on this job.


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## Bernd (Nov 30, 2009)

Mainer  said:
			
		

> A working model in about 1/4 scale would be pretty neat...



Yeah, sure would. But it would have to be steam powered! 

Bernd


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## BobWarfield (Nov 30, 2009)

Bernd  said:
			
		

> Yeah, sure would. But it would have to be steam powered!
> 
> Bernd



A steam powered forklift. Hmmm. Something strangely poetic about that. Unlike a steam powered launch, it would actually be useful in the shop too!

LOL,

BW


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