I disagree with the notion that tooling will be pocket change. A decent drill index is 65 bucks minimum. Some cheap high speed...12 bucks, close to pocket change. Grinder for the high speed is 50. Taps are 25 a set for good used stuff. Files? Ehh, 40 bucks. Qctp..100 bucks. This could go on forever, and the OP is on a deadline if this is a school project
He won't need to buy a whole drill index. He should only need to buy the tooling he needs for this specific project.
How do you compress the learning curve?
I never suggested that this would be a substitute for a mentor. He'll still need advice on how to do this.
He could do that right here on this forum. If he starts a project thread on The Hobby-Machinist explaining what he has to work with and what he would like to do next I'm sure he'll be overwhelmed with an abundance of ideas to choose from for each step of the project.
I'd follow that thread and be glad to pitch in my mentoring 2 cents. And I'm also quite certain that others will jump in and offer ideas so far superior to mine that I'll look like a complete idiot.
But that's ok. I'll be learning too then. I might even think about building this silly thing if he starts a project thread from scratch.
@ Racer,
What is your deadline? Just exactly how long do you have to build this thing?
This is going to take a while. You're not going to build this overnight.
Have you considered the raw materials list yet? That would be the best place to start. You should know before you begin exactly what materials you are going to need.
If you can make up a complete materials list and I can afford to buy all the materials, I might join in the fun and build one along side you.
So let me know. You'll need to start a project thread on this forum if you want me to follow along.
By the way, do you have access to all the drawings?
The best I could find is the following, and I'm not sure I'd want to try to build one from this: