Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x5b3E7Mp5o

Hi, guys! Here's a video of my 1/48 scale (give or take a little) crane playing in the "sandbox". I started it with the idea it would be a quick-and-dirty build which it still is, but I've been working on it off and on for a couple years now. The machinery deck is 4x7" and the boom is about 30". I didn't really design it, I just did a quick sketch and started building and then later modifying to make things fit. I decided to build a barge-mounted crane because I have a tugboat that needs a barge to push and also so I didn't have to mess with an undercarriage. I used this and others like it as inspiration: http://www.generalconstructionco.com..._DataSheet.pdf

I don't have any pictures at the moment but I'll try to get some sometime this week when I have time to do a partial dissassembly.

PS How do I get a Youtube video to show in a post rather than just a link?

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Beautiful work!

I really like the detail with brass components. It sure works smooth and quickly. I'll be looking forward to some close up shots of the drive systems and structure.:cool:

Jordy

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Yes I like how smooth this works.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Boy, for quick and dirty model, that sure turned out nice, Monighan! I really enjoyed watching the video. Smooth running model and it looks like it's very efficient too. Great work.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

That's pretty NIFTY! :cool:

I dream that someday I'll have barge dredger too, probably cheat a little & use one of my old excavs. :D

Let's see your tugboat too. Any video of it on the water?

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Cool crane! Looks like a blast to operate.

You could make a dragline bucket for it too.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Very nice model! Like others said, smooth and a very good representation of a clam-machine. I see a lot of them operating along the Ohio in Indiana and Kentucky. Some are barge-mounted, some are pedestal-mounted unloading barges.

Ken

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Really nice machine. Do you have some pics of the drums etc? Ho did your clamshell smoothener work?

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Jared, You have built yourself a great clamshell and crane, Looks like it ought to be out on the Columbia River working on the channel. Look forward to seeing it in person someday as I only live up the road a few miles. Fred

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Thanks for the comments, guys! When I get some pictures you'll see that it isn't as great as it looks in the video. I've got it set to run faster than what would be scale because I like to get work done when I'm on a machine and also so I could slow video down to about 1/4 speed and then it moves quite realistically. Just a simple matter of end point adjustment. I'd like to get one of those doohickeys that slow the servo down to make the swing speed up and slow down even smoother.

Lil Giants, don't worry, that's not cheating. Do it! Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m41u14fuu_g
I got the twin screw version of the Vac-U-Tow http://www.vac-u-boat.com/ . It's finished enough for test running but I never got any videos due to only having two hands, and I need to make some modifications to the house to get it looking more like a Columbia River tug and squirt some colored stuff on it.

SmallHaul, I thought about that, but draglines on barges just ain't done. You'd have to have the machine sitting right on the edge of the barge so it doesn't interfere with the drag cable and you have to have massive spuds so you don't bend them when you take a scoop. Also a clamshell's digging depth is limited only by the length of the hoist cables. But I do want to build a machine on tracks that can swing a clam or dragline bucket. If I get real ambitious I'd like shovel and backhoe fronts as well. I was eyeballing yours a while back. When I was little I would have gone without dessert for a year for one of those cranes, but they don't make 'em like that anymore.

Lorenzo, do you mean the tagline winder? It's got a spring pulling on a lever that has a line from the end of it wound around a 1/16" axle. On the end of that there's a narrow 7/8" diameter drum that the tagline winds onto. Basically it converts a strong pull and 2-1/2" of linear motion into rotary and back into about 3 feet of weak linear. It's kind of hard to explain but when I get some pictures it will be pretty self-explanatory.

Iron Art, you betcha.
When I see a crane barge on the river I try pretty hard (legally!) to see whose it is and what it's doing. There was a huge one working for several months off the Port of Longview recently but I would have had to risk life and limb to walk out onto the bridge to get a good view of it, so I missed out on that:mad:

Pictures to come...

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Nice job it looks great and run smooth I could see myself playing in the garage with that for hours.

Travis

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Man is that neat!! you got a lot of work in that piece!

Brian

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

looks awesome!!

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Here it is in all it's spaghettiness sitting on it's unfinished barge.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0699.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0700.jpg

Machinery deck layout. The lower left servo is boom hoist, center is swing, upper left is digging line, upper right is holding line and the tagline winder is on the far right.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0706.jpg

The drums are turned out of acetal rod and the centers are bored out to .25". Then I cut the arms off spare servo horns, turned the hubs down to about .255 and pressed and superglued them in so the drums could be mounted on the servo spline. No problems so far.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0738.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0742.jpg

Swing gear is done the same way as the drums even though it's aluminum. The swing circle is what I think is called double-row ball bearing. The outer piece has a flange on the inside, sort of a tee in cross section, with a ball race machined into both sides. Then upper and lower plates have matching races machined into them and sandwich the flange. Then screws go up through the lower plate, thread into the upper plate to hold it all together and then stick up about 1/4" so the machinery deck can drop over them and be fastened to the swing circle assembly with nuts. Hopefully that makes sense.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0702.jpg

Tagline winder. The spring pulls the lever, lever pulls shaft, shaft spins drum, drum pulls bucket.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0715.jpg

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Tagline runs through this little block. It ain't much, but I'm kinda proud of how well it works.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0731.jpg

Bucket is set up with a four-part line but can be increased to six for digging harder material. This is more of a rehandling clam; I have a round-nose toothed digging bucket in the works.

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0694.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0697.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0718.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0735.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0737.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0746.jpg

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...s/101_0745.jpg

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

If my math is correct, the servos are theoretically capable of lifting 23 lbs. The drums are about 3/4" in diameter and the servos are supposed to be good for 139 oz-in. I divided 139 by the radius of the drums, .375" which comes out to 370 oz, which is 23.1 lbs. Did I do that right?

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Many thx for the pix. Your tagline arangement is very interesting. Did you calculate the force that the spring should have or just did you do it by trial and error.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

that is one cool drag line works very smoothly i like it keep up the great work

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Very nice and simple. I like the tag line set up. On some of the early 1900's machines I've been around: I saw a weight that runs up and down a track on the boom this was on a Erie steam crane. My buddy has a Insley half swing machine he's starting restoration on and it has a pipe with a pully on top where a weight just slides up and down inside the pipe,but that was probably for the trip rope when it has a shovel front mounted.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

NICE!!! Now you just need to scale it up to 1/16th so you can play with all of the semis:rolleyes: We need something like this for bigger scale trucks to use instead of just the elevators and payloaders. 30" in 1/48th is about 90" in 1/16th So about a 8' boom would be fun to watch:rolleyes:

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Tagline system is very ingenious! And the bucket is so well done - did you weight the lower pulley crossbar or was it heavy enough by itself? Everything works so smoothly - a credit to you craftsmanship. Keep up the good work.

Ken

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Wow! Great project! Just up my street.
My internet connection is too slow to see the video, so i have to wait!

kerst

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

the clamshell bucket is beautiful. I once built one for my Manitowoc. I really enjoyed that project.
how did you convert the servo motors to run the winches?

kerst

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Trial and error. You can see all the holes I drilled in the lever.

Thanks, td9clyde.

Thanks. I toyed with both ways a little bit but I couldn't figure out how to make it slide smoothly without pulling too hard and without being too bulky. At this scale friction plays a bigger part than it does on bigger stuff.

Thanks. I've been kicking around a 1/16 scale Bucyrus Erie 22B, but that won't happen for some time yet due to a shortage in the employment department.

Thanks, Ken. I had to weight the crossbar a little bit.

Thanks, kerst. It was kind of a trip when I got it put together and not only did it look like a real clam, it acted like a real clam. On the servos, there are two ways. I couldn't find the page I used, but this is basically the way I did it, though these aren't the best instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...or-Continuous/

Or you can do it like this: http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encod...0for%20PWM.htm
I'm not really an electronics guy and I didn't feel comfortable poking around the electronic guts. But this is probably the better way to do it because you don't have to worry about the pot changing position.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Very impressive I love the video and thanks for posting the pictures. Everyone around here sets the bar pretty high.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

So the purpose of the tag line is to aid in the opening of the clam bucket?

Nevermind the lack of "house detail", you've done yourself proud with the exquisite engineering of a super smooth working model.

"Function before beauty" has always been my motto. :D

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

No Joe, the function of the tag line is to reduce the uncontrolled swinging of the bucket.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Thanks, Lil Giants. What lorenzo said. And to keep the bucket from spinning and twisting up the hoisting lines. If you have a power operated tagline you can even pull the bucket in to dig closer or cast it farther away from the machine.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

There are power operated taglines too? Didn't know this.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

I know that for example the Manitowoc 4600 has a power tagline.
http://www.manitowoccranes.com/MCG_M...nal_cranes.asp

Kerst

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Many thx Kerst :).

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

The power tagline on a clamshell is also used for the dipper trip when the machine is set up as a shovel. It usually runs off the end of one of the drum shafts and has a clutch that is set to drag a little bit to keep a constant pull. When you want to trip the dipper or pull on the clam you fully engage the clutch.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

I haven't made any progress on the crane for a while. Last winter when I was unemployed I had piles of time and no money, and now that I have a job I have money:) and no time and energy:(. But anyway, today it was time to refill the laundry detergent box so I put the clam bucket on the job. It took about an hour and a half to get it done. I shot a little video. I have a longer one if demand is there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdm62...eature=feedwll

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Works very nice and smooth. One problem, How can I do that too? I use liquid detergent:p
How are your radio sticks set up? I sorta followed on the video.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

You might have to build one of those bags or buckets that helicopters use to drop water on fires. :D Left stick is u/d for boom, l/r for swing, right stick is u/d for the holding line, l/r for the closing line. To hoist a full bucket the right stick goes to the bottom left. If it was a dragline I would have the drag drum be u/d on the left stick and boom as l/r on the right stick.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Your set up is similar to mine and Smallhauls set up. I have to leave my boom fixed at one angle. Scott has the throttle stick for his boom angle but it's turned on with one of the switches that I found out by accident when I boomed up into the cab:o I didn't see it happening because some guy was talking to me and I wasn't watching the boom.:o
Here's mine hope the dashes don't confuse you.I don't know how to put the diagram with out the letters bunching together.:confused:

LEFT STICK--------------------------------RIGHT STICK

--- not used-----------------------------------hoist up

swing left-----swing right------------------- drag in------drag out

------- not used ---------------------------------- hoist down

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

I should have done this before:

------LEFT STICK--------------------------------RIGHT STICK

------boom down---------------------------------hoist down

swing left-----swing right-----------------bucket close---bucket open

--------boom up------------------------------------hoist up

My hoists are set up opposite of yours because on every machine I've ever run if you want something to go up you pull back and forward to go down so that's the way I think. I never thought about locking out the boom hoist but I'd love to be able to do that. I'll have to see if my radio can do that.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

AHH, I'm used to Bucyrus-Erie machines, they all hoist up by pushing forward on the hoist lever. I've run Bay City shovels and you pull back to hoist like most others. I heard several arguments before about why B-E does things different but can't remember why they did it. It makes sense to me because the first shovel I ever operated was a 10B B-E 3/8cy shovel.
If I ever get an operator on my 9W that likes Marion controls; I'll just reverse the hoist stick. :D

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Seems like I heard the reason for that, at least on the big draglines anyways was so you could push/pull both levers in the same direction when the bucket was moving away or towards the machine. Somewhere on Youtube a dragline operator was explaining why that was but I can't remember what or whose video it was. I figured on the small machines that's just the way the control linkages worked out. I wonder if the BEs with air controls are the same way?

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

How about one of these 9W, http://www.garbro.com/g_series.htm
Later, Neil#2 aka doodlebug.