I looked at a bunch of pictures, and made some guesses, and started to cobble up a dragline bucket out of stuff i had on hand so I could play around with the mechanics of it. Brass sheet thats too thin, hollow tube, and some electronics solder...
BUT I think it's acting about like it should and once the rigging is done in chain i might be onto something. (I started before i saw the patent drawings to copy, but it should work on soft loose stuff.)
Prototypes aren't pretty.
Also started setting up for hoist and crowd drum servo mounts, and working toward getting steering servo in.