Frankenstein Crane

[Nipels]

So I didn't even realize that this was a thing other people did when I started. Thrilled that I found you guys. I started building an RC crane after being into the cars and helicopters for awhile. The cars and helicopters went away over the years, but this idea persisted. I only have a small welder, tiny drill press, and recently acquired an old central machinery metal lathe. This is what I have come up with so far. It isn't to scale or as pretty as all of the projects I have seen on here so far, but it is original

It is a "friction" crane, in that it has clutches and "brakes". The clutches are electromagnetic ones I found on a surplus site for 2$ a pop, and the brakes are really just ratchet and paws I scrounged from a surplus site. It is for the most part chain driven, with a belt at the motor in case something binds up. It isn't officially RC yet, as I have yet to prove the concept before tackling the wireless problem. Ultimately I would like to have a setup with an arduino, load limiter, and tracks.






https://ibb.co/GJBhHMb
https://ibb.co/BjVT2qW
https://ibb.co/vHLrf1r
https://ibb.co/F6qLNw2

The pictures aren't showing up so I just linked to IMGBB, I hope that isn't against ToS.
As you can see I am not a welder, or a machinest, or a fabricator, but I am getting better. Let me know what you think.

[sparkycuda]

Wow! That reminds me of inside a Bucyrus-Erie 38B. Fully mechanical, with air operated clutches and brakes, open gears and sheaves. Looks to be quite large - what are approximate dimensions of what you have already? Add an angle-iron boom, flat track pads and ready to go. Will the crawlers also be mechanically driven from the upper works? I remember replacing the center shaft on a mechanical crane was a pain the the a$$!
Keep up the good work.

Ken

[avel]

Very nice!

[Nipels]

Originally Posted by sparkycuda

Wow! That reminds me of inside a Bucyrus-Erie 38B. Fully mechanical, with air operated clutches and brakes, open gears and sheaves. Looks to be quite large - what are approximate dimensions of what you have already? Add an angle-iron boom, flat track pads and ready to go. Will the crawlers also be mechanically driven from the upper works? I remember replacing the center shaft on a mechanical crane was a pain the the a$$!
Keep up the good work.

Ken

Boomed up it is a little above my waist. The cab is about 12" by 18". I would love to make the tracks mechanically driven but I haven't thought of an elegant or even practical way yet. I might just crap out and run a swivel wire harness through the center and have two motors run each track drive. I don't think I have enough of these magnetic clutches left to attempt mechanically driven undercarriage, especially not having both reverse and forward independent tracks. Maybe I can figure something out.

https://ibb.co/HtH0jF1
https://ibb.co/PY7QJv8
https://ibb.co/6nHf5v7

I finished putting the chains on the hoist drum and swing clutches. I started wiring it up. Hope to have it somewhat working in a few days.

[frizzen]

That crane looks really impressive!!!

Testing pics...


Ok width, but it's vertical

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I dunno, beating my head against it. more test needed. Here's the giant pics
Post 1








Post2






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Here's what i figured out, but not the whole story

Go to pic url you uploaded, right click pic, View Image
Copy that url,
Come back here
Click brown mountain yellow sky button, Paste url in pop up
Or throw img tags around it

I dunno about resize smaller.

[Nipels]

Wow thank you for getting the pictures to work. I'll see what I can do when I have more updates.

[ddmckee54]

If you're running Windoze, and you have a version of Microsoft Office, then you might already have the software you need to resize the photos.

Some (Most?) versions of Microsoft Office have a photo viewer/editor built in that will allow you to optimize photos for sending in an e-mail, that's what I use to reduce the size of photos I want to post. If you've got the photo software, then try right clicking on a photo and see if you get a re-size for e-mail option.

Don

[sparkycuda]

Concerning how to power tracks from the upper works: there was a center shaft (vertical) that was driven by bevel gears upstairs and ended in bevel gears in the lower works. These drove a horizontal shaft with sprockets on the ends for chain drive to the track sprockets (crane folks called them tumblers) that made the tracks turn. There was a dog-clutch in the horizontal shaft for each side, so to turn, one was disengaged and the other side was driven. The reversing gears were in the upper works where the vertical shaft was driven, again with dog clutches for forward and reverse functions. It was complicated but worked very well - for the "olden" days.
Your model is big enough that it could be done but would take some major repositioning of what you have already built to install. Since you have all the other machinery up there already, it will be easier to put electric motors in the lower works and just make a slip ring for getting the electrons downstairs.
I enjoy seeing your crane - lets me remember how machines worked 50 years ago.

Ken

[Nipels]

Originally Posted by sparkycuda

Concerning how to power tracks from the upper works: there was a center shaft (vertical) that was driven by bevel gears upstairs and ended in bevel gears in the lower works. These drove a horizontal shaft with sprockets on the ends for chain drive to the track sprockets (crane folks called them tumblers) that made the tracks turn. There was a dog-clutch in the horizontal shaft for each side, so to turn, one was disengaged and the other side was driven. The reversing gears were in the upper works where the vertical shaft was driven, again with dog clutches for forward and reverse functions. It was complicated but worked very well - for the "olden" days.
Your model is big enough that it could be done but would take some major repositioning of what you have already built to install. Since you have all the other machinery up there already, it will be easier to put electric motors in the lower works and just make a slip ring for getting the electrons downstairs.
I enjoy seeing your crane - lets me remember how machines worked 50 years ago.

Ken

Yes, I am leaning towards just putting motors down there. The clutches have been fun to work with but a big hassle. I took a video today.

https://youtu.be/5xwmcmF8dXY

I threw a belt drive in just in case something were to bind up, the crane wouldn't tear itself apart, but it slips too easily. I may make a tensioner, get a bigger pulley/belt, or convert back to chain drive, I don't know.

The solenoids that I was going to use to disengage the ratchet paw mechanism is too weak when there is a load on the drum, so it looks like I am going to have to engage the up functions, take the "brake" off, than engage the power down functions. This actually simplifies things in a way, but also makes it very easy to drop the boom or the load. Maybe if I ever get around to learning arduino I can program some of this in.

[Nipels]

I added a tensioner for the belt and tested out the clutches. It works a lot better now.

https://youtu.be/nmGeBkWGX5E

https://youtu.be/6Aij-4SUjdE

[Lil Giants]

Good ol sasky redneck igenuity, luv it! Reminds me of the things I did 25yrs ago before internet & finding rc construction kits from Germany... Princess Auto - my neighbor calls it the Farmer's Sex Shop

[Jared]

I love it! I've thought about doing something like this but other things get in the way...

The travel in the 1:1 machines was driven off the swing shaft unless it had independent swing and travel. You shifted a gear on that shaft that moved between the swing and travel gears and then used the swing lever and clutches to move forward and backward.

[Mt. Jim]

on the old B E 's when going uphill or downhill you steered with one track only. They were square jaw teeth and when you pulled all the way it would engage a stationary one to lock the track to turn but if you were moving wouldn't engage either way so if you tried to turn with the other track and didn't have the first one all the way in you were in free wheel all you could do was drop the boom or jump.

[Tgrzes]

This is great! Can’t wait to see it in motion!