Progress Thread - 8750 Marion Dragline

[nenard]

What scale are you building in? Its gonna be awsomely huge!

[TylerDSAudi]

Originally Posted by nenard

What scale are you building in? Its gonna be awsomely huge!

The scale I haven't worked out just yet. When i started building this dragline i looked all over the internet for the 8750 specs for all the measurement to go off, but all the webpages I had problems loading. Was browsing the other day and found all the info i needed..... SO now, i will be using those as references and will compare those measurements to my machine to have a scale for it. I just built it the size i felt good about.

Originally Posted by 9W Monighan

Nice to see another cable machine here. My favorite.
Look over my 9W build and you will see just about all you need to know on how to power one. Look towards ebay for motors drives master switches slip rings ect. I would have spent way more if I couldn't have obtained my parts from ebay. There was lots of time and money spent with trial and error too. My system for 90VDC motors works very well and never gives any problems. I really like the 4 quadrant regenerative drive system. Read up on that. I don't know much about the smaller voltage motors. I think the 4Q drives can be bought from one of the robot parts suppliers but may cost more than the 90V ones listed practically a dime a dozen on ebay. There is tons of cheap motor drives out there for that. But remember, the smaller voltages draw more current so a heavy duty slip-ring will be needed. You may need to add flywheels on the smaller motors too to duplicate the dynamics of the motions so you don't end up with a big pendulum swinging back and forth.
I get some time, I'll take some pictures of my collection of master switches that will work.

9W Monighan, I have looked over your build many times over and over and I don't even know what to say because Im so impressed with the type of work you do! Your machining and attention to detail is amazing! Im going to need a lot of help on these electronics as i do not know anything at all about this stuff. I just want to be able to run a joy stick type for operational controls and run it off 110v power so I'm not worried about battery power constantly. If you help me out with that it would save me a lot of time and money like you said then playing around with stuff that won't work in the end.

Originally Posted by modelman

TYLERDSAudi-nice to see someone building a dragline. From your explanation I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the controls. R/C controlled or hard wired? These joysticks claim to be radio ready-
https://www.servocity.com/html/joystick_modules.html
I haven't heard of anyone using these but they might work. Post lot's of pictures.

Got to dragline, only way to clear material :P. I was going to build this dragline as an RC operated unit with speed controllers, batterys, remote and such, but after thinking about batterys dying and always charging them it turned me away from it a bit. Mostly i wanted realistic joystick controls as well and an RC remote isn't going to cut it for me. I just posted those 2 joysticks as an example, as they are the only thing i found so far that are 4 position like i need, joystick type and can be hard wired too. My plan is to run 110v plug in.

Those joystick you posted look really nice in position, they are little more pricey but whatever works I guess.

[9W Monighan]

You said you work at a mine as an oiler. You should be able to get all the dimensions you need from your company's engineering or maintenance dept. IF THEY WILL LET YOU. maybe you can say it's advertising to the company.

I see the joysticks Tom linked. Like I said earlier; I don't know much about this stuff. I do know there is lots more available these days than when I started out. Maybe this stuff is heavy duty enough to handle a large duty cycle. Depending on how big you're machine will be, remember it's going to have to work very hard handling a bucket full of dirt swinging 10feet way. Thats the case for me. Each bucket weighs about 12-15lbs and with my overkill in my electrics, there is never any overheating whatsoever.

[TylerDSAudi]

Originally Posted by 9W Monighan

You said you work at a mine as an oiler. You should be able to get all the dimensions you need from your company's engineering or maintenance dept. IF THEY WILL LET YOU. maybe you can say it's advertising to the company.

I see the joysticks Tom linked. Like I said earlier; I don't know much about this stuff. I do know there is lots more available these days than when I started out. Maybe this stuff is heavy duty enough to handle a large duty cycle. Depending on how big you're machine will be, remember it's going to have to work very hard handling a bucket full of dirt swinging 10feet way. Thats the case for me. Each bucket weighs about 12-15lbs and with my overkill in my electrics, there is never any overheating whatsoever.

Yeah i wish it was that easy, I would have had to go through all the lawyers first, then civil departments ect... I have them looking into me using the colours, name and they want their company on it if i do, which I am totally fine with. One of my fav draglines of all time!

Yeah, I just need a lot of help on the electronics end. I do know anything on these subjects of all these haha. I do want to make it as simple as I can. AS little stuff i need to make it all work, that makes less go wrong in my mind.

[Rvjimd]

This sounds like a good approach to the project. I think you indicated something between toy and scale model? I like to try and keep stuff simple when I can and if it doesn't over complicate things I do stuff so it looks "sort of scale". I think there are some projects that stall during construction because of over optimistic ideas at the start. I know this from experience and even my current crawler project which I don't claim to be very scale or detailed is just complicated enough to make me groan and nearly give up at least once a day!

So, keep at it, I like it already! I have all kinds of MDF, never thought of making something that big and using MDF for part of the project.

Take lots of pictures and keep em coming!

Jim

[TylerDSAudi]

Originally Posted by Rvjimd

This sounds like a good approach to the project. I think you indicated something between toy and scale model? I like to try and keep stuff simple when I can and if it doesn't over complicate things I do stuff so it looks "sort of scale". I think there are some projects that stall during construction because of over optimistic ideas at the start. I know this from experience and even my current crawler project which I don't claim to be very scale or detailed is just complicated enough to make me groan and nearly give up at least once a day!

So, keep at it, I like it already! I have all kinds of MDF, never thought of making something that big and using MDF for part of the project.

Take lots of pictures and keep em coming!

Jim

Thank you! Yeah mine has done that to me I'm always over thinking everything and changing designs and how I want to do steps in the build, but that's why we do this cause we're crazy people . I'm building this as a working model and toy to play with. Once it works how I want it, then I can start adding detail for the model scale side like railings, vents ect..

MDF is my favourite wood to work with for things like this, as you can shape it how ever you want! Great wood to do things like this and the house so far isn't too bad for weight either!