LilGiantsConstrCo

[Lil Giants]

Hi Lou, I've been doing some tinkering in the basement since spring, but it has been raining nearly every week since late May making it difficult to get any dirt outside, which I haven't hauled not one load out this summer. Working on a conveyer system to make export yr round - so the weather, no matter wet or cold or windy, the conveyer system will be totally enclosed to keep the weather out.

The shop is coming along, in stages... June was the building, then July was the door, then spray insulation. Yesterday the cement crew was here to pack gravel, get it the area ready to pour cement next week. Then it'll be me & whoever I can talk into helping to do the interior after harvest. And finally the electrician to finalize everything... hopefully November sometime and I can start using it for what it was built for.







Here's a couple of snaps of more excavation from the floor this summer, a semi circle around the outer edges, though some of it filled back in with dry fines.









Right above this loader is the window opening, where a pit built into the wooden roadway will be installed & 3 various lengths conveyers will be installed. I cleared this dirt away into the hole of the previous pics so I can stand/work in this area for the conveyer installation.



This is the corner that started the idea of my basement excavation, and seems most vulnerable with soaking up during wet summers, which the darker colored soil is rather damp, to drive on it with the trks - the tires would ball up with clay & make it dangerous driving on the steep wooden roadways. I scraped back the wet dirt surface a few times in recent wks, then with the screener on the JD850 sifted the crushed rock over it, it kinda works like floor-dry, but maybe not as well.



I found this lil beasty last Spring just before seeding, it arrived in late May. The opening is 2x2 inch, an inch or so rocks break to dust pretty well within it... they have bigger laboratory crushers available, like 6x4 would be sufficient for what I would want, but too big to put in the basement. This lil crusher will be ideal for crushing small rock & brusselsprout size lumps into finer material to go through the conveyer system to outside. Bigger stuff will just have to be trked out separately on occasion when the weather is agreeable.



Got a big pile of wet lumps drying out under the west porch, things to do during the winter, then start digging again to fill 'er back up.



Brought the JD850 upstairs a week ago, the pump needs some attn.. whether it's the bearing on the pump gone out again or the cog belt needs replacing or both.... I've got nowhere to tear this machine down right now, the workroom in my house is too full of everything! no benchtop space, and no where to put that stuff to make room... it seems. I'm looking forward to get that shop done and back to building, rebuilding, improving models once again soon.




Anyways, it's finally a bit breezy this afternoon, the high humidity of the last couple wks seems to have finally subsided, gonna try another moisture test on my hard wht right now to see if it's ready yet, then maybe combine through wkend by myself... I told the hiredhand last Wed to not come back till Monday and maybe then we can finally get harvest underway.

Thanx for your interest, talk to ya in a month or so.

[woodhog]

Looks like you have been pretty busy Hope harvest goes well some people down here are shelling corn and in 2-3 weeks most everyone will be under way. hope yeilds are high price is high and fuel and lobor low

[Hofabooz]

Hi Joe

Hope the harvest runs to plan and all is well.
Look forward to some update from the new shop when all the 1:1 work is out of the way.

Regards

Mark

[Lil Giants]

Brrrr it's cold outside, a high of -3 and I've already have my 'change of seasons cold' good reason to stay inside & get busy with the hobby again.

Last week I fixed my JD850, DESTROYED the cog belt, worn smooth & the motor pulley too, the bottom pulley has some serious wear as well. Good to have spare parts on hand, it's running order again & back in the quarry. Used the 850 a few hrs over the wkend, 1st time since mid Aug, gotta be a new record for me - no rc for 2,5 months!







The loader needed a little attn., the bolts that hold the cyl mount fell out, relatively quick simple repair... just the kind that I like!



And here's one of about of six conveyers nearly completed, I got this far just before harvest. I have the rollers turned for two more much longer conveyers. This one is just over 12inches, it'll be the pit conveyer. I sourced the belt from a front garden tractor tube, width of cut is 65mm.

[Acadieman]

Your getting the most out of our machines.
What will power the conveyor belt?

[JAMMER]

Joe you can definitely find all the weak spot even if it takes a while. What is the shop situation is it finished yet? Cold, it was 22 degrees here the other day but almost 60 today and then going down again good phenomena weather snow not far away. Ed

[modelman]

Hi Joe-looks like you have a very nice workshop almost completed. You seem to have a lot going on right now but I was wondering if we were going to see the D-9 at work anytime soon.

[Azonic]

Nice conveyor belt!

****, that upper pulley was worn out for real!

[Lil Giants]

People complain how expensive the RC heavy plant is to have, the amount of enjoyment I get from mine makes them not expensive at all.

Probably be a 15rpm spur gear motor, bevel gear coupling.

Not really a weak point Ed, that's what a couple 100hrs @ 30 bar digging hard ground does to belts & pulleys.

Yes I did have a lot of irons in the fire this summer and not much time or ambition for the hobby Tom, I didn't even haul not one load of dirt outside. I have to redo all the hyd plumbing & electronics within the dozer... such a large model, I didn't want to do it in the house. I'm looking forward to my new workshop to tackle such projects.

Sure was Kalle

[FlyingBeagle]

Glad you are back at it, I know there are lot of lurkers like myself that have been going through basement withdrawals. I hope the harvest was a fruitful one for you. I cant wait to see what you have in store for us with the conveyor and the new workshop. It looks like the new shop is close enough to the house that a nice little tunnel could be built to connect the two. May only take a couple of years of excavating to get it done.

[Lil Giants]

Harvest this yr was a mixed bag of nuts, income will be lower b/c of lower prices & lower quality, but still in the Black. By the end of next week I'll have half of it off the farm already, which is huge improvement over last yr.

Originally Posted by FlyingBeagle

It looks like the new shop is close enough to the house that a nice little tunnel could be built to connect the two. May only take a couple of years of excavating to get it done.

Way ahead of you there! ...in thought anyway, I've been eyeballing that idea since June. Right behind the water heater, make a right turn 10* grade up to the NE corner of the shed... probably call Goodon so I can get matching materials. That'd be a good job for the D9 & pan to dig out.

[grumpygrady]

Way ahead of you there! ...in thought anyway, I've been eyeballing that idea since June. Right behind the water heater, make a right turn 10* grade up to the NE corner of the shed... probably call Goodon so I can get matching materials. That'd be a good job for the D9 & pan to dig out. [/QUOTE]

so can we look to see a scale tunnel boring machine at work soon?
you will need two so they can work from each end and will need a way station halfway so you can branch off at a later date and go out to another building
lets see it could be called Lil Giants Big Dig sort of like Bostons big dig lol

[Lil Giants]

On the Carscoop site that featured my basement story, somebody mentioned tunnel driller in the comments...

Not
Whoa - that is freakin awesome.... Do they make RC tunnel drillers?

<Reply
•
Skipdallas > Not
• 2 years ago △ ▽
There is a project for you!! But it would just drill itself out of sight very quickly! :-)

I lmao when I read that.

I was thinking I'd tunnel under the house cement foundation & keep a 10* grade to get back to ground level so I could drive the equipment out under it's own power, it's all getting so freaking heavy nowadays to pack up the narrow stairwell. Add a lean-to structure to the east side of shed. The added interior space would also be a good spot to add a hotub.

[mog]

looking good Joe glad to see that you got some of your fleet up and running. i was tolde that mc mastercar will deal with Canadian and ship to Canada if you need new drive line pulles and pelts there would be a great place to shop

[tracksntreadslou]

Originally Posted by mog

looking good Joe glad to see that you got some of your fleet up and running. i was tolde that mc mastercar will deal with Canadian and ship to Canada if you need new drive line pulles and pelts there would be a great place to shop

Thats great news Mog..About time Some things I would like toget from them ..wonder what their Taps are like?

Hey Joe hows that crusher working ..have you used it much ?..would like to see some video of it working if you have some

[Lil Giants]

Shawn mentioned last Spring that was he able to buy directly from McMaster, they sure do have a lot of nifty goodies for our hobby which will be a snap to get now. I spoke to them once upon a time ago and their response was b/c of homeland security issues... go figure?

I've crushed about a 5ga pail full of rocks with it Lou, but with careful hand selection feeding them in b/c of it's small opening (less than 1,5inch material), and some rocks just wouldn't break. Keeping the jaw box full worked infinitely better than one rock at a time.

[doodlebug]

Originally Posted by Lil Giants

Shawn mentioned last Spring that was he able to buy directly from McMaster, they sure do have a lot of nifty goodies for our hobby which will be a snap to get now. I spoke to them once upon a time ago and their response was b/c of homeland security issues... go figure?

I've crushed about a 5ga pail full of rocks with it Lou, but with careful hand selection feeding them in b/c of it's small opening (less than 1,5inch material), and some rocks just wouldn't break. Keeping the jaw box full worked infinitely better than one rock at a time.

Hey Joe, have you thought about building a feeder bin/conveyor to feed the crusher with???? http://www.rocksystems.com/machinery...loader-hoppers
Cheer's, Neil.

[jack van]

hi joe new to forum but i am a big admirer of your work and how smooth at operating your machines i was thinking if you would get a couple of cheap security cameras and set em up out side hehe you could maybe do dump runs even in winter or atleast not have to ever leave the basement lol.i had a security kit that had 4 cameras for it and it would connect to the computer and be 4 views on 1 mon you might even get to do dump runs in winter

[Lil Giants]

Thank you Jack, I do like play most of all, never get bored with that aspect! Walking up/down the stairs as the trks haul outside is a good form of exercise to keep my winter fat to a minimum.

Here you go Lou, a quik vid of my Geneq jaw crusher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qLCtBQQx-I

And another vid of the activity I'm currently working at, crushing lumps from last winter/summer's floor dig. And towards the end of the vid, making use of the crushed stone for pot hole repairs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LADs-ig47ZI

[FullMetalFab]

Originally Posted by Lil Giants

Thank you Jack, I do like play most of all, never get bored with that aspect! Walking up/down the stairs as the trks haul outside is a good form of exercise to keep my winter fat to a minimum.

Here you go Lou, a quik vid of my Geneq jaw crusher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qLCtBQQx-I

And another vid of the activity I'm currently working at, crushing lumps from last winter/summer's floor dig. And towards the end of the vid, making use of the crushed stone for pot hole repairs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LADs-ig47ZI

You should find a way to run the rocks through the crusher on a conveyor, or at lest so you can fill it with the wheel loader and the conveyor running to a hopper.

Awesome videos by the way i'm glad i found your youtube Chanel when you where articled on Hack A Day.