LilGiantsConstrCo

[Lil Giants]

Thanx Calum Maybe next month have a vid of the lil screener, vibra screening large lumps & rocks right now.



If you noticed in the last video @9.10, the painted cab ADT struggled to get out of the hole? Reason being, all the weight on the middle axle and much less weight on front & rear axles allowing them to spin easily, stealing all the power leaving the middle axle with no power.

This B50 has a 2x25 Sabertooth in it b/c it was pulling a pup & I wanted separate power between the two axle groups for turning... now I've wired the middle axle to the 2nd motor driver and the front & rear axles on the 1st motor driver. The DIP switch on Sabertooth left in Independant Drive, radio mixed the two Sabertooth channels... problem solved! It'll likely walk up the long dirt ramp out of the basement better than it ever did before too.

[Lil Giants]

I put new teeth on my digging bucket June 2015, I was noticing the other day how much they've worn... same narrow teeth as the 450 bucket... about 4mm shorter now.





Sharpened them up with the side grinder this morning



Getting the south side soaked up to chimney this week.



North side has been drying the last 10 days, now I can drive on the surface & not gum up my tracks with muddy clay.



Ripped a straight edge.



Start the next cut trying to keep a level bench.





Getting some screening done.



Do some crushing next month, if the lumps are dry enough that it doesn't clog up my crusher plates.




Did some hauling a few days ago, my mod with re-powering the B50 axles didn't work as well as I had hoped, get a lot of weight on the center axle & it still doesn't have enough umf!! to get over the hump. A thought just come to me now... center axle is Slave on the mix, so maybe if I jack it to 120% so center axle pushes harder ... and I need to re-glue my tires to rims with that black tar crap again , I can see them slipping... yucky stuff to mess with.

[skeeter]

Bummer to hear the re-power option wasn't as effective as you'd hoped it'd be.

[Lil Giants]

Been playing with the settings again today & still not getting the even pulling power from the brushed motors anything like the brushless... keep tinkering.

Finished up the north cut yesterday



This'll be the last pass in the NE to do, next month maybe



Today I worked at cleaning up this big mess under the stairs





These rocks to go to the crusher



These rocks go to the pile in the lean-to, to be hauled away in my Ranger this summer.



Used the lowboy too to cart out these cement blocks & wood



Load too heavy for 8wd, had to give it a push by hand some of the way



This load of rock was too heavy for the brushed motors, had to give it a helping hand up the dirt ramp too, but the trk backed up the steep crusher ramp on its own... making me wonder if I reverse the motor leads on the Sabertooth, reverse direction in radio programming, maybe I'll have more power going forward then ...the Sabertooth is at the back of the cab below the steering cyls, I'd have to pull all the guts out of the trk to get to it.



Brushed trk got demoted to garbage hauler



Brushless trk hauled the next 6 loads of rock out to the crusher



7 trk loads



Used the 450 bucket to hand bomb a sample into the mini crusher... an rc activity for the JD450 next week.









Gonna try & break these cement blocks with the Premacon jackhammer using the newer JD850, it has a 4th valve in it, just need to make a quick coupler plate to mount it.



The 1st load of rock, I started to dump half the load into crusher & jammed it about 10 seconds, had to dig all the rocks out to get crusher moving again... dropped the rocks in by hand a few at a time after that. Made a couple vids while I was at it.

https://youtu.be/OlP8omrQM-0

This quick vid, one really hard rock that I was playing catch with... and the last rock jammed & I stopped the vid. After I got the rock out, I dropped in again & it broke right away...

https://youtu.be/ZEEavvckpcw

[Lil Giants]

Very generous of you Bo, thank you!

The design is simple & looks great! ...but a slight punctuation error

I need to check how the orange excavator appears on a construction yellow background, white might be better... then resubmit the order.



2nd pass through the mini crusher is making some sweet "scale" road gravel...

[Bo Wallen]

Any test result of the logos? You don't have to use them, was just an idea while I made my logos from a response from you, where you could think to do some logos.

[Cooper]

nice pictures joe, temps too cold for me to be doing any material moving, funny you are farther north and have an abundant of work and able to enjoy it!! well more jealous really I wouldn't say you are having problems, just pushing the equipment for more production! keep digging!!!!! you have a good set up and processing flow, something to reference in the quarry site engineering books ive been looking at a lot of equipment pictures (mostly large quarry stuff) amazing how much planning goes into quarry design, road grades, road base material, distance to transport, ect,, your roads and grade angles even apply to our scale stuff, pretty cool in my opinion. id say you are getting the most in aspect to haulage,,, definitely when you load up the trucks ! don't dig too fast or before too long ill see you digging out for an underground hockey arena!! lol!

[Lil Giants]

No Bo, I haven't done any test prints yet... I need to paint a test piece to put a sticker on it, maybe later in the week.

You know what's funny Cooper... ppl say to me that since I sold my cows a few yrs ago, why don't I go south for the winter, somewhere warm... I tell them I built a new shop a few yrs ago, that's my winter vacation area... they tilt their head & look at me oddly... they don't get it

...yes, running out of work is soon going to be a problem, next phase in the planning steps... grain prices need to double from where they're at today to make it happen though... I hope to set it in motion in 2020... then I should be good for 5+ yrs before I need to dream up something else.

[Lil Giants]

I spent the weekend carving out the 2nd pass on SE corner



Some problems with the 850 that have been increasing over the last couple weeks... too much freeplay in the swing, erratic power in the tracks & a hydraulic leak... stripped it to a lot pieces yesterday & made a shopping list sent to Frank this morning.

Need a new slip ring












New wiring... green oxidizing on the wires & they're pretty stiff too. Checked resistance, 1 to 2 ohms.







Set screws on pinion gear came loose, but also a lot of side play in the planetary shaft again... gonna try using a 6x15 ball bearing in place of the hard bearing.



But before I take that apart I try to figure out the hyd leak... some where in the front to do with the boom cylinders... either a bad seal on a fitting or a pin hole in one of the lines or ? ...what a greasy mess in a tight area to clean, lots of electrical cleaner, pressurized air & towels








While waiting for parts from Germany, lots of other dirt work to do



big pile of dirt to haul out from SE corner



another pile from NE



I hope to have my track hoe back together in two weeks to dig this up on the east wall



...hope for the arrival of Spring in a month to get busy farming, last yr it didn't come till Arpil 20th, then a mad scramble through May... I hope it comes sooner this yr.

[sparkycuda]

Joe, your equipment looks just like the real stuff - a leak here and there with oil saturated dirt, worn parts from extreme use, and parts ordered from the manufacturer. Still amazed at the quantity of work you complete. I agree with Cooper, your crushing & screening operation would be the envy of any real company.

Keep on diggin'!

Ken

[Stuff]

after all these years you are finally going to put gravel down on the haul roads?? LOL

[Lil Giants]

Thank you Ken, I don't know what to say other than happy accident

I was thinking of using the gravel to cover the damp areas that I soak for digging, make for a dry surface to keep the tracks out of the muddy clay.

The last time I posted was the morning before I went to the city to take in a seminar from a prairie marketing analyst; about 200 ppl attending & no doubt a few sickies in the group too, I just started feeling better this wkend.

Getting some work done on the old JD850 last few days... pulled the boom off to get a better unobstructed view of the boom lines to look for a leak.





I capped the lines of the stick & bucket with Tamiya sized screws that fit snuggly to keep the oil from dripping everywhere... when I turned on the pump to pressure up boom cyls in both directions to see if a neoprene line had a pin hole, oil was coming out the other 4 lines past the screws ... that shouldn't do that I pulled servos off & tried to hand center the valves, but the oil continued to flow out both sides of each valve... internal sealing issues And the bucket valve (bottom valve in pic) has noticeably more oil atop it, I think that's where the leak is from. I'm gonna change all neoprene lines to new as well.



Fortunately I got a spare 3 valve on hand & it's a steel one too.





I cut open one of the oil filters, some grit in it



It's so nice to now have a bigger mill to work on some of this stuff... my newer JD850 that I built the summer of '16, I drilled the swing motor hole large enough so the pinion gear would pass through, for the reason if I had any trouble with swing motor/gear I don't have separate the house from the u/c to get it apart... the mini mill I had before with a much smaller vise, the work piece popped out & I broke a very expensive drill bit ...simple job to do this time around I also slotted the 3mm holes a bit further to get tighter adjustment of pinion to crown gear









Got a new boom a couple yrs ago.. the old boom, upon close inspection, the steel shows very little signs of wear, but rather it's the GFR that is completely broken away from both sides is why the hole is so much bigger. When the kit was new in 2010, the left side of pivot, the GFR was broke out showing the plate steel. I tried to make it as good as new with JB Weld...





Cleaning/repainting all the cylinders





And a quick sand/wash/paint on these two items





I hope my goody box from Germany shows up before the wkend, it's been in transit since last Tuesday... could have the old JD850 running again Sunday.

[Lil Giants]

3 WEEKS!!! ...parts haven't arrived yet ...probably sitting at customs in Calgary

...anyways, had this idea maybe my lil 450 could handle my home made screener, and it can, quite well too... I'll be getting a lot more use out of this lil 450 now.



2 loads of screened to 1 load of crushed



Shot this vid with my IPhone & loaded directly to utube, a slicker way of doing things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4wrfzLYhcI&lc

[Lil Giants]

Quick vid of my old WA500 pushing the back of the pile closer to the 450 hoe - screener.

https://youtu.be/N5Ie50gmtdw

I did a tour vid through my shop just now, it's uploading, just about 2 gigs, probably won't finish till midnight post it tomorrow

[Lil Giants]

9 or 10 video takes... 1st vid was like 40 minutes - 5gig whoaaa can't post a file that big! ...even with the last one, still made errors in what I said for different room dimensions, but got it down to 18 minutes... public speaking, not my friend.

Now using my IPhone 5s in the last couple videos vs 6yo GoPro, a better resolution & file size nearly cut in half.

https://youtu.be/w50byIqCBgg

[DADSGARAGE]

Originally Posted by Lil Giants

9 or 10 video takes... 1st vid was like 40 minutes - 5gig whoaaa can't post a file that big! ...even with the last one, still made errors in what I said for different room dimensions, but got it down to 18 minutes... public speaking, not my friend.

Now using my IPhone 5s in the last couple videos vs 6yo GoPro, a better resolution & file size nearly cut in half.

https://youtu.be/w50byIqCBgg

Nice video tour of your set up, good to see you have a few build projects on the go as well. Looking forward to seeing that D9 up and running again someday!! I always liked that dozer and the videos!!
KP

[Lil Giants]

Thanx KP, I suppose it's getting time to do the minor upgrade on that D9, as bench space is getting to be at a premium.

[Efroeh]

I really enjoyed the tour video always cool to see all your models. look forward to seeing that scraper move some earth some day. is there any other piece of equipment you want or have your eye on adding to your fleet?

[Lil Giants]

Thanx Evan. I've got a few ideas for additional trls for the B4206 to pull, might get a Carson track loader this summer or wait till next summer... haven't looked at the Euro exchange in awhile. I can't think of any thing else that strikes my fancy at the moment.

Talking with my "contractor" yesterday, who's also a farmer too, about my new house, instead of doing an RTM - a stick build is looking more economical, might start on the footings this summer & do the exterior after harvest... he's wanting to keep his guys busy when the farming is caught up... I'm thinking about putting the new house 2 feet directly in front of my old house, gives me somewhere to live while it's going up, when the new house is done, demo the old house, keep the floor to have a huge deck out back & cover the old basement. And of course that gives me a brand new basement to dig out, 50 x 32 x 7, have a short tunnel from old basement into new ... that should keep my fleet occupied for a while & present new challenges to do it entirely RC

Finally got my box of goodies from Germany today... from the tracking #, package sat in customs for 12 DAYS! Ridiculous. Going to Calgary tomorrow to visit my brother & maybe a short visit with RC Sparks on Monday morning on my return trip home. I wanted to show him my old JD850, but it's in too many pieces to get it back together that quick... it's been a long cold day already working on farm equipment.

[Efroeh]

awsome a new house is always exciting especially when it sets you up for even more rcing. the prices around here have dropped alot to try and keep there workers busy also. that's awsome your meeting with Aaron his gold mining episode are by far my favorite thing on YouTube. tell him I want to buy his 1/5scale loader I'm sick of shoveling my long *** drive way.