1955 Michigan Crane (Nylint) Dragline

[frizzen]

Rock Crawlers in my state all gave up and only play on that useless bookface, so i haven't done any kind of comp or trail run in years. But the Truck and Construction guys actually want to play and do meets!

I wanna roll with the gangstas, but don't have the $$$$ to go hydraulic anything, and tamiya semi kits usually stack up money faster than a rock crawler. So, we're going Old School... Cable Machines.

In 2016 I started into this other aspect of RC with some rusty old pressed steel. Originally I really wanted a ''Unit Crane'' as i had already seen some sweet looking builds on that chassis, but at a Used Stuff store i found a 1965 Structo dump truck and a 1955 nylint Michigan Crane T-24. Cheap and rough enough i don't think the collectors will want to fight me for "Ruining'' them by adding too much awesome.



Ok i was excited and i already made a boom extension, and a dragline bucket before i started breaking it


Structo dumptruck + Redcat Everest 1/16 Dumps like a Truck truck truck

The real build threads for these were on Scale4x4rc and Rctruckandconstruction, but one completely went away, and the other is down right now, so this is more of an overview than full build. Plus it's on 2nd image host so some stuff will be out of sequence.

Mostly this is based around some Hitec hs645mg servos modded to continious rotation. Flysky fs-i6, a BEC, couple versions of blinky lights, and the Operator you'll meet later. I copied pretty heavy on a build by "rvjimd" who had some videos, and an overview thread.

Drill some spot welds, the engine housing lid comes off, then remove a push-nut.


Prep the chassis with a bushing and an Align Trex 500 main gear. Some math required.


Then prep the crane House with a slew servo, same pitch gear is splined to servo, the aluminum servo mount dropper plate is slotted to adjust gearmesh


A cool dude made some aluminum parts for me

3 cable drums
2 hoist pulleys
2 boom lift tip pulleys
2 boom lift house pulleys
1 crowd pulley (we also get a crowd roller later)
1 servo mounting L bracket

Sometimes a plan comes together


This is already many months in, so this looks like a good spot to take a break

[OSRC]

Love it! Keep the updates coming!

Shame about scale4x4, I haven't been over there in a while but it was very, very slow. Lots of good guys over there.

[Inspector86]

THAT is COOL! You really need to go over to the Scale Builders Guild forum and create a build thread. They LOVE this sort of build there.

https://www.scalebuildersguild.com/forum/

[frizzen]

Thanks osrc! Yeah, scale4x4 went away over a year ago.

Thanks inspector86! I've been lurking around on SBG for about a hundred posts or so, but the other steel stuff, and my forklift that i'd posted hasn't gotten very much reaction out of them. So i'm fairly quiet, with posting more of the vw van & mini truck things

What they should look like


So i left off with a rack of servos with some cable drums attached, and had another thing using some ball-end studs that matched the center holes on the cable drums. Those will bolt into the window at the front of the machine.

Mounting drums and trying to figure out how to mount all the stuff for cable reeving


Boom boom, boom boom, haw haw haw.
There's 2 boom hoist sheeves, 2 hoist rope sheeves, and a U shaped weight to help keep the Hoist lines from jumping off.


Reworked the bucket some - More weight, relocated some attach points.
Good thing that OSHA guy isn't around. Safety Third.


Around that time it had a spotweld pop, so i had to do some braizing and it went from a "used" and ''patina'' to ''hope everybody got out in time"

Teaser for new paint color

The amber beacon was the housing of a neon panel indicator from radio shack, with a 555chip circuit blinking a led as a pilot light to indicate when the crane is on.

[jebster]

Very nice work. The drum setup is clean and functional. Did you fabricate the boom arm extension yourself?

[frizzen]

Thank you!

I guess if we're going to talk much about the boom, i better deploy the outriggers first


The boom extension is just some 0.063" aluminum plates, i traced a couple of triangles off the boom sections, then some connect the dots, and made it up as i went. They were cut on a scroll saw, bolted to some 90 degree aluminum extrusion.

Later i would find out 'someone at some time' made some pressed steel spotwelded boom extension for these, but we'll probably get to that...
We're working too hard right now


If i remember right, most of the machine is using 1/8" steel rod for the added pins, with brass tube made into bushings in most places. It mostly has E-clips holding rods in place, but on the boom extension pins i'm just running some o-rings so it could be removed easier. (For transport, once i get the carrier converted)

Crowd line routing, Pivot bushing, house side boom lift pulley risers

[jebster]

Need to get those outriggers powered!

I've been trying to figure out how to add outriggers to my Tonka crane but I only have one open channel on my radio. Plus I want to keep the package small. Love the challenge!

[frizzen]

I've kicked around a few ideas to power the outriggers, but it takes atleast 1 chanrel for Out, and then a Down signal at each pad. Plus unless i build a mid-ship outrigger like the real one, the rear outrigger setup is currently working against a front swing axle.

I'm running a 6 channel radio on the crane house.
Sticks are: Slew, Hoist, and Crowd.
Switches for: Boom angle, Beacon mode.
Manual plug in at RX: headlight

Scratchy scratchy, pfffttssss

"Rustoleum Marigold'' it's too saturated of a yellow, but i'm not that type of toy collector
Who's laying down over there?

Made some risers for the boom elevation pulleys, flashy flashy


Added a worklight that matches the ones on crane transporter


But who could possibly be the correct operator to match my levels of operating Skill and Professionalism?

[frizzen]

Skilled operator


Now, go do some work


Oh! God! Why? No!

[frizzen]

Well, dang.
Guess i had better hire a mechanic to help get this thing back together...







But wait, there's more

[ferp420]

is that the same monkey they sing about in that song the monkey and the engineer

[Double vision]

I hired that same guy...he couldn't get the truck off the lift after he installed the wheels.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[frizzen]

That's a good question ferp420.
It could be. I always figured Grateful Dead was singing about Jack the Baboon? Guy is in a train accident, loses both legs. Railroad moves him to work a signal house, he buys helper monkey, teaches monkey the job. Railroad finds out and freaks, tests monkey, hire him...
https://youtu.be/EORNBYrBixs

A monkey with a Bendpak 2-post? I like your style DoubleVision!!!

I have been wondering who i can find to have a 'Man with the Yellow Hat' action figure to go with George. Originally i was thinking Ted (yellow hat) as a driver for the truck cab, but realistically i think he'd be the ground-man for crane operations. For the carrier driver, i'm thinking a more gorilla looking guy.

[frizzen]

I dunno, any of you wanna hit up some Trucking and Construction meets / events?







Then somewhere along the way it was time to celebrate when Photobutt could no longer "host any of my pictures hostage". F**k off photobucket!






There, the VW had surfboards put back on once.

[frizzen]

Anyway, the first meet i got it into some Crumb-rubber and learned how i needed to adjust the drag bucket to dig better.
Next time i realized how SLOW it loaded my dumptruck. My truck isn't large. So i built a "rehandler" bucket that's way too big.
Then once the big one got a heaped scoop, it over-balanced so the crane slips gearmesh on Slew ring, and needed more counterweight.
Uh, yeah small bucket works until i make a medium bucket. And gather the lead shot & epoxy.

Lining up the bucket over a truck doesn't seem too bad, until you're back a good ways from the crane, at an off-angle, and the truck randomly parks near you. Setting up some cones or rocks around your loading spot, and set it so boom faces you when over truck really helps keep from dropping it next to a truck. Well, it's cheaper than going FPV.

At some point it starts to lead into idea of what if i had some other "Machine that can Load the Truck", and the "Dragline" can feed material off the pile to that machine?

How about a couple more "Where's Waldo" pics at meets or being entertainment at events

[frizzen]

We need more decorations around here

Tissue box cover and a Lifting bar


That's WAY too much... perfect.

No. That is seriously way too much bucket!
Also you can see that i used a 1/10 crawler winch hook with spring loaded safety bail due to overhead sling load use.
Crowd line hook is a Bracelet 'lobster claw' bail. It's weaker to be a fuse.

Later i also add a fishing sinker right above hook on the Hoist line as a ''headache ball" to help with managing cable slack and improving visibility. Helps see to keep from running hoist off the tip sheeve, helps prevent boom racking, and the cable-suck thing when you over travel and the drum-to-tip cable weighs more than tip-to-hook cable.

Please rise



The truck has also gained a windshield, a wiper, and side mirror. So that's almost got the driver cab up to the Full Luxury of the real one!
Plus i think i forgot to mention adding non-skid tape on the mechanic walkway.

[frizzen]

Planning for another event, i decided the simple flashing light wasn't cool enough, so this has 6 leds, flashes patterns, and can be toggled through modes with the TX.



Picked up another 1955 Michigan Crane from another rc Truckmaker





Then i wanted to make a working Clamshell since i now had a Nylint clam with teeth, and a Tonka on the Unit crane







Could use more weight, probably more closing lines, and definately a mode in radio to set the Crowd line slaved to hoist

[frizzen]

Too many words. Let's swing some stuff around!

Dragline

https://youtu.be/qP5V3h7Xa18


Clamshell

https://youtu.be/g0zSWAf96Qo

[frizzen]

Just kidding! Here's too many words again!

It's not the easiest finding info about Cable machines, most of the experts weren't really into computers so there's not much online. Then "tuning the implements for the dirt" you're in seems to mostly be black-magic we just don't talk about.

The next place to add more weight on the clamshell is probably changing rivets to heavy rods where outer arms and bucket halves meet. Maybe use some lead weights on the center rod?

I ran the 2:1 Closing line on the clamshell since after conversion i had an unused tip pulley, and a boom angle pulley, and it seemed like a good-enough balance between close force, and needing to pull a LOT of line. It dead-eyes next to top pulley, below bottom pulley, above top pulley, around 'cableguide hoisting thing'

Even 3:1 closing would use up a lot more boom height. Would need a block to move pelleys closer, more pulleys, better cable guides, couple more custom parts, and probably start to feel less like an "Improved Toy".


In the clamshell video, you can kinda see the Upper cable guide gives a good hint on operating. Since i made a cable guide to route the closing line around the top pulley and back down some, the guide rotates about 90 deg depending on balance of Hoist and Crowd line tension. This helps see what the bucket is about to do, a Smart guy might make that part some kinda Hi-viz color or make the pointer more obvious.

It looks neat, and was original to toy, but using it's kinda pain in the butt.


Meanwhile running a Dragline bucket is pretty easy!

Rotate out over the planned cut in pile. Hoist up and Crowd out to get bucket out to end of boom. Then lower Hoist and pull Crowd enough so the Dump line levels bucket as it sets down. Then lower Hoist to put a little slack in the chains while pulling Crowd. Keep bumping Hoist lower to keep chains slack while pulling Crowd as bucket fills. When reaching the 'Roll' at end of cut, Hoist up so the bucket "sits back a little" against the Dump line and let Crowd out to keep bucket level while moving toward boom tip. Swing over to dump area or truck. Raise hoist as needed then let out Crowd until bucket tips and dumps. Rotate back over to planned cut, and move bucket out toward tip....


I can't really help too much for info on building or setting up either a Cable Hoe (scoops down and toward operator) or Facing Shovel (scoous up and away from operator, usually trapdoor on bucket). Maybe i'll consider doing one when i make a Unit crane?
However, i know that Mike Mulligan has a pretty good book about his Steam Shovel that should help.