Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Tagline system is very ingenious! And the bucket is so well done - did you weight the lower pulley crossbar or was it heavy enough by itself? Everything works so smoothly - a credit to you craftsmanship. Keep up the good work.

Ken

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Wow! Great project! Just up my street.
My internet connection is too slow to see the video, so i have to wait!

kerst

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

the clamshell bucket is beautiful. I once built one for my Manitowoc. I really enjoyed that project.
how did you convert the servo motors to run the winches?

kerst

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Trial and error. You can see all the holes I drilled in the lever.

Thanks, td9clyde.

Thanks. I toyed with both ways a little bit but I couldn't figure out how to make it slide smoothly without pulling too hard and without being too bulky. At this scale friction plays a bigger part than it does on bigger stuff.

Thanks. I've been kicking around a 1/16 scale Bucyrus Erie 22B, but that won't happen for some time yet due to a shortage in the employment department.

Thanks, Ken. I had to weight the crossbar a little bit.

Thanks, kerst. It was kind of a trip when I got it put together and not only did it look like a real clam, it acted like a real clam. On the servos, there are two ways. I couldn't find the page I used, but this is basically the way I did it, though these aren't the best instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...or-Continuous/

Or you can do it like this: http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encod...0for%20PWM.htm
I'm not really an electronics guy and I didn't feel comfortable poking around the electronic guts. But this is probably the better way to do it because you don't have to worry about the pot changing position.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Very impressive I love the video and thanks for posting the pictures. Everyone around here sets the bar pretty high.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

So the purpose of the tag line is to aid in the opening of the clam bucket?

Nevermind the lack of "house detail", you've done yourself proud with the exquisite engineering of a super smooth working model.

"Function before beauty" has always been my motto. :D

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

No Joe, the function of the tag line is to reduce the uncontrolled swinging of the bucket.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Thanks, Lil Giants. What lorenzo said. And to keep the bucket from spinning and twisting up the hoisting lines. If you have a power operated tagline you can even pull the bucket in to dig closer or cast it farther away from the machine.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

There are power operated taglines too? Didn't know this.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

I know that for example the Manitowoc 4600 has a power tagline.
http://www.manitowoccranes.com/MCG_M...nal_cranes.asp

Kerst

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Many thx Kerst :).

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

The power tagline on a clamshell is also used for the dipper trip when the machine is set up as a shovel. It usually runs off the end of one of the drum shafts and has a clutch that is set to drag a little bit to keep a constant pull. When you want to trip the dipper or pull on the clam you fully engage the clutch.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

I haven't made any progress on the crane for a while. Last winter when I was unemployed I had piles of time and no money, and now that I have a job I have money:) and no time and energy:(. But anyway, today it was time to refill the laundry detergent box so I put the clam bucket on the job. It took about an hour and a half to get it done. I shot a little video. I have a longer one if demand is there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdm62...eature=feedwll

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Works very nice and smooth. One problem, How can I do that too? I use liquid detergent:p
How are your radio sticks set up? I sorta followed on the video.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

You might have to build one of those bags or buckets that helicopters use to drop water on fires. :D Left stick is u/d for boom, l/r for swing, right stick is u/d for the holding line, l/r for the closing line. To hoist a full bucket the right stick goes to the bottom left. If it was a dragline I would have the drag drum be u/d on the left stick and boom as l/r on the right stick.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Your set up is similar to mine and Smallhauls set up. I have to leave my boom fixed at one angle. Scott has the throttle stick for his boom angle but it's turned on with one of the switches that I found out by accident when I boomed up into the cab:o I didn't see it happening because some guy was talking to me and I wasn't watching the boom.:o
Here's mine hope the dashes don't confuse you.I don't know how to put the diagram with out the letters bunching together.:confused:

LEFT STICK--------------------------------RIGHT STICK

--- not used-----------------------------------hoist up

swing left-----swing right------------------- drag in------drag out

------- not used ---------------------------------- hoist down

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

I should have done this before:

------LEFT STICK--------------------------------RIGHT STICK

------boom down---------------------------------hoist down

swing left-----swing right-----------------bucket close---bucket open

--------boom up------------------------------------hoist up

My hoists are set up opposite of yours because on every machine I've ever run if you want something to go up you pull back and forward to go down so that's the way I think. I never thought about locking out the boom hoist but I'd love to be able to do that. I'll have to see if my radio can do that.

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

AHH, I'm used to Bucyrus-Erie machines, they all hoist up by pushing forward on the hoist lever. I've run Bay City shovels and you pull back to hoist like most others. I heard several arguments before about why B-E does things different but can't remember why they did it. It makes sense to me because the first shovel I ever operated was a 10B B-E 3/8cy shovel.
If I ever get an operator on my 9W that likes Marion controls; I'll just reverse the hoist stick. :D

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

Seems like I heard the reason for that, at least on the big draglines anyways was so you could push/pull both levers in the same direction when the bucket was moving away or towards the machine. Somewhere on Youtube a dragline operator was explaining why that was but I can't remember what or whose video it was. I figured on the small machines that's just the way the control linkages worked out. I wonder if the BEs with air controls are the same way?

Re: Barge-Mounted Clamshell Crane
 

How about one of these 9W, http://www.garbro.com/g_series.htm
Later, Neil#2 aka doodlebug.