Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
Hi smallhaul,
I have been looking at some of your different videos and wanted to know if one take up spool runs free when another is moving the arm, or do you control each one at the same time with stick movement? In other words when one is taking in cable is the other spool running out under power or free wheeling? Hope you can figure out what I am asking about. If you do this with stick movement I would like to see a video showing the stick movements and the bucket & arms at the same time. It must keep you busy.
I have an old Unit Crane that was given to me for Christmas when I was 11 years old..... I am now 76. Did you make or buy the extension boom section on your drag line version? I would like to try a drag line version but feel the boom should be longer to get proper reach.
I really enjoy all of the info in your posts and am learning a lot. The are very good at explaining folks questions and what you have done to get the finished results.
Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work!
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Hello Old Mechanic, Both cable lines are tight most of the time working together to control the stick/bucket... I have both the Unit cable shovel and the Unit dragline setup the same way. Here is a video from my old youtube channel showing the radio functions on the Unit drag line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sm6...bBWIWHuSZKOPBw
Cable machines have a hoist cable (cable that goes to the top of the boom to lift up) and a crowd cable (cable that goes towards the machine to pull in).
So to dig with a cable shovel you would lift with the hoist cable and keep the crowd line tight to raise the boom/stick/bucket assembly and then rotate over where you want to dig..then let the crowd cable out to extend the bucket out and then let hoist cable out to lay the fully extended arm down on the ground..then start pulling in on the hoist cable and as you pull in if you don't let some hoist cable out the whole assembly will rise so, depending on how deep you are digging you might have to give more slack to the hoist cable. It is hard to get used to on a model and even harder on a full scale machine. The first time i ran a full scale drag line i couldn't believe how hard it is to run and a cable shovel is slightly harder imho.
You really do need to keep both cables tight all of the time so that they don't get messed up on the drum. With the small models it is no big deal if you let the cables go slack on occasion but, on a full scale machine letting the cables go slack for even a few seconds can cause problems and or damage.
I have the info for the guy that i got my boom extensions from if you would like to pm me for it. I don't want to post his number up.
You should convert your Unit drag line to rc though it will give you hours and hours of enjoyment.