Nylint michigan crane conversion, hopefully

[Rvjimd]

I like the 645MG, they convert to 360 rotation really well. Some Futaba servos have the pot on the circuit board and are not to friendly for the conversion.

Take some good pics of the chassis conversion, I still have not done mine.

Jim

[frizzen]

I figured out my trucks steering throw being off had to do with a couple bent linkages, and straightening up the steering shaft got a whole lot more throw now. Also straightened up the bumper, took the lid off the cab.

Do you guys think it'd look better keeping the stock steering wheel that turns with wheels, or delete that in favor of easier setup and more scale look?

Yeah you're probably right on the servos, i just didn't know if any of the other cable machine operators had suggestions. If they convert easy and have a wide deadband, it beats cheap and creepy.

[frizzen]

Random stuff.
http://ccmodels.com/shop/michigan-t-24-conversion-kit/ was available 2009 for $325. Looks like it had crawler tracks, dragline bucket, main boom extension, secondary boom, grapple claw, a bent boom, extra top rigging, third crank drum... in brass, based off michigan factory info. And to be helpful it's! not available, and the pictures are ms-paint.

Truckmaker was kind enough to tell me his trucks aftermarket boom extension was 15" OAL, pin holes 14_3/4 centers. He also shared some detail pics.

It looks like they designated t-24 for truck mounted, c-24 for crawler. And i'm not having much luck learning about the cranes, or the michigan company, or clark who bought them, but there's some goofy looking bird that shows up in every search.

[frizzen]

Making cable drums is really slow with a redneck lathe setup, so i broke it more instead.





The cab roof is 4 spotwelds, 2 inboard side, 2 outboard. The steering support has 3 spotwelds and a joggle through a slot in floor. Steering wheel is brazed onto a splined shaft, if you want to keep steering shaft intact the cab would have to come off frame.

[frizzen]

I looked at a bunch of pictures, and made some guesses, and started to cobble up a dragline bucket out of stuff i had on hand so I could play around with the mechanics of it. Brass sheet thats too thin, hollow tube, and some electronics solder...

BUT I think it's acting about like it should and once the rigging is done in chain i might be onto something. (I started before i saw the patent drawings to copy, but it should work on soft loose stuff.)



Prototypes aren't pretty.



Also started setting up for hoist and crowd drum servo mounts, and working toward getting steering servo in.

[frizzen]

next up, i took some 0.063" aluminum 2024 t3, and graph paper. I think this is a good start on side panels for a boom extension. That's the longest i could fit on 8.5x11 paper, i can post up template if anyone wants. Planning to make an even longer mid-boom just because i've got some longer aluminum. This one will put my boom reach at 32" once complete.



Then some brass stock turned into a windshield wiper and side mirror.

I really should try to get back to making drums soon so i can get back to servo mounts...

[frizzen]

I've been looking at servo accessories, trying to to come up with the easy way to do this instead of needing a lathe.

On servocity I've stumbled across 'servo shaft hubs' which are a splined 0.5" shaft and one end of the winch drum. Or they have 'servo shafts' that are just a shaft in 0.5 or 0.375 with the spline drive. I can probably fab up the other side plate, tap/die, and with a little locktite.

Hs645 uses their 'C1' 24t splines and i can find 32pitch and 48pitch gears to fit it made of Acetyl and brass. But i haven't figured out what the slew gear donor should be to make it all work.. i also learned the vex gears are 24 pitch.