tismabrick

[MOC] [WIP] Excavator (L350F Bucket)

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The journey started when Lego released the 42030 Volvo L350F Wheel Loader. I immediately fell in love with its bucket and I knew that I have to build an Excavator with it. The first prototype arm was finished within an evening and I was quite happy with it although I quickly realized that something does not fit. It also had a mechanical flaw where the gears did not excactly match. But it worked. The real problem was that I also needed a solid base that was able to hold the arm and lift it as well. And there my real problem started since I basically had no idea how to build it. I then crawled the whole internet for some inspirations. But in the end all there was was the arm. I actually put the whole thing aside and it rest there for almost a year with no real attempt to improve it.

After this long period I thought I give it another try and I just started to build the base with no real idea how it should look like in the end.

And here's how it looked after some days.

excavatoroverview_s.jpg

I guess I just built the one and only excavator with a real harddrive for stabilization. One user here in the forum actually mentioned that it's required for mining data :-)

It contained so many flaws that I was quite frustrated:

- without the harddrive it would not turn

- directly attached XL motors are way to fast

- arm still has the not properly aligned gearing problem

In fact I nearly just smashed it. But I remembered all the nice Lego MOC excavators that I found when I was loocking for improvements.

So there must be a way to make it better I thought. Since the arm was quite ok but far from being a good one I knew that I have to start from scratch. I googled for real excavator images that I liked and finally downloaded a pdf from the Volvo's website where I found all the details I needed to start with.

excavatordimensions_s.jpg

At about that time Lego released the 42042 Crawler Crane and after some calculations I decided to take its base for the excavator.

I then recalculatet all the numbers of the real Volvo Excavator and started building my new (hopefully) improved version of it.

And here's how it currently looks:

excavator01_s.jpg

It's fully remotely controllable. No SBricks yet but those can be added without problems. More will follow...

Edited by tismabrick

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Thanks! Decorating the arm was a nightmare. Didn't know which bricks to use for it. Lots of trial an error.

Here's another imgage.

excavator04_raw_auto_flip_s.jpg

As you can see I ran out of yellow ones. Have to replace them sooner or later. The problem is that I have to detach the arm for that. Gonna hate it for sure :)

excavator03_raw_auto_flip_s.jpg

excavator02_raw_auto_s.jpg

Edited by tismabrick

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I think you should buy a Technic Figure first ;)

Will you make stickers for it?

Edited by LXF

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The bucket is not a perfect fit since it's actually not a real excavator bucket.

I once thought to make a custom one in lego. But then I made this excavator to match the bucket.

Let's see what I do with it.

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The bucket is not a perfect fit since it's actually not a real excavator bucket.

I once thought to make a custom one in lego. But then I made this excavator to match the bucket.

Let's see what I do with it.

Efferman had custom bricks at Shapeways.

And there is a topic about the 8043 excavatorbucket that never was, that person made a very nice and affordable bucket.

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Thanks for the hint but I will stick on standard Lego pieces so that at least in theory everyone interested can build it with normal bricks.

Edited by tismabrick

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Found some time to further work on the moc. Here's what changed:

  • Decided to play a bit with a different track which is a tad longer and higher
  • Reworked the bucket mechanism
  • Prototyped a smaller bucket (guees it could be wider)
  • Moved one of the motors directly on top of the front arm since the torque was to much from the main chassis even for an L-Motor.
  • Removed the gray lego peaces on the arm and replaced them with yellow ones.
  • Replaced the M-Motors with L-Motors

Still don't like the chassis. Guess it's too wide. But it has to wait until I'm done with the other track.

Here some images of it...

excavator_201610_03_edited_s.jpg

excavator_201610_01_edited_s.jpg

excavator_201610_02_edited_s.jpg

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