MariusL Posted October 4, 2015 Posted October 4, 2015 Hello everybody! Many years ago I was looking for a semitrailer for my standard 12-wide technic truck tractor. It should be any kind of a mobile machine. After some trials with a fairground ride I found cable cranes in the www. A lot of ropes, winches, a cableway combined with a crane … this was perfect for me! So I started to build it, it worked and I stowed away the MOC for some years. Approximately one year ago as my boy started to play with THE bricks I saw the “new” 6-wide town trucks (I was born in the 4-wide times) and realised the increased possibilities concerning more space for functions with this vehicles. Combined with “new” parts, like little winch drums and rope pulleys, the idea to scale down my cable crane to minifig scale came up in my minds. Additionally to the crane I built some vehicles for transport, erection and supply. The design of the crane itself is far from an original existing crane but in principle similar to a parallel crane (transverse movement of the hook is done by parallel movement of both towers on rails). My main goal was to show the principle of the cable crane and to build a well playable model – even for very young crane operators ;-) Furthermore, the crane should be easy and quick to erect. This is the reason why I haven’t carried out the transverse movement of the hook. The second big difference to real systems: the rope for moving the carriage is driven by two winches, not just one – the length of the rope is much easier to adjust, and erection is faster. Enough words …Here you see the crane completely: Because my background for photos isn’t large enough, it’s erected with a very short span length. Maximum span length is 3.5m. In two different set-up’s it is possible to build up both towers on the same level or one tower approximately 1m above the second. Here you see all equipment for the crane: Transport of the drive side (so I call the tower unit with all winches – I don’t know what’s the correct English word): Transport of the tensioning side (so I call the tower unit which contains the tensioning weights for the track rope and the hauling rope): Erection of the drive side: Erection of the tensioning side: I built a silo to fill a self-emptying bucket. Erection of the silo: Filling the bucket: Emptying the bucket: More photos you can find here: Flickr Information to original cranes you find for example here Agudio.com or lcs-cablecranes.com Yes, and you see some custom parts – I’m no friend of them, I just use them when I see no other possibility. Interested what you say ;-) Regards, Mario PS: In the meantime I developed the crane further to MACS M12002 with 50% higher towers and two different set-up’s so that it can carry full payload as well uphill. Quote
Imanol BB Posted October 4, 2015 Posted October 4, 2015 Nice work Marius, again you made it, a nice combination of aesthetics and functionality, i also like how is the display of all the vehicles, just like if they were raising a crane in real life. Quote
MGCJerry Posted October 4, 2015 Posted October 4, 2015 The whole setup is great, I especially the play potential of the whole collection. I know I'd have a lot of fun with something like this. :) Quote
MariusL Posted October 6, 2015 Author Posted October 6, 2015 Thanks for your comments! I’m not so satisfied with the aesthetics, the real one’s look much more filigree – I had to make many compromises to get it well playable and fast to erect. Anyway, my boy likes to play with it and I’m satisfied (especially with the latest version) ... maybe there come up some ideas to improve it in the future ;-) Regards Mario Quote
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