[TC10] Snow Groomer

[Wiseman_2]

Hi everyone, I figured I'd have a bash at this contest, so here's my entry:

I decided to go with a Snow Groomer for this. It has six pneumatically powered functions, along with manually driven tracks:

1. Raising and lowering of the front blade
2. Tilting left and right of the front blade
3. Adjust the front blade's wings
4. Raising and lowering of the front end of the vehicle's undercarriage
5. Raising and lowering of the rear tilling blade
6. Raising and lowering of the tilling blade's smoothing plates and rollers

All controls for these functions are in the rear bed. I opted for a manual pump rather than a motorized one, as the contest is, after all, pneumatically focused.

All photos are on my Flickr, but I'm going to post them all here anyway as I doubt everybody will see them there.

With front and rear blades lowered:

With the front blade angled and the wings adjusted, and close in detail:

With the front end of the undercarriage raised:

And finally the detail of the rear blade:

 

I'm currently in the process of putting together the video for this, hopefully should be ready in time for the deadline 

[SaGo]

 Great!!

Raising and lowering of the tilling blade's smoothing plates and rollers

Is this function pneumatic? If yes then could you post a picture of the mechanism... What are those knob gears for then ?

[Wiseman_2]

On 21/10/2016 at 1:18 PM, SaGo said:

 Great!!

Raising and lowering of the tilling blade's smoothing plates and rollers

Is this function pneumatic? If yes then could you post a picture of the mechanism... What are those knob gears for then ?

I don't have a photo of that I can post right now, but you'll hopefully be able to see how it works in the video when it's done. Until then I'll try explain it, you can see it in the photos of the rear blade itself. The pneumatic cylinder's head is connected by a pair of 3l thin lift arms to an axle which runs the length of the blade, with the knob gears at either end. As the cylinder pushes the rollers down, it rotates this axle, in turn lowering the wings. It's set up such that the rollers and the wings touch the ground at the same time, using a single cylinder.

[KirTech LAB]

Very nice model!

[SaGo]

5 hours ago, Wiseman_2 said:

I don't have a photo of that I can post right now, but you'll hopefully be able to see how it works in the video when it's done. Until then I'll try explain it, you can see it in the photos of the rear blade itself. The pneumatic cylinder's head is connected by a pair of 3l thin lift arms to an axle which runs the length of the blade, with the knob gears at either end. As the cylinder pushes the rollers down, it rotates this axle, in turn lowering the wings. It's set up such that the rollers and the wings touch the ground at the same time, using a single cylinder.

OK I get it ! Didn't think of that before. I like the idea that everything happens with the same cylinder.

[lcvisser]

Awesome!  These machines are great and yours is a great rendition. Very well done! 

The only thing I can comment is maybe the pump: it's a bit awkward in its current location, in my opinion; perhaps you could camouflage it as an exhaust or something?

[Wiseman_2]

On 10/24/2016 at 7:46 AM, Ludo Visser said:

Awesome!  These machines are great and yours is a great rendition. Very well done! 

The only thing I can comment is maybe the pump: it's a bit awkward in its current location, in my opinion; perhaps you could camouflage it as an exhaust or something?

Initially, the pump was actually located horizontally in the base of the undercarriage, and was operated with a rocking mechanism that you pushed down on in the bed of the vehicle, but the rate at which it pumped air into the system was just too slow. It also caused the undercarriage to flex badly, as it interfered with all the pneumatic tubing in the switch area. I also tried having it as an exhaust, as you suggested, but bear in mind one of the functions is the raising of the undercarriage: I would be pushing down on the vehicle as it was trying to raise up. It was rather counter intuitive. I like it in its current location, to be totally honest; it's easy to access, and doesn't affect the vehicle itself when it's in use, regardless of the function being used  

I've also finished putting together the video. I've been a bit pressed for time all through building this so I haven't found time to reshoot this video (lighting is a bit of an issue), but I might get lucky with that this weekend. Just in case, here's the preliminary video which in any case shows all the functions, and also the cheap improvised backdrop I used for my photos (the tripod I mounted the camera on was itself built from Lego). 

 

[lcvisser]

I didn't think of the raising of the undercarriage. It would indeed be inconvenient to push on what you're trying to raise. Don't get me wrong though. also now it looks great! You got my vote at least 

Edited October 27, 2016 by Ludo Visser