Mid-Scale Five-Axle Mobile Crane

[jwarner]

I've been floating around EB for a while, so it's about time I share my first Technic MOC:

Mid-Scale 5-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

Between wrapping up school and work, I've spent a lot longer on this project than I had anticipated, but I'm very pleased with the result. The finished model is around 950 peices, and with full manual functions:

• Four-axle steering
• One stage outriggers
• Boom extension
• Boom raising/lowering
• Superstructure rotation
• Cable extension/retraction
• Opening doors

With the exception of the doors and superstructure rotation (which are operated simply by hand), all functions are controlled using 12T gears at the rear of the model. I made consolidating the controls a top priority since a lot of manual MOCs have control knobs all over the place. The lower superstructure gear operates both the boom extension and the raising/lowering, and there's a switch on top of the superstructure to switch between the two.

Mid-Scale 5-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

Mid-Scale 5-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

Mid-Scale 5-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

Mid-Scale 5-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

Mid-Scale 5-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

The crane measures 14" long (36 cm) with the boom down, and the boom itself can be raised to almost 18" (45 cm).

Let me know your thoughts!

[Maaboo the Witch]

This is great! Looks like a Terex-Demag AC 395.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Maaboo35

[1gor]

It looks nice, but topic should be small-scale five axle...

[andythenorth]

Really nice.  Small, but looks hench 

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

Very nice! Awesome amount of functions given the space + scale.

[jorgeopesi]

Lego should do things like that I would buy it no doubt.

[Jeroen Ottens]

Great little model. Any chance of some shots or renders of the internals?

[Leif]

Such a beauty! good ol’ technic at its best! upvote!

[Andy D]

Very, very nice! Many functions in a small size.

Andy D

[Carsten Svendsen]

This is a very nice MOC, I like the size of it ?

[dannydos]

I love it!

[jwarner]

Thank you all for the kind words!

7 hours ago, Jeroen Ottens said:

Great little model. Any chance of some shots or renders of the internals?

I'll see what I can put together in the morning, it's late here in the States. 

[Jurss]

8 hours ago, I_Igor said:

but topic should be small-scale five axle...

I like what You did in this scale.

You are missing one important picture - bottom view.

[arijitdas]

This is an absolutely fantastic model. Looking forward to see the video of all the functions in operation. Also, achieving this with only 950 parts is really impressive.

[sirslayer]

a good use of colors and it looks spot on for the scale.. great job!!!  

[Johnny1360]

6 hours ago, Jurss said:

I like what You did in this scale.

You are missing one important picture - bottom view.

Yes bottom view please, I would be interested in seeing your steering solution. 

Turned out pretty good for a small crane. I often build in this scale, just for something quick to do, so I am glad to see this and may copy it, with due credit given of course. 

I guess it's simplicity is a bit deceptive with 950 pieces. Good job. 

Edited June 22, 2018 by Johnny1360
Spelling

[jwarner]

11 hours ago, Jurss said:

You are missing one important picture - bottom view.

Ah yes, the coveted bottom view. How could I forget? Here it is:

Mid-Scale Five-Axle Mobile Crane MOC. by jwarner1718, on Flickr

The two inner steered axles use two of these on each side in order to vary the steering angle while still giving me a way to attach a wheel. It works better than I would have first thought. I also have a few renders of the guts:

Mid-Scale Mobile Crane MOC by jwarner1718, on Flickr

• Blue is outriggers
• Green is steering

Nothing special in the chassis, both the steering and the outriggers are run on single axles, and the outriggers just use worm gears to keep from collapsing.

Mid-Scale Five-Axle Mobile Crane MOC by jwarner1718, on Flickr

• Pink is the cable
• Yellow is the input for boom functions
• Azure is boom raising (it controls the LA)
• Lime is boom extension

The superstructure was a little more complicated since I needed three functions with really only room for two control knobs. the boom mechanism is based off of this design by Erik Leppen, though I modified it with 3x11x2 panels for aesthetics. the boom extension is also really slow right now since I had few ways to gear it up; most of the gears used can't be swapped out for anything else due to size constraints. However, as soon as I can get my hands on one of the new 20t clutch gears I can bump the ratio from 1:1 to 5:3, which should make it considerably more bearable to work with.

Let me know your thoughts!

[jorgeopesi]

It is even more beautiful now.

[Pvdb]

Great little crane with loads of functions.  I like it a lot.  

[Johnny1360]

I like the way you did the one gear operates both functions thing, way to not take the easy way out. Steering seems to work pretty good as well, thanks for the belly shot. 

[DugaldIC]

This is an awesome little crane. Everything looks great, functional and to scale.  well done! 

[Victor Imaginator]

Wow! Beautiful small model with a lot of functions. Why TLG doesn't make such jewels?

[blueShinyApple]

I had to sign in for the first time in five years to tell you I'm loving your model! Great use of space :)

[jwarner]

17 hours ago, blueShinyApple said:

I had to sign in for the first time in five years to tell you I'm loving your model! Great use of space :)

Thank you! Glad I could be the one to bring you back Thank you everybody for the kind words!

[schraubedrin]

I love small scale models and this is one of the best i've ever seen!

Do you have a complete lxf? I would love to build this