Completed MOC Hulett Unloader circa 1900

[knotian]

Eureka!

Went back to the drawing board ( AKA Google) and did more digging. Found patent US 713897a which is the actual bucket patented in 1902. Finally found the mechanism, which was left off the original drawing I found earlier. If you are in to interesting mechanical linkages take a look.

TYPO was 713987

Edited September 2, 2018 by knotian

[doug72]

3 hours ago, knotian said:

Eureka!

 Finally found the mechanism, which was left off the original drawing I found earlier. If you are in to interesting mechanical linkages take a look.

Could  you put a link so we view it, I would interested in understanding how it works.

Doug

Edited September 1, 2018 by Doug72

[pagicence]

Ok, I'm a bit confused right know. What does patent US713897a, which is "Ice-cream disher and mold" (picture: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US713897-0.png) has anything to do with ore unloader? To which mechanism on ore unloader are you referring? Is there another bucket on ore unloader that uses the similar mechanism like the one on the patented ice-cream scoop? As far as I saw from the videos the main bucket for unloading (the one that goes inside the ship), does not operate in the same way.

[doug72]

Yep that’s what I got  I searched  the US patent number !

Edited September 2, 2018 by Doug72

[knotian]

Doug-

It really is a fantastic piece of early engineering. Levers, links, chains, slots and rollers - the whole realm of mechanical work, all driven by one steam hydraulic cylinder. 

This is the most asinine situation I have ever been in. I have a pdf in front of me that I got from a google search Friday. Google will not find this patent anymore.

I went to USPTO search and found it again. The entire link is absurd but here it is. For further info the patent is US 713,987 dated November 18 1902. In case you have not used a patent document before; first are the drawings, then is the text starting with an identification of the part numbers, then a narrative of how things work. The last part is just about what the applicant wants to do.

Ed

Highlight and click to open.

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00713987&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%26Sect2%3DHITOFF%26d%3DPALL%26p%3D1%26u%3D%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsrchnum.htm%26r%3D1%26f%3DG%26l%3D50%26s1%3D0713987.PN.%26OS%3DPN%2F0713987%26RS%3DPN%2F0713987&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page

[doug72]

Thanks, downloaded the link and saved to my PC si I can study more fully how it works.
How on earth did somebody design that & get it working.
I wish you success in replicating the mechanism.

Maybe an idea for a GBC grab ?

Edited September 2, 2018 by Doug72

[knotian]

Doug,

He had an earlier one 606720 and I think this was in an attempt to get bigger and faster. The earlier one's patent shows why the offset bucket.

No GBC - It's going with my blast furnace complex.

Ed

[knotian]

Boy how time flies!

After many attempts I got the walking beam and bucket assembly sort of complete. I'm going to do a proper bucket and swap out the holy bricks for solid before final assembly.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/almp9vfsaa6w0wh/100_0733.JPG?dl=0

[knotian]

Cheers;

I just had to do it. This is the first day in the build that I was able to put it all somewhat together. I had to do quite a bit of building of the support structure and bracing to make it 'viable'. It's not ready for it's "It's Alive" moment, but by gar! I think it will work.

The guy in the arm does not look to happy, but we will get him convinced before too long.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntu3vwu99p6phkv/100_0735.JPG?dl=0

[jotta93]

Looks really good and really interesting. I'm looking forward to see it in action 

[knotian]

Thanksgiving eve - got something I am thankful for.

Two pictures - the first was about 1 hour after my last update. A wild elbow completely ruined my day/week.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1zu0m28oyivynk/100_0736.JPG?dl=0

But - I recovered

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ducl0y7o6twtf6y/100_0740.JPG?dl=0

The major construction is complete. I need to design the lolly car and hopper mechanisms, but this represents it's earliest configuration. A boat/barge has to be done also. The mnotors and mechanisims are in place and I will run the cables and do the s brick template next.

The rail car is from an early train book and has automatic dumping built in. The 'thing' between the tracks is a pusher engine that was used to position cars. It had an arm that could extend to either side to reach the cars. Truck is Lego design. I have decided not to power the supporting structure as I won't have room to traverse the unloader in my diorama.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ed

[knotian]

Happy New Year,

I've taken a brief break in order to write instructions and document using stud.io. While not an expert, it is growing on me and I'm beginning to really like it.

As far as the Hulett is concerned, I added the motors, gears etc necessary to operate. To get the reach and stability I got the walking arm balanced and installed.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbar4b1q1mekhe7/100_0748.JPG?dl=0

Unfortunately when the traveler gets to the right end the bridge beam rocked on it's mountings. Not good so I moved the legs further out. That cause the bridge beams to lose some of their strength and they visibly bowed. I will add plates, in tension, to the bottom to strengthen it. The walking beam is too long and will have to be shortened and re-balanced on it's mountings. So back to building.

If you are interested in my earliest attempt at using the instruction builder in stud.io the link is https://www.dropbox.com/s/l97rzpwd9htiyug/traveller 2.pdf?dl=0

I'done more and they are better, much better!

Ed

[knotian]

I have not fallen off the edge of the earth!

Doing instructions is a painful, sometime frustrating, and I'm noture worthwhile. Any way I wanted to do a set, and they are done. The link is below.

The model works, only had to modify one piece for model functional accuracy, and had to use some weights for balance, since plastic does not have a proportional weight to cast iron and steel .

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t2vglnulsh7kk33/Ore Unloader Instructions.pdf?dl=0

This has been a learning experience. For anyone who is thinking about creating instructions for their MOC you may have to change your building style due to the way the instruction software (Stud.io) handles steps. Not all bad! My advice would be to do the instructions in parallel with your build. Takes a little longer but each tool will help you with the other.

For anyone who reads this, thanks for following.

[MangaNOID]

it would be nice to see this in action if a small vid is possible as I have never seen one of these?

I'm a bit confused about the slanting office though or whatever it is that is attached to the back of the grabber?

[knotian]

Googling will be your best bet. There are several videos on-line.

The first picture shows it level. The machinery for opening and closing the bucket, raising and lowering the walking beam, and  rotating the arm is located at the rear of the walking beam. It was put there as a counterweight to the arm and ore. The machinery for moving the entire structure forward and back as well as horizontally along the rails at the base was in the triangular shaped building on top of the bridge.

[MJBarton]

Hello all. Just ran across this discussion.  I'm a Hulett fan from Cleveland, Ohio.  We used to have 4 here and I saw them in operation back in the day.  Sadly 2 were scapped, the other 2 sit disassembled waiting for someone to fund restoration and reassembly.   Since the last post in May? are there instructions, parts list .io file to share?  Thanks!

[knotian]

The link is-

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t2vglnulsh7kk33/Ore Unloader Instructions.pdf?dl=0

Those were the ones I used as plans. Wanted to get up there, but never got the chance.

I've made a couple of minor mods to the power supply by replacing the rechargeable battery with a 4DBrix power box and 9 volt adapter.

https://www.4dbrix.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=20_61&product_id=185

The research and trying to get the right scale took several trials.This does not have the lolly car because I'd have to enlarge it and change the scale to have room for it.

Enjoy.

Ed