[TC22] Bucket Wheel Excavator [Free instructions]

[artemisovsky]

Hello everyone!
First of all I would like to say that although I am a new user, I have been visiting this forum for some time and some of you may know me from my activity on Rebrickable. This contest has finally motivated me to register here and to make BWE that I have been thinking about for a some time.
Planned dimensions in studs WxHxL 15x20x33=9.900
Planned main functions:
- rotaring bucket synchronized with the belt for excavated material
- gearbox for switching drive from tracks to manual
- rotaring and lifting main arm with bucket
Some photos showing gearbox, bucket idea and current progress:

[The01]

Looks like a nice start, I guess it won't be easy in this scale. Do you have the 42055 BWE?

 

[GerritvdG]

Really cool entry, welcome on this forum. 

Your introduction reminds me of my first post last year: my entry for the TC20 contest 

[artemisovsky]

1 hour ago, The01 said:

Looks like a nice start, I guess it won't be easy in this scale. Do you have the 42055 BWE?

 

Thanks. Unfortunately I don't have it in my collection and now buing it is beyond my budget. But I still hope for a successor with control+..

32 minutes ago, GerritvdG said:

Really cool entry, welcome on this forum. 

Your introduction reminds me of my first post last year: my entry for the TC20 contest 

Thank you. I remember that contest and for me your forklift was in the top5. I even built it.

[Thirdwigg]

Welcome to Eurobricks, and what a fun way to start your time here. I like the playful look you have here. It will be fun to watch how you take such a large machine and shrink it into the little bounding box. The way your created the bucket wheel is perfect.

I look forward to your progress.

[Jurss]

This is something interesting, really unexpected.

[artemisovsky]

1 hour ago, Jurss said:

This is something interesting, really unexpected. 

Thanks.

2 hours ago, Thirdwigg said:

Welcome to Eurobricks, and what a fun way to start your time here. I like the playful look you have here. It will be fun to watch how you take such a large machine and shrink it into the little bounding box. The way your created the bucket wheel is perfect.

I look forward to your progress.

Thank you! The biggest challenge will be keep proportions. I did 2 versions with different size tread sprocket wheels and I don't know which is worse. First I will take care of the drive system to the bucket wheel and then I'll try to change treads to smaller ones. Below 2 bad version tracks:

[heyitsdisty]

Looks really nice so far! 

I'd maybe suggest replacing the treads with these, which will probably fit the scale better? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3873&name=Technic, Link Tread&category=[Technic, Link]#T=C

[Akassin]

this is probably the most unexpected type of construction machine for this small scale, but it is a very ingenious solution! It will be interesting to see the result!

[artemisovsky]

22 hours ago, heyitsdisty said:

Looks really nice so far! 

I'd maybe suggest replacing the treads with these, which will probably fit the scale better? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3873&name=Technic, Link Tread&category=[Technic, Link]#T=C

Thank you. Next step is try to change the tracks to the smaller ones you have indicated.

22 hours ago, Akassin said:

this is probably the most unexpected type of construction machine for this small scale, but it is a very ingenious solution! It will be interesting to see the result! 

Thanks. For this moc I plan making and sharing free instructions, so anyone interested will be able to bulid it.

Current progress - main drive system works without stucks and more smooth than gearbox in my 42110. Additionally this solution allows free rotation of turret and lifting the arm.

[Paul B Technic]

You have some really nice progress with this.

Edited April 18, 2022 by TangersTechnic

[artemisovsky]

On 4/18/2022 at 7:22 AM, TangersTechnic said:

You have some really nice progress with this.

Thanks.

Below is idea for a transporting belt:

First attempts to connection it for arm showed me that transferring items from wheel bucket to belt will be a big challenge. Smaller tracks reduced model dimensions, currently WxHxL 13x20x32=8.320. BWE is starting to look nice:

[artemisovsky]

Some progress has been made. 3rd version of the reduced chassis looks like below. Tracks now work without any friction and in this element it is the almost final version.


There was an idea for the excavator to work with the Lego balls like GBC. To make it possible, bucket wheel has been slightly modified.


When arm is picked up to horizontal position balls easily are moved to transporting belt with help of small slope element. Unfortunately it does not work very well when the arm is lowered.

Actuators have been moved to the rear to avoid collision with moving transporting belt.


Digital model is in progress. After that, I will try to show clear view of main mechanisms using renders from Studio.

Edited April 26, 2022 by artemisovsky

[artemisovsky]

Small update, the model is already digitalized into Studio. Below renders showing main mechanics:



This is render with actual look of my BWE, operator's cabin and folding ladder have been added. Also bucket has been a bit increased:

 

[RiGi]

Awesome work, I absolutely love this model!

[jorgeopesi]

A smaller cabin would make the MOC looks bigger and even more impressive that already it is.

[artemisovsky]

18 hours ago, RiGi said:

Awesome work, I absolutely love this model!

Thank you, such words really mean a lot to me.

17 hours ago, jorgeopesi said:

A smaller cabin would make the MOC looks bigger and even more impressive that already it is.

Thanks for good suggestion. I made smaller ladder and cab using some system elements. Also managed to put opening cabin door with 1x2 studs clearance

Edited May 2, 2022 by artemisovsky

[Nazgarot]

I would try swaping the steps in the ladder for black pins, and fill every hole. That way it seems to have more steps. Might also consider lowering it by using 6 L half beams. As is it seems very high off the ground compared to the cabin.

Very cool model! I really love how you managed to take one of the biggest Technic sets ever and make it almost microscale, while maintaining most of the functionality! 

_ED_

[artemisovsky]

15 hours ago, Nazgarot said:

I would try swaping the steps in the ladder for black pins, and fill every hole...

Thank you for kind words and great idea for the ladder. It looks much better now. I also changed cabin to more technical one, but I am disturbed by small gaps between connectors and I really have no idea how to solve it.

[jorgeopesi]

I am thinking more on a transclear tile1x1 as a cabin but It is good.

[Stuartn]

16 hours ago, artemisovsky said:

Thank you for kind words and great idea for the ladder. It looks much better now. I also changed cabin to more technical one, but I am disturbed by small gaps between connectors and I really have no idea how to solve it.
 

I like the cabin as is, I didn't even notice the gap until it was mentioned and since the pin is the same colour anyway its not easily noticeable. Great model overall.

[mdemerchant]

I think the cab looks fine as well.  I kind of agree with @jorgeopesi that it could be much smaller to be more in scale with the machine but then the ladder needs to be way smaller as well and you can't realistically make either smaller with technic parts.  Regarding the gap, it looks to me like the back wall of the cab is not attached to the structure so if you build with real bricks you can have no gap and just end up with the cab wall and roof not quite perfectly vertical/horizontal.  I don't think it will be very noticeable.  But neither is the gap.

Overall I think this is a really nice entry.  Everybody is making something "small" but you've been really ambitious to make something at an extremely small scale and it's worked really well.

[nahpets]

This is awesome! I hope you can share the file for instructions would love to build 

[artemisovsky]

@jorgeopesi @Stuartn @mdemerchant thanks very much for your feedbacks. I decided to try reduce this cab even more like below render, I don't know which version to choose yet. It is possible that another solution comes to my mind.

7 hours ago, mdemerchant said:

Overall I think this is a really nice entry.  Everybody is making something "small" but you've been really ambitious to make something at an extremely small scale and it's worked really well.

Initially, I wanted make BWE with ropes but the limit of 10,000 cubic studs limited me a bit. Even good because I do not know if I would have finished more complicated model. Below are my first diagrams with stud dimensions.

1 hour ago, nahpets said:

This is awesome! I hope you can share the file for instructions would love to build 

I'm going to share free pdf instructions before the end of contest so anyone interested will be able to build it. A large number of small tracks and new technic beams 2x3 L-shape are required.

[Philtech]

That's a great model, and so small! I would say the cabin in the left looks best.