doug72

A high capacity ball lift activated by and sycronised by the GBC Train car. - Mark 2 Version improved. Tested many times and proved to be very reliable without balls spilling. Scroll Down FOR DETAILS OF THE MK 2 VERSION WITH NEW IMAGES.

Flip Flop Beam problem. Logo Beam 15 Module & Lego Beam 11 Module I have an issue with these beams when used to slide along a flat surface such as a stack of 5 x 7 frames with guide rails attached. The flip flop beam keeps catching on the edges of the frames. Added extra support rollers but problem still occurring. Close examination of the beams revealed the edges of some pin holes had a slightly raised lip around the pin hole, enough to catch. Solution:- place a sheet of fine sand paper on a flat surface and gently move beam back & forth to remove the lip. Now examined all the parts I have, seems the two guide beams I used were faulty. All the others I have are OK. Problem solve

Grab arm boom modified and hoses re-routed. Tested and works OK New batteries used for driving the pneumatic pump motor. Raising the main boom is now much better even with a Lego 6 x 2 x 3 weight in the closed grab. IMG_8826 IMG_8830

I found the grab from the Material handler to be too heavy and the main boom was very slow when raising, when lowering it was too rapid. The grab I fitted is not from the Material handler It is from a previous build several years ago. It uses a shortened actuator to open & close the grab.

Orange peel grab now fitted, using same operating method of opening & closing the grab as for the Material handler. IMG_8822 Tested and functions well. Next step is to tidy up the hoses which are a bit like Spaghetti Junction !!!!!

Progress:- My modified Pneumatic pump tested and runs very smoothly using an M motor. Battery box has yet to be correctly positioned. Main boom arm moves OK in both directions. Dipper arm when lowering it falls rapidly unless you just crack open the control valve. Could do with a restriction in the air hose for lowering. The two buckets snap open & shut very quickly. I Intend to modify and use the Orange Peel Grab from the Material Handler

The travel of the SMALL blue pump I am using is 3L IMG_8821

Thanks for your answer. Yes I intend to use motor driven pump. I have built the motor driven air pump unit but I only had one brown cam (6039505) For the top part I used a stack of 4 cams p/n 6575 which have the same cross hole spacings. The large Blue pump on order which I will use for other builds. GBC maybe ?

Volvo Excavator 42053. Currently building this from my spare parts using Lego instructions Reached step 126 where the blue Pneumatic pump is required. Yellow pump version will not fit. As they are only available from a few sources is it really required if you use an M motor to drive the small air pump as shown in later part of the build. Best price I cab find is approx £11 cost & shipping. Advice would be appreciated.

Finally the outstanding Pneumatic Valve has arrived in the post after 7 days since order placed. !!! Now fitted and all functions tested OK. Comments:- Not worth the Lego price. Total cost of my build, using spare parts = £10 UK. An interesting build and frustrating at times especially when installing the air hoses. Under carriage flexes downwards when air pump is used. Best to support it by hand underneath when using the air pump. The model really needs an air tank reservoir Extra support for the air pump cylinder fitted, Very likely will be broken down to use parts for the GBC contest. IMG_8819 IMG_8818

Thanks for confirming that, Time to put my thinking cap on !,

Are train gbc permitted as train cars & reverser are gbc standard and power the actual ball module ? Doug

Now building the Material handler using on line Lego Instructions. Using parts I have available, which will mostly be Yellow. I had to order a few parts in order to start building the Chassis unit. p/n 11455 Cross block beam with holes. 8pce. Stage 1 :- Chassis unit. Completed using mainly DBG beams and a hunt for the correct tyres & hubs. IMG_8816 Stage 2:- in progress. As I did not have the new blue air pump I had to devise a way to use the older yellow air pump and and install it without interfering with the rest of the build, After a lot of trial & error I achieved this. IMG_8813 Also I did not have the long curved yellow panel, (p/n 6334499) so I had to devise something similar. Control cabin assembly added. Also I only have two of the new air switches (6099773) Additional Control valve is on order - awaiting delivery. Building the boom arms and claw next. NB the claws are NOT shown in the on line parts list !!!! IMG_8817 Stage 3:- boom arms & air hoses, after an extensive search I final found where I had stored them. As I am using the on line instructions its hard to determine how long each hose has to be. Now found hose lengths using Brickowl & Lego i.d. part numbers

Update:- Various improvements made I was not happy with the housing as it was too high. The large gapping hole at rear of machine filled in. Engine casing lowered by 1L. PF receivers lowered by 1L Battery repositioned above the centre of rotation. Machinery housing rebuilt with an access hole to on/ off button by using an 10L axle through the hole to push it. Access Ladders added to Driver Cabin.

What does FTW mean ?

It refers to the 3d printed worm drive gear box you designed some time ago, which I purchased from Shapeways. Stage 3:- Controls & Machinery housing. All Motor leads are connected to the 2 PF receivers and controlled by a pair of Lego PF controllers. All leads colour coded. One 8800 battery box fitted for PF power supply leads. Slewing of upper housing is manual and is able to swing the boom to be either inline with the tracks or with the boom swung 90 degs. to the working position for lowering the pipe into the pre dug trench. Due to motor cables passing through turntable 360 deg rotation is not possible. IMG_8790 IMG_8791 IMG_8792 IMG_8793 IMG_8794 IMG_8796 IMG_8798 IMG_8799 Stage 4:- Machinery housing. Built using Technic parts, for changing the battery, the whole housing can be lifted off A method of switching the battery on & off had to be devised, using an external lever which moves another inside the housing the to click the battery button on & off switch. Indicator light can be seen through a hole in the 5 x 11 panel.. Control cabin for the driver installed & is moved by a rack system. This is manually operated between stowed & working positions. Stage 5:- testing All remote & manual functions tested and has ample power to the tracks. Whole unit can be rotated the spot.

I have had no problems with power drive, the worm gear box functions OK even when using an 8T gear for drive to each track and can rotate the machine on the spot. Structure almost sorted out & battery and PF receivers installed. Took awhile to find away to turn the battery on & off but the solution works well. Improved control cabin for driver built that can be manually moved between full retracted for driving & full out for pipe laying operations. More images coming soon of internals & machinery housing.

Stage 2:- Upper rotating platform Side view of track unit with roller ring above. Clearance is OK between them. IMG_8786 2 The two M motors for Boom luffing & Hoisting are located on the upper rotating housing. Side support frame one added each side. Boom Luffing is 1.66 reduction and can move the from near vertical or to horizontal when readied for transport on a low loader. Hoist is 20/1 reduction. IMG_8787 Stage 3 in progress.

Too expensive, and not good value. I intend to wait until the instructions are available and build it from my spare red parts.

Side Boom Pipe Layer:-(WIP) Now Enlarged and powered. Having built a small version with manual control for the TC22 Contest, I have set out to build an enlarged model using four M motors for control. Also will be able to use any Lego parts without System constraint ! ! Stage 1:- Track Unit Various Lego track units were reviewed to decided which would be the most suitable for this build.The 8043 is over complicated for the drive to both tracks though the centre of the turntable, plus not enough room four motors on the revolving platform. A test unit was built to determine which track units works the best. I chose the track unit from the 8294 set which was modified slightly to accept the rotating upper works. A normal 60T turntable did not provide support the rotating upper works allowing it to sag backwards due to weight of batteries etc. An Efferman 3D printed 13L diam. roller ring was fitted to the track unit. This provides good support some rollers were not fitted to prevent fouling The two M motors are mounted mounted between the tracks for direct drive to each track. Two 3D printed worm drive gear boxes were mounted on the M Motors to give an 8 / 1 reduction. The two motor drive PF cables pass up though the turntable centre to a PF receiver. This means 360 deg rotation not possible, but 90 deg. OK for shifting between boom in line with tracks or at 90 deg to tracks IMG_8783 IMG_8784 Stage 2:- rotating platform to follow soon.

I am building a MOC of a bigger version of my entry. At least I got 1 point.

What is the purpose of the vertical beam ? ======================================= Here are an Orange Peel Grab & Bucket grab that I used for my Mobile materials handler which I built April 2018 Both can be easilly exchanged from the end of the dipper arm & driven via axle rods & gears powered by a PF- M motor rather than pneumatics. IMG_8713

Thanks, for your help. Image links now uploaded to Flickr and sent via PM Doug72.

Thanks have two images is without mini figure. The two that have mini figure in veiew are:- IMG_8696 by Doug Ridgway, on Flickr IMG_8697 by Doug Ridgway, on Flickr Are you able to doctor the images, if not I I can retake the images & send new links I have put a notice that figure noe removed on the images. Regards Doug72

Mini figure now removed but not enough time to update images.