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This crane was built sometime between Crane '93 and the Truck Crane . It stood about 7.5 feet tall and was fully motorized. This tower crane is modelled after typical tower cranes found on construction sites everywhere. A tower crane is quite often used in the construction of tall buildings. The concept is fairly simple and it is a little less complicated than a crane mounted on crawlers or a truck. A tower crane is designed to have a very small footprint and to have a large reach to cover an entire construction site. I apologize for the poor pictures. I only took a few and they were pretty bad. |
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Total Height: About 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) Lifting Capacity: ??? (not tested) Motors: Three 9v: turning, hoist line, and hoist trolly
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I built this crane more for aesthetics than function, although it did function quite well. The colors worked out well, even though the main vertical structure (the black part) is typically a bright color (i.e. red or yellow) on the real thing. The lifting hook traveled back and forth on the horizontal boom (red and white) on a small trolley. The trolley hung down below the boom and rode on small tires. The "rails" for the trolly were Technic beams with 1x smooth plates on top. The trolley was connected to a "conveyor" which was actually string that looped around pulleys at each end of the boom. The pully at the base of the boom was powered by a motor. This arrangement worked as long as the string was kept tight. Before I committed to using string, I messed around with chain links and even a rack-gear system. Both systems would have worked, however I didn't have enough chain or rack gears for the long boom. The hoist line passed through the trolley in a two-part arrangement and was powered by a motor in the base of the boom. The end of line was fixed to the end of the boom and the other end was the lifting winch. Because of this, the lifting hook would remain level as the trolley travelled back and forth on the boom. The turntable was at the top of the vertical (black) column, just under the red and white boom. The gray bricks in the picture are the turntable assembly. The turntable was powered with one 9v motor. The black vertical column was supported by a wider base. This can be seen in the pictures- look at the blue Technic beams at the base. Also seen in the picture (to left) is the control box for the motors. I bought three toggle switches (non-Lego) and placed them in a box made from Lego bricks. The electric wires were threaded up through the column and through the center of the turntable. I bunched up some extra wire in the turntable so that the top could rotate and not pull the wires loose. However, I did have to keep track of where the top had rotated, as it could only rotate 3 or 4 full times before the slack in the electric lines through the turntable was taken up. |
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Okay, okay. So it's ANOTHER crane. What's up with the crane thing, you ask? Well, I don't really know. I just like them and they're quite fun to build. After this crane, I would go on to build another, the Truck Crane . Finally, after that one, I tackled something new, bridges. But I'm still not finished with cranes. They are a constant source of inspiration, as they are of great interest to me. They are an excellent thing to model with Technic parts. |
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