Michael's Crane Page

Michael's Mess
Crane

LEGO line

This was my first honest attempt at making a crawler crane.
My main reason for building it was to have something fun and simple to mess around with, hence this model involved no wires, motors or pneumatics of any kind. I did, however, attempt some techniques I hadn't before, which I believe turned out pretty well. This crane was purely out of my imagination, based only in part on the crawler cranes I have seen.

	Here's a general look at the crane, and as you can see the main boom is about 2 feet long. Not a terrible amount of detail to be seen here.
The boom was constructed beams, braced vertically with triangle contructs and horizontally with axles, bushings and plates. As you can see I ran short on red and black 1x6 plates and had to start substituting with grey. Building this model showed me that if I were to attempt any larger scale crane, I would need to stock up on pieces.
	Here's a clear shot of the A-frame supporting the boom. The string used was actually embroidery floss, which had an appropriate thickness and grip. You can also see the dual treads on each side. I opted this for instead of attaching a plate to even numbered links to widen the tracks to save on pieces. It also saves the hassle of reattaching the plates when they fall off (which they do quite often). In the middle of the base you can see a glimpse of the red connector rods, which hold the superstructure and base together.


	Here's a close-up of the cabin where the operator would sit. As in real cranes, I made the cab tiltable by use of a hinge. Overhead 'lights' illuminate the field of vision at night. In the top right corner you can see the grey extension piece for when I was too lazy to hand crank the winches. I would use a mini motor and a battery box to automate the job. Much faster!

I got my background at Fibblesnork Backgrounds

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