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100th. Anniversary
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This is Set No.0212 that was purchased locally several months ago. I really had no use for it as I am not a collector and it was painted in colours supposedly of the 1930's, dark red (burgundy) and green. As a kid in the 50's I was brought up with medium red / green which I stayed with for most of my life. So, what was to become of this set now that it was in my possession. Build it - what else. So here it is.
The first thing to do was to check the parts list to make sure everything needed was there. All was there except that the hook was the new style and modifications had to be made to utilize it.
The crane took on many modifications to make it function properly as the bearing was quite flimsy as were the supports for the drive wheels.
I knew that I was going to require more nuts and bolts so opted to use current black Allen Head bolts in places that would not too easily be seen.
The crane took on many modifications to make it function properly as the bearing was quite flimsy as were the supports for the drive wheels.
I knew that I was going to require more nuts and bolts so opted to use current black Allen Head bolts in places that would not too easily be seen.
To ensure a straight boom frame I screwed the top side Angle Girders to pieces of 1 x 4 inch wood boards and assembled the frame upside down.
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Bottom joint - center to rear section.
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Trolley sub-assembly
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Pulley Block Hook
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A series of photos showing basic construction of the boom - Hook and Trolley mounted and strung .
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Mid to rear section of crane
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The cab is removable for servicing and is held in place by 4 short pins
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The unit is driven by a single E15R motor and provides more than enough power to drive the crane. Two sets of pinions and gears and a worm slow things down quite a bit then feed the drives via sprockets and chain. The lever on the right is the on-off-on switch for the motor. To the left of this is another lever that engages the winding drum but there was no brake to prevent the hook from free-falling when in neutral so a rubber tyre has been added to provide ample braking. The next lever operates the traverse trolley. The 4th. lever operates the slewing motion and the drive through the base to the wheels. The shaft with the worm and pinion is engaged all the time. The lever slides the appropriate gearing for either movement.
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Here we have a few shots of the base. It had to be beefed up so that the weight of the crane would not bend the bogies causing the chain drive to go slack. 1-1/2" x 2-1/2" flanged plates were installed to correct this problem. The photo on the right is a shot of the underside of the platform showing a heavy framework to support the drive train which originally had little support for the horizontal drive shaft.
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Original bearing arrangement had the flanged girders facing each other and the rollers on the inside making for a pretty weak turn table. The 8 flanged wheels now ride on the outside edge of the girders and heavy Quadrant sections and a large tooth pinion have been added to replace the original sprocket chain which was supposed to drag around one of the flanged girders to rotate the boom.
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I am not a big fan of cranes but with a few extra parts to strengthen the gear frames, main bearing and structure the unit is a lot more stable and runs smooth.
