Finished the build yesterday which took quite a while. As Sariel already pointed in his review, the whole construction is kinda fragile. Small bricks get easily stuck inside the structure when either leaving the buckets or when changing the belt. Also somehow I can only rotate the structure counter clockwise and not the other way around but that might be a little building mistake...

During the build I found out that I was missing a yellow 15 beam, luckily I had quite a few spares from the 42009 set.

Bought mine at the weekend from the Lego shop in Westfield (White City, London), but haven't started building it yet. Quite overwhelmed by the thickness of the assembly instructions booklet!

brickset.com review is live ...

http://brickset.com/article/22846/review-42055-bucket-wheel-excavator

To those who have this set: Why does the lower gearbox have three positions? "N" is neutral, "unlocked lock" does what instructions say and "locked lock" does..... what?

Just ordered from the Finnish verkkokauppa.com for 199,90 Eur. A pretty good price, but they don't have it in stock at the moment, so now I have to wait a little...

Impressive set and, as i've stated before, my favorite so far. However, i would have gladly spent a larger sum just to have a separate motor driving only the bucket wheel. Also there's some jerking of the bucket wheel while in operation that's kind of shitty. Since i mainly keep my sets for display i don't find that to be a deal breaker but it still annoying.

I've made some little modifications to the set:

1. I have replaced the knob used to extend the actuators with a crank, works much better and faster

2. I changed the position of the lights at the front of the main arm. In their original configuration i guess in real life they would have been taken out pretty soon by rocks and dirt coming loose from the coal face while digging. I think the modified position would be better in a real machine

3. I added some detail to the bucket wheel area, to simulate a real life large electric motor/reduction gear/driveshaft assembly. That area looked empty and crude

4. I added some details to the operator cab area, an antenna (although it now prevents the cab lid from being opened, that feature was rubbish to begin with since you can't fit a minifig inside a minifig-scale machine ) and an AC-unit on the side, since the summers can get pretty harsh in opencast mines

5. I added a counterweight to the back arm between the battery box and the gearbox. It is the "cargo" cylinder from 42038 filled with whatever large coins i found around the house. It reduces the forward droop of the superstructure to some degree, not completely but acceptable.

All the clutch gears are replaced with regular ones.

And so the table-sized version of the machine that first got me interested in heavy industry is complete.

Now i have to get some 4-5 minifigs in proper hard hat outfits to go with it

I am really curious to see the next Technic set to beat this one in size. That will be a real challenge for TLG.

Edited August 2, 20168 yr by Gabi_BC

Nice modifications - since I don't yet have the set, is there room to mod the cabin to make it minifig scale?

^^ I guess there are ways, but they probably require more tinkering with than i was willing to do at midnight.

Another aesthetic modification i have in mind is adding a cable drum at the back of the tracked base.

Nice mods. There is a thread for MODs and improvements -> http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138069

To those who have this set: Why does the lower gearbox have three positions? "N" is neutral, "unlocked lock" does what instructions say and "locked lock" does..... what?

With lever in Neutral position you can move the discharge conveyor by using the black gear by hand to desired point to load the dump truck.

With lever moved towards the turret - the discharge conveyor unit rotates with the turret.

With lever moved to other position the discharge conveyor stays stationary over dump truck while the turret rotates.

Edited August 2, 20168 yr by Doug72

These are the two functions of the lower conveyor described by Lego. There is no mention of "locked lock" function. The lower conveyor rotates with the structure in "N" position also. So "N" and "locked lock" both rotate the lower coveyor, but "locked lock" position prevents the conveyor to be moved by accident. Agreed or do I keep looking?

Edited August 2, 20168 yr by Silvio

Check out Sariels Video Review which shows how the lower conveyor functions at 19 mins - 57 secs.

Edited August 2, 20168 yr by Doug72

I have. And just like Lego he does not explain three, but two functions. There are three positions of the lower gearbox switch.

I've had this set for a week now, but I suppose it's still to early to discuss a specific feature. I'll wait until more people get it.

Building instructions of main and B model available

I have. And just like Lego he does not explain three, but two functions. There are three positions of the lower gearbox switch.

I've had this set for a week now, but I suppose it's still to early to discuss a specific feature. I'll wait until more people get it.

Middle "N" position - conveyor is unlocked and can be moved by hand or by using the black 20T double bevel gear wheel.

2nd position: conveyor is locked and stays stationary relative to the crawler base as the turret rotates. (black gear rotates)

3rd position: conveyor is locked and rotates with the turret. (black gear does not rotate)

Backlash is due to the inherent slack between the two red clutch gears and driving ring.

Building instructions of main and B model available

Downloaded very quickly - 150Mbs

I reckon it will take some time to dis-assembly the BWE and organise the parts before can build the B model.

I may go straight to building a MOC of a BW Trencher and a base for a large mobile harbour general purpose / container crane.

Building instructions of main and B model available

Two manual and two motorized functions. Enough?

Turn out there's no magic at all. The filter is really simple: there are 3 axles, separated by 1 module, probably to filter out the 1x1 bricks.

Turn out there's no magic at all. The filter is really simple: there are 3 axles, separated by 1 module, probably to filter out the 1x1 bricks.

Sometimes the easiest way is the most efficient..

Looks like the 42055 BWE really sucks at scooping bricks:

Looks like the 42055 BWE really sucks at scooping bricks:

Of course it does because it is a relative replica of a machine that digs in a different way, usually the sides of the buckets are the ones that cut the material that's being excavated, as the bwe is slewing. Also the consistency of the material being excavated is completely different. For large loose parts (like those bricks) a regular shovel would be a far better choice (note to TLG: please make a rope shovel set )

In nearly all tests i've seen of the technic bwe, it is scooping up parts from a plate or something similar. "digging" takes place in the green highlighted part of the wheel. But in real life most of the material extracted comes from the part highlighted in red.

For those willing to risk the well-being of their beautiful new set, they could try it out on a bank of wet compacted sand, with a consistency similar to that of sand castles.

I find this set to be more in the StarWars UCS category. It looks amazing to look at and it is great fun to build, but you can't actually properly play with it.

If you are interested, i made this model in LDD, here is the post: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138069entry2626460

I made a few renders from this set: (Big thanks to ImanolBB for the lxf-file )

Click images for higher resolution

Dave

Can anyone who has this set and the volvo loader take a picture side by side. I'd like to know how big the loader is compared to the bucket wheel. Doesn't matter if its A model or the B(volvo).

I finished section 4 earlier, this thing is going to be huge thank you TLG

^^ When the main arm comes together, that's when it hits you