42055 - Bucket Wheel Excavator - MODs and Improvements

[Ngoc Nguyen]

@Bartybum

What do you want to achieve with the mod though? If you want power then you can use a 8z -24z pair, but I don't think the drivetrain needs more power though. Adding that 8z - 24z only makes it more painfully slow. The problem most people find with this set is that it is slow. That is why I suggested increasing the speed first by using a 20z - 12z pair.

[Bartybum]

@nguyengiangoc

More torque, but not so much that it could cause the gears/axles to snap. By increasing the output speed, don't you just make it more prone to slip?

Edited March 31, 2017 by Bartybum

[Ngoc Nguyen]

@Bartybum

For my set the clutch gears really rarely slips. The XL motor has enough power within itself to spin the drivetrain even with the increased speed. 

[Bartybum]

@nguyengiangoc

I see. I don't really like relying on clutch gears to not slip. I think I'm instead going to try source the high friction and see if i can redesign those points

[Ngoc Nguyen]

@Bartybum

Sometimes you'll get the situation in the the upper pic. Both of my normal 24z gears broke because of this. That's why I choose to keep the clutch gear. 

[Bartybum]

@nguyengiangoc

Oh man, that's actually so bad. I haven't gotten up to building that part of the set yet. Do you reckon two 5L beams on the inside of those DBG beams would stop it getting caught?

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Sorry, I don't get what you meant. Can you explain more?

[Bartybum]

@nguyengiangoc

So there's the LBG 5L beam that's part of the conveyor. It gets caught on the ends of those two DBG beams like you pictured. I'm wondering if simply extending those two DBG beams (by adding new ones) will prevent the 5L from getting caught

Edited April 1, 2017 by Bartybum

[Ngoc Nguyen]

@Bartybum

I haven't thought of that yet until you mentioned it. I think it could work. 

[Bartybum]

@nguyengiangoc

I just finished the set, and you can't actually place two 5L beams there because they interfere with the connecting tray. Instead I used two 4L L-beams. However, I found two points on the conveyor belt along the frame pivot that stop it when a load gets caught. I blocked one with a 3L pin + pin connector round 1L, but can't put anything in the other one because there's no connection points there. Not sure how I'm gonna fix that :/

[Catalinanmb]

Can you post some photos of that, please?

I cannot replicate the situation in the photo, where the 5L beams get stuck in the other beams. Mine works smoothly since I did the gear mod described by @nguyengiangoc.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Catalinanmb

[Ngoc Nguyen]

@Catalinanmb

If you tilt the model slightly to the back, so that the battery box is at the same height or lower than the bucket wheel, you'll get that a lot.

[Catalinanmb]

Ok, now it's clear. 

[Bartybum]

I found a way to block those two points on the pivot. Also, I found a simpler way to get rid of the 5L beams getting caught, which was to just remove them and the pins holding them. I did this because I found that in my previous solution, the connecting tray was in the way.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Removing the 5L beams may lead to another problem, which is that there's nothing to push the rock bricks against the gravity to go up to the tray. So you'll get the situation that some bricks keep falling down to the bucket wheel end of the conveyor belt.

[Bartybum]

Works with beans tho so I don't mind too much :P I think eventually it's going to come to me redesigning the arm altogether. I might go for cable supports

[afol1969]

@ Gaby_BC & Marini

 

Excellent work! Very impressive and a monstrous version of the BWE! How long would it take for creating and modelling? How much parts?

I've tried to convert the LXF file to an LDRAW file - and as always - with a horrible result

So I've thought to recreate the file from scratch. Only the step order isn't perfect to rebuild the model. And as I haven't the necessary parts, I'll never be able to build it. Instruction would be interesting - if someone has enough time and patience. But I don't think so, because I believe that an instruction project will take probably 2 years...

Even just the creation of the CAD file maybe takes some month.....

Greetings

Alex

[OneMoreRobot]

Have been building this for the past few months, photo of main unit, the two exit conveyors & rear motorised tracks have been built, shall post photos of assembled model in next few days.

The complete model is controlled with 3 x SBricks & 11 x L motors (Bucket, BCV01, Boom Winch, base tracks drive x 3, base steering, CV02, CV03, Tractor drive & Tractor steering).

Video coming, thanks to Gabi for a great design..

_DSC4198 by OneMoreRobot_NZ, on Flickr

Edited April 15, 2017 by OneMoreRobot
text

[evortigosa]

1 hour ago, OneMoreRobot said:

Have been building this for the past fem months, photo of main unit, the two exit conveyors & forth motorised tracks have been built, shall post photos of completed model in next few days.

The complete model is controlled with 3 x SBricks, 11 x L motor (Bucket, BCV01, Boom Winch, base tracks drive x 3, base steering, CV02, CV03, Tractor drive & Tractor steering).

Video coming, thanks to Gabi for a great design..

3

Looks massive!

Waiting for the video :)

[HallBricks]

On 2017-01-27 at 0:15 PM, designer-han said:

Just being in the process to build the BWE from my spare part collection. I was wondering if some of you run into the next to 'issues' as well.

1) I used initially the DBG treads of the 42042 Crawler Crane, and experienced a very jerky run (including stalling) of the treads over the sprocket wheels. This has all to do with inner tread shapes (bad = triangle based, smooth = square based).
I know that TLC changed a couple of years ago the tread design; but I did not expect that the Crawler Crane treads of 1 yr before the BWE should fail. I used the older treads I had, and no issues at all.
My questions is: what are the shapes of the official BWE DBG treads??

2) The conveyer chain of the BWE (upper chain, from buckets to middle section) to jam once in a while. I guess this has to do with the older DBG treads I am using (have more slack). Does anyone experienced this as well?

 

I browsed this tread today and saw your comment. I didn't know about the triangular and rectangular tread link shapes, so I thought it was interesting and checked mine. I've got them from 8043, which I bought in 2010, and from 42055. The only difference I could spot between the old and new ones were the thickness of the ridges on top, the shape on the bottom were the same. 

Do you know when TLG changed to mold? I can't understand why my links are the same.

EDIT:

I thought you meant the new mold is rectangular, but when taking a look at BrickLink I realized the newer version has the triangular shape. Sorry for misunderstanding. 

So the new version is worse...

[AFOLegofan66]

I used the old version of tread for mine and everything works like a charm...very satisfied!!

[Gabi_BC]

17 hours ago, OneMoreRobot said:

Video coming, thanks to Gabi for a great design.

it gives me great pleasure to see this actually built. Thank you for your appreciation. 

[teos]

Has anyone made actual instructions for adding more motors plus receivers to the model?  I would certainly be interested even if they were for a small fee.  

Regular LDD files can be tricky to use the instruction guide due to so much odd placement of parts.  Especially for huge models.

[Tom Van den Heuvel]

I could make it work whit the help of idees found in this forum.

thanks for all the great mods and improvement idees

thanks

Tom

 

[Bobo08]

I have found that if you put too much play in the gears to reduce friction it actually allows the gears to wobble more and increase friction. It's almost like you need a set of feelers for perfect gapping of gears and lift arms.  Just finished this set and it's cooler then I thought .