Bucket Wheel GBC Train Loader - build finished.

[doug72]

The Ultimate Version -Twin Bucket GBC Train Loader Completed.

Twin Buckets:-
Had problems with some buckets becoming loose or detaching from the wheel if there was a ball jam.

The blue pin/axle connectors were the problem, some had a low friction after many uses. Solved by using two 3L axle with stop & stud plus two 4L thin beams with axle hole each end. see image.

Complicated gear boxes no longer required, all gears are attached to the main bucket wheel module and arranged to give  give two rotations before the train is released with max 32 balls per trip..

Loading inlet hopper made as a separate plug in module for ease of construction & adjustment.

New 4 lobe loading rotor required to load one ball into each bucket and prevent any others from entering.

Tried without a ball agitator but had ball jams again.
A three arm agitator was added driven by an 8T/ worm gears via a long drive shaft from the axle driving the bucket wheel gears.

Timing for the ball loading rotor is easy to set by sliding a 24T gear out of engagement - turn rotor to correct position and re-engage the 24T gear again.

Various improvements made to the input hopper to prevent ball jamming & to prevent more than 2 balls load at a time.

Successfully tested with near 100% of balls transferring into the train hopper.

Video showing ball loading can be seen in later post below.

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Doug72

[dunes]

Great work Doug

btw . video is set to private on Youtube, therefore no embedding possible.

[doug72]

7 minutes ago, dunes said:

Great work Doug

btw . video is set to private on Youtube, therefore no embedding possible.

Thanks for your comment, its been a long process slowly improving the original idea.

Re YouTube - figured that out but it won't let me change.
Clicked "not sutable for kids by error" as i am sure I set it to Unlisted as I usually do.

Visors (buckets) seem to be hard to find now I was lucky getting them from Aussie !

Can you see the video using the link ?

[Chipstertrain]

Hi Doug

I just tried the link and got

"Video unavailable, This video is private."

 

So I'm afraid not.

 

Chip.

 

 

[doug72]

34 minutes ago, Chipstertrain said:

Hi Doug

I just tried the link and got

"Video unavailable, This video is private."

 

So I'm afraid not.

 

Chip.

 

 

 

Video now uploaded OK. had to delete original one and upload a re-named file.

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Doug72

[doug72]

Two version now available - Which version is best ?

With visors and 32 balls per trip or with Shovels and 24 balls per trip.

As the LEGO Visor 2007 (57702) are now quite scarce I decided to use the new gearing arrangement on the version using LEGO Shovel 5 x 7 x 4 1/2 with Hole/cross (18943 / 42196)

See photos showing gearing for ball loader and the train reverser which releases train after one revolution of the bucket wheel.
This give 24 balls per trip.

New input hopper built as a plug in unit and has an height of 10L at the inlet point to meet GBC regs.
New ball rotor with four lobes is used with along with guides to stop balls falling down.
Input ramp to ball rotor no longer requires an agitator as after extensive testing had no balls jams - the two yellow side guides help prevent this.

No instructions are available but photos should show how to build it.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Doug72
Duplicate image removed & corrected one inserted.