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Manitowoc 18000 Construction Crane


ewahl

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You will never see a model like this at a contest--local, regional, or national. It is a 1/50 scale die cast replica model of one of the world's heaviest lift capacity construction cranes. It weighs in at 33 pounds. It took me four days to assemble and rig this model for a total of 25 hours. I worked in the entry vestibule of Lanco Corp. World Headquarters, where the finished product is on display. They sell the real ones along with the Mi-Jack cranes that they manufacture and sell.

 

Here are two photos of the finished model, one with me (6' 2" tall) standing next to it for scale. You can see I was adding the rigging to the highest boom over my head.

 

Crane8_zps75f84fc4.jpg

 

Crane9_zps3d8af42b.jpg

 

Now I have to figure out why the upload procedure from Photobucket to the DF that I have used here successfully for years no longer works. I really detest changes made for the only sake of making changes. Nothing gets simpler.

 

2nd edit: I found a way to get the photos posted, but only the top half is visible. Clicking does not yield the remainder of the photos. I could use some help here.

 

3rd edit: Success! Thanks to WildBill50 for his tutorial last night. There are a lot of steps for each photo, but they are now here.

 

Ed

Edited by ewahl
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Ed,

 

Glad you got them finished. Bring the pics to the meeting on Friday.

 

Nice job on the top half at least.

 

Bill

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Thanks, Mark.

 

The steel crawler tracks move, the crane can swivel, and the cables (um, thread) could lift a load by using the supplied crank on the cable drum. I had to follow precise rigging diagrams for the sequences of running the threads over the pulley wheels. For example, the main load hook block has 14 pulley wheels on the top of the boom and 14 on the load hook block, and this had to be done mid-air to keep tension on the threaded pulleys while I was using a long needle to push the loose end through the next pulley wheel. I lost count of the times I had to pull it all out because a thread slipped off the pulley groove and wrapped around the axle. When it was all done, I used a drop of super glue on each thread as it passed over a pulley wheel. In all, there were five major cable runs to connect various booms on the crane. The counterweight slabs on the model are solid steel, just like on the real one.

 

Six years ago the cost of the model was $650. I would guess it is in the $800-900 range now.

 

Ed

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To Greg and Bob,

 

Thanks for your comments. The learning curve is the toughest on the first build. If I ever have the chance to do another one, I could easily knock a day off the assembly time. Rigging is the hardest part because the pulley groove is only about 1/32-inch deep, and the thread slips off the groove all too easily at the slightest bit of carelessness on keeping tension on the loose end while threading it around the next pulley wheel.

 

Ed

Edited by ewahl
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