Westlake Publishing Forums

Here are two more photos of the dismantling of the last two machines on Whiskey Island in early 2024.





(Photos: Tim Murphy)

There were apparently two different types of buckets:

A bucket that opens and closes symmetrically. I have found several original drawings of this type.


(Drawing: Wellman – Seaver – Morgan Co.)

A bucket with a telescoping function, just like the one used on Whiskey Island. I only found a functional sketch of it. But I didn't really understand it until I saw the original buckets.



So how does this thing work?
The triangular levers attached to the top of the bucket shells have two guide rollers. The upper one connects both levers and initially runs in a vertical guide. The lower one runs in a horizontal guide that can be moved sideways. The light blue push lever, which is hinged to the right bucket shell, is pushed to the right by the opening chain. In doing so, it presses on the bucket shell, thereby opening it to the green position. Since both gripper shells are connected by the upper guide roller, the opening process is symmetrical.
Now the upper guide roller enters the horizontal guide. By pulling further on the opening chain, both gripper shells are now moved together to the right (red position). This made it possible to reach under the hatch edge in the ship with the bucket and pick up material there.
It's not easy to explain (and the translation from German to English probably doesn't make it any clearer), but these two animations show how it works:
Animation 1
Animation 2

And here you can see an endless loop of the closing process:
Loop closing process

Once I understood how it worked, all I had to do was put it into practice.
I used the measurements I took of the bucket in Euclid as my starting point.



Once I understood how it worked, all I had to do was put it into practice.
I used the measurements I took of the bucket in Euclid as my starting point.

Now I have a solution that probably isn't 100% correct, but it's an acceptable compromise for me, and it will work.

Bernhard

It looks like this part of the build is going to be very interesting.

I am impressed that you can even understand how the things work let alone build them. Most satisfactory. -- Russ

Saving the DNA of the dinosaurs! What a glorious quest!

Thanks, Bill and Russ and Hauk.
And here's a view showing the bucket at the lower end of the bucket leg.

Bernhard

GORGEOUS
I love figuring out how things work and then making them in miniature.
Thanks for sharing!
MJinTN

Next up is making the countless small parts for this assembly. But first, I need to make a new electrode holder for my resistance soldering device. I've run out of the carbon rods I use for it. New ones are only available with a slightly larger diameter of 5 mm, which of course don't fit in the old holder. I took the opportunity to make the new holder as slim as possible so that I can use it even in tight spaces. In the picture, the old holder is in the back and the new one is in the front.



Now let's move on to the end stops, which limit the trolly's rearward travel:



And here's how the stairs are made. Because the material has been etched almost all the way through at the bending grooves, the steps must be bent very carefully and then reinforced from the back with solder.



I built a soldering jig to help me position the steps.

This allows me to solder the steps to the side stringers at the correct spacing and with the correct slope.



Here are the stairs for the right side:

And here's the one for the left side.





Here is a railing post with a protective grid.

Bending railing components:



Manufacturing of access ladders with safety cages:

The front ends of the trolly's rails are bent upward to prevent the trolly from rolling off the main girders. To bend the rails, I'm building a bending jig with profiled bending rollers.

To mount the rails on the main girders, I mill some track gauges.





The upward-curved ends of the rails are reinforced with cast (3D-printed) supports.

Then I worked on the drive system for the trucks. First, the support on which the drive motor and brake are mounted.



Then, just to test it out, I installed all the drive shafts.