Rosco’s LugNet Page
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Tower Crane with Luffing boom
Setting it up
| | Delivery
When the crane is delivered, it looks a bit like this.
There’s 3 main pieces; the platform, the boom, and the counterweight. There’s also some little bits and pieces we’ll get to soon. You’ll also notice there’s a stand at the rear holding it up until it’s able to balance itself.
Step 1
The first thing to be done is to move the boom into position in front of the platform, and...
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| | Step 2
...attach it to the fixed section. This is done with the four #4 axles you see here.
Step 3
Now we connect the hook limit sensor cable. Note that the lever at the boom tip is connected by string to a lever here which activates the sensor. This was done mainly to reduce the weight near the boom tip.
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| | Step 4
The boom cable is attached to the lifting pulley, using yet another #4 axle.
Step 5
The hook cable is fed out over the end of the boom, and through the limit sensor. Note that the limit sensor also serves to reduce the effects of a swinging load.
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| | Step 6
Now it’s time to attach the counterweight. It’s held firmly in its cradle by two beams, which are firmly secured with a #12 axle.
Step 7
At this point, RCX 2 is switched on, and it’s program started. I don’t switch on RCX 1 at this stage, because that stand is still there, and it may get confused whether or not it’s balanced. Then I start raising the boom, until it just leaves the ground.
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| | Step 8
Now it’s time to remove the stand, and switch on RCX 1. It’ll adjust the counterweight until it’s balanced.
Step 9
So now the crane is pretty much self sufficient, so I just lift the boom up to a reasonable position, before....
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| | Step 10
...rotating it to the position it’s needed...
Step 11
...and lifting the boom a bit higher.
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The tower
It was at this point that I thought I should try to raise the tower a bit. That’s what tower cranes usually do, isn’t it? I only had enough 90 deg connectors for one more tower module, so I thought I’d try & insert it while the crane was assembled. Should be easy, shouldn’t it? Here’s the result.
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| | First, we place the new section beside the crane. Because the top & bottom sections are different, this section must be placed between them, so...
| | ...we split the top from the bottom, and move the top (platform & all) over on top of the new module. No worries!! Now just move that whole structure back onto the base, and...
| | Ooooops!! I think maybe that manouvre was a little ambitious.
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But it did show the strength of the main platform. The only piece that came off that was a plate that held one of the wires in place!! And as the boom was specifically built for only longitudonal strength, I kind of expected it to fare rather poorly in an emergency...
| | And I quickly put it all back together (complete with extra tower module!), and here it is.
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Back to main tower crane page
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Site last modified November 4, 2004 Home
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