Druidfab Variable Angle Rotator (VA-r) .. a bit of a project

[Furniss]

my BIL's been up in it .. took an oak down from the top down ... says it's fine .. better than any cherry picker he's ever been up in ... like standing on solid ground .... I haven't found anyone to op. the 'Drema to give it a try
think I'd rather that than a man basket on a crane .. they do bounce about

Give supadooper a shout

 

[V8Druid]

looking at the pix in the '15 folder, the VA-r didn't get another look in for a while ... spent time on 'the dig' and building the 'black shed's' structure
bought a set of buckets off Mick Proctor, (Redash on CEF), off his 9t Kommie duck when he replaced his hitch with a tilty Geith and new buckets to suit - along with his Hill hitch, which I reckoned'd be a suitable unit for under the VA-r
Mick delivered 'em in person so got to meet the man ...

palletised 'em soon after to 'keep 'em in order' and easy to shift about in one hit on the forks

said Hill .. thought 500 quid for the whole bundle was a bit of a bargain .. not to be looked in the mouth

Mick'd said the Hill had a habit of giving trouble, uncoupling, but doubted it was anything insurmountable and deffo worth a punt

VA-r'd been getting some use along with me Cranab, which I'd acquired earlier in the year and suitably mod.ed to be able to use ti under the VA-r

rotary coupling had been working well feeding it with oil, but was still having to pin att.s on

but it was usable
just found the pix of the additional rings for the dipper for feeding the hyd pipes down it .. they grub screw onto two spigots on the dipper

these rings were rolled up on a mandrel in my old DS&G lathe in work quite some time before .. would roll up a 20ft bar length then lop them off the resulting coil

most of October got taken up assembling my kit I'd made for 'the black shed', but the VA-r got in on the action

could've done with my 2m bucket on here, but had a pin stuck / seized in it (which was a whole saga on its own to get out )

any way ......... back to the build

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

Is that operable from the cage? I think the whole tilty thing maybe should have been sold to NASA to mount a gyroscope on!

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

Is that operable from the cage? I think the whole tilty thing maybe should have been sold to NASA to mount a gyroscope on!

I am impressed with the finished article especially in gold

 

[V8Druid]

well almost ....
hadn't made the grading beam yet ...

so ........... as can be seen - the weather'd gone to the dogs and as said any ground related works here are out the window once everything's had a wetting .. but it was approaching the end of November ...
the Hill needed to come to bits, 'fore i could make any use of it and see what its issues were and why ?

someone'd been 'at it' before Mick's ownership and made a pig's guts of it

welding extraneous bit in here and there ... and gave some preliminary thoughts as to how I was gonna mod. it

having sussed what needed doing it was time to get it how i wanted it to be able to get it under the VA-r

pick ups needed to come off for starters

one side just about sorted

needed to mark a hole position, 'fore lopping off the next bit

good old thin discs made reasonably short work of this

and ended up looking like this

the spigot on that one cheek had to be replicated later

 

[V8Druid]

Is that operable from the cage? I think the whole tilty thing maybe should have been sold to NASA to mount a gyroscope on!

yeh --- you yell instructions at the 'Drema operator .. have to yell 'cos you'm so far away (do have two ways as well)

 

[V8Druid]

stripped, cleaned and fettled back into some sort of right shape

this needed to travel further than it actually was being allowed to .....

like here ....

after I'd removed these ... which'd been cobbled in for some reason ?

so out they came

now open this should've been the position the latch ended up in .. but yon ram was circa 55mm short when closed to achieve this ???

and being short meant that was the reason the latch wasn't making its full travel

and wehn opened this is where it was ending up before pulling a 'straight line' and stopping

so ...

no way José ....... unbelievable

but eventually cracked it and got it stripped

somebody'd been in here before
sussed a length and determined what it needed to be

and set about 'making it so

 

[V8Druid]

mission accomplished ...

and back together

now before i got too 'carried away' with a full blown installation of this I wanted to give it a try and prove it'd do what I wanted ...so ....... needed to replace the 50,s with some 70s ....

rough set up to check it all out

bit of fettling with the die grinder to polish up the holes and then set some bosses to each cheek

cleaned up the Hill in the relevant spots

and started a set up .... once I'd extended the width to cater for the 270 spread

can just about see my centre line datum marks for the first pin
and lined up a treat, nice and square to the pin
second one set up similarly and checked with my 600 mil Vernier at 470 mil overall on the pin faces

''Perfick'' 400mm ctrs

now remember that spigot that had to be replicated later ?

 

[V8Druid]

the original was missing a stop pin ...

so sorted that

then got it back to where it needed to be

dropped the secondary latch in

and tried it all for function / position

looked pretty good so nailed it

in its working position

final check

all spot on

 

[V8Druid]

coat of HBZP grey ox ...

and re-assemble the guts with all the spacers, shims and washers that were obviously missing ....

and all operating smooth and in line as it should've been ... full travel everywhere
then I had a trick I wanted to install ...

I wanted to be able to retain the safety lock cam out of the way to enable me to open the hitch in any position and not just as intended - fully crowded - a PITA for forks f'rinstance

then got it all back together again, having had to strip it out for that one hole - take no chances

worked and is working a treat .... can open the hitch at any angle I want and set down or pick up from any position

 

[V8Druid]

the Hill pinned under the VA-r's original pick up cheeks ... was fine for buckets, but couldn't use any hyd att.s as the aux. was running the hydraulics in the hitch ... but proved the concept

all I needed now was somewhere to park the VA-r without having to drop the hitch off if I wanted it off the dipper ..... on the bench for a mod.

parking sorted for either set up

next up ... a more permanent fit

 

[TiltyShaun]

Just caught up Itu this.
Thank you for sharing. I am curious. How many hours would you say you put into this prototype?

 

[V8Druid]

Just caught up Itu this.
Thank you for sharing. I am curious. How many hours would you say you put into this prototype?

Absolutely no idea Shaun .... probably spent as much time getting gear out and packing away as I did working on it ... would've been nice to have just been able to leave as was and come back to it as and when - i.e. undercover in a workshop!!
could also have done things many times quicker in my old shop too, plus an enormous amount of time spent measuring up/pondering/checking/working out HTF/finding bits/researching and reading/etc.
as said, back then there was very little info. out there as to how they worked, etc. and took me a while to suss it all ......and I'd never seen one 'in the metal' so working entirely off any images I could find pertaining to whatever I was trying to suss at any given moment.
was fun though and kept me occupied for a while .... still have a few bits I'd like to alter/change, but never seem to have the time free ... Harper'll be going to nursery soon though and we'll get our weeks back - sort of
the other Q that used to come up was 'what did it cost?' ... I worked it out at circa 17-1800 quid - mostly for materials, new bits, hoses, valves, unions, adapters, etc. .. hyd stuff is not cheap !

 

[TiltyShaun]

Absolutely no idea Shaun .... probably spent as much time getting gear out and packing away as I did working on it ... would've been nice to have just been able to leave as was and come back to it as and when - i.e. undercover in a workshop!!
could also have done things many times quicker in my old shop too, plus an enormous amount of time spent measuring up/pondering/checking/working out HTF/finding bits/researching and reading/etc.
as said, back then there was very little info. out there as to how they worked, etc. and took me a while to suss it all ......and I'd never seen one 'in the metal' so working entirely off any images I could find pertaining to whatever I was trying to suss at any given moment.
was fun though and kept me occupied for a while .... still have a few bits I'd like to alter/change, but never seem to have the time free ... Harper'll be going to nursery soon though and we'll get our weeks back - sort of
the other Q that used to come up was 'what did it cost?' ... I worked it out at circa 17-1800 quid - mostly for materials, new bits, hoses, valves, unions, adapters, etc. .. hyd stuff is not cheap !

However long your time took…..£1800 is a bargain!!

 

[Stroppymonkey]

However long your time took…..£1800 is a bargain!!

Did you say you broke it later on, or is it still working happily?

 

[V8Druid]

Did you say you broke it later on, or is it still working happily?

I did break it Stroppy -- being stupid ... it was getting some grief when three bolts snapped and then broke the under plate that I'd not added any additional welds to .... did put some pix up a week or two ago in IIRC one of the tilty threads, but can't find it this morning ... repaired it and made some mod.s at the same time - it may well be due to come up in my build thread shortly ... the warts and all are going in there

 

[V8Druid]

However long your time took…..£1800 is a bargain!!

not sure Pam'd agree ....... if she knew what i'd spent on it though Shaun ... but as I pay for 95% of stuff, I have a strong case

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

Well looking at the whole hitch job the end result is not recognisable as a hill, may be a rebadge using hill parts hitch!

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

Maybe re branded in Wales! A Bryn hitch?

 

[V8Druid]

Well looking at the whole hitch job the end result is not recognisable as a hill, may be a rebadge using hill parts hitch!

LOL ... did end up looking a bit different Mick ... wait for the next incarnation ... must be coming up soon in the pix folders I'd guess