I finished the bucket with the C-shaped support and its pulley, along with the necessary parts to complete the assembly. The whole is made of stainless steel, except for the door closure bucket that is made up of various iron pieces laser cut and assembled as seen from the following image. In particular the hinges, after assembly and TIG welding on joints, have been silver soldered for maximum strength.

The door is opened by pulling the lever you see in the picture and closes with an operator action that lowers the latch lock in the hole in the bucket, using only the weight of the same.

The two photos below show the whole bucket assembled. The figure that you see in the second photo corresponds to a man's height, 1.78 meters, and it gives an idea of the size the whole (the scale of the model is 1:10).

The boom is 866 mm long and was assembled with 690 2mm iron rivets. The upper platform end assembly was TIG welded to the two side plates. The thrusting engine mounts on the platform.

The lower end:

And now two photos of the upper end; the side brackets are used for the steel cables and  will act as additional tie rods.

I completed the Boom and all the mechanical parts that are used to operate the sliding arm Dipper Handle. The Dipper Handle is made to slide by two racks which engage with two pinions driven by Thrusting Engine, through a reduction in gear ratio of about 1: 8. The gears are housed in two guides Saddle Block, one on the right and one on the left side. The guides are provided with a shoe, placed on the top ledge, holding the rack pressed onto the pinion. Here are the photos of the Boom and the  Saddle Block.

Opening of the door of the bucket is controlled by a steam cylinder placed on the right rail Saddle Block of the Dipper Handle and is controlled by a pedal which raises the body of the cylinder to pull the steel rope to open the bucket.

Finally, The pulleys and mechanical control:

Completed assembly:

And the completed bucket and opening mechanism.

Part one   part two   part three   part four   part five  part six  part seven  Part eight

part nine   part ten   part eleven  part twelve  Conclusion

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Editor - David Carpenter