Technic: Crane Building

Constructing a Big Rig Getting back into the LEGO hobby after a Dark Ages usually means building a small model. Not in this case. Article and photography by Pedro Agnelo

My name is Pedro Agnelo, I’m 24 and live in Coimbra, Portugal. My passion for LEGO began at the tender age of 1, playing with my first set, a 2705. But the real “addiction” would only began in 1987 when my father gave me an 8040 Technic Universal Builders set. From that day on I stuck to Technic and I kept on building and collecting until the age of 13, when I entered my “Dark Ages” that wouldn’t end until April 2006 at the age of 23. I rediscovered the pleasure of playing with LEGO by mere chance in a casual talk with my girlfriend (who still regrets it). I started by reorganizing my collection and only after that began building and buying new sets.

I came in touch with the whole AFOL scene after emailing some guy who had a blog, Luís Baixinho (whom I later became friends with) and he sent me some links. Of course I followed them and after some search I was stunned with the immensity of the beautiful constructions by other adults worldwide.

The decision to build the crane actually evolved from another model I built. I started by building a truck, and every truck needs a trailer, but a simple trailer wouldn’t cut it so I added a crane. That crane was too small… so I decided to build a proper crane. Plus at that time, most Technic fans were or had already built cranes or some sort of other big machines.

The real Demag 2800 has two versions, the CC, which is a crawler crane and the TC, a truck crane; other than that they’re almost exactly the same. The main reason to choose this model was (other than the looks) the sheer size of the thing. It has a maximum boom length of 192 meters, a lifting capacity of 600 metric tons, two huge diesel engines (one on the superstructure) and an 18 meter long carrier with eight axles.

I began by gathering information, both on real models and LEGO models. I’ve always liked to create things from scratch, so I tried to find out what everyone else was doing and go in the opposite direction (if I only knew…). As I always liked big machines, it was decided almost for sure my first post dark age creation would be a crane; a big one, I just didn’t know how big. I found out that telescopic booms were very hard to build big and functional so I went for lattice boom. Then it hit me… I’ll build a big lattice boom truck crane that actually works!

The scale was the next issue, although I already knew I’d be limited by the wheel size. I had recently bought a set that had 62.4×20 wheels and I liked their design, so I did the math and came up with a nice round number for the scale: 1 to 20. That was really nice as the Technic men were the same scale/size.

When I began the project I committed to build a functional model rather than a static one because “playability” is what I like best about Technic.

So I started building in early May 2006. The chassis came first, then the cabin and so on, until I had to build the slewing mechanism – the part that elevates the frame of the crane . This took me at least one and a half months to get right as I could only build on weekends and holidays. This was the first of many times I regretted choosing such a scale. But by then I found out there was a huge hollow gear wheel that would do exactly what I needed. After a lot of trial and error and different schemes, work carried on and the superstructure was nearly finished by late June. Then one day I accidentally dropped the
whole thing on the floor! I thought about quitting but decided to carry on. Actually the accident helped to make some major changes to the turntable and carrier structure. The end result for the slewing mechanism was a cross with rollers on all 4 ends attached to an old- style inverted Technic turntable and the drive located on the superstructure. From this moment on (September 2006) I just had to build the boom, derrick, jib and some other small things like the hook block and outriggers, which were rather simple except maybe for the jib’s final section whose sections vary in two different axles; it took one whole day!

This would seem to be the end of the project, not being for the fact that it was built in “rainbow” colour scheme. From mid November 2006 to January 2007 I just played with the crane, did some test lifts and some small modifications, and mainly bought lots of parts.

The model made its debut in Coimbra, on the 24th of March 2007 at Coimbra 0937, the first public show by our club, Comunidade0937 (“0937 Community” in English). Being one of the main attractions, it reached an impressive 5.40 metres high and almost collapsed during set up due to lack of counterweight. mea culpa, I forgot… it was the first time it was set up like this. In conclusion I’m really pleased with the final outcome for various reasons, like learning new techniques, discovering new parts and how to use them, but above all, the creative process itself and the feeling of accomplishment. Right now I’ve finished a new creation closer to the Model Team line rather than Technic, and already started on another MOC. I also want to dedicate more time to community projects like the creation of the wiki0937, a LEGO wiki in Portuguese or the setting of Rail Racers contest rules, and of course, take part in as many exhibitions and meetings as possible.

Brickshelf galleries:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=204219 (mocs)
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=pedroagnelo (main)
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=204468 (demag)