The Manitowoc MLC650 made its debut at
the ConExpo exhibition in 2014 it's a
high capacity crane nominally in the 650
ton class, and a feature of it is the
moving variable position counterweight.
This model of it has been made by Towsleys
in China and it's been engineered
by Weiss Brothers. It is delivered in a big
outer shipping carton and inside that is
the Manitowoc branded box. With a box
this size and weight you really need a
crane to handle it, but not to worry the
Cranes Etc team is made up of beefy
tough guys. There are three big trays of
parts and they're all nicely wrapped in
soft paper. That's the top tray so let's
have a quick look at the middle tray and
under that is the heavily loaded bottom
tray, so there's a lot of assembly to do
and in this video we'll just concentrate
on the assembly. Thankfully there's a
high quality manual included and that
has a full itemized parts list and there
are step-by-step instructions which are
largely pictorial. It shows you almost
everything and there is just a couple of
parts missed, and there are no reeving
diagrams for the hooks, but overall it's
very good and it only concentrates on
the one configuration of the model using
up all of the parts.
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Let's get building and a nice touch to
start with is that all of the smaller
parts such as screws come in their own
individually labeled bags so that makes
it easier. We begin by mounting the car
body onto the frame that spans between
the tracks and that drops easily into
place, but we need to secure it in
position and if we look underneath
there's a hole for a screw.
Mow with any parts on a model like this
it's best to tap the screw in first
before mounting the parts and assembling
it, and that just makes life easier if
access is difficult to a part. In this
case if the screw is not magnetic
there's a little trick we can use and
apply a bit of plastic putty to the screw
head then we can push the screwdriver
into the plastic putty that means we
don't have to employ a 1/50 scale
mechanic to get inside and fit the screw,
and you can feel smug as you imagine
everyone else struggling to fit it. So
once the screw is in we need to tighten it
up and it's important to check that the
car body rotates properly without any
rocking. Here comes the next part and
it's the rotating bed assembly and it's
still got some packaging which we need
to remove later. To make things easier
the four fixing screws have been
partially screwed in before mounting the
assembly and then as long as the holes
are carefully lined up we can drive in
the screws.
Next we are on to the moving counterweight
mechanism, and we start by fixing the
small actuator assembly to the beam
assembly and that's fixed in place by
some mildly awkward plastic pins. So here
we have the so called VPC-Max
assembled and it's a sliding part which
fixes onto a rail on the rotating bed
assembly. It gets pushed all the way in
and then it hooks on to stop the end
drooping down.
The counterweights will need to rest on
something and here it is, it is the
counterweight tray assembly and that's
also a sliding part and again it hooks
in onto a rail. Let's take a break from
the weighty matters of the counterweight
and look at something that's not in the
manual. There are four jacks on the body
which would be used for self assembly
and to complete the model the pistons
with the pads on the end get pushed into
the jackets.
Once that's done you can stop them
waving about because there are some
small pins that you can insert into the
ram jackets to hold them in place. These
pins are small and it's one of the first
bits of micro assembly that we have to
do. It's back to the heavy end of things
and we need to put a big stabilizer pad
that hangs off the end and again that's
fixed into place with some slightly
tricky-to-fit plastic bolts.
Let's now add a bit of detail and that includes a set
of steps and a plate that fits on either
side and they just neatly drop into
place.
OK then, back to more weighty matters
let's add a very small pin on both sides
of the counterweight mechanism and then
we can add the counterweight boxes
themselves. They are all separate pieces
and they just stack on the counterweight
tray but heavy though they are they need
to be strapped together to stop them
toppling over and the model includes
sets of chains to do this. It can't
really fix them tightly so perhaps it's
more for show and here the hook end of
the chain is hooked into the other end
and then it's all just hung over the
lifting tabs on the counterweight boxes
and that all makes for a nice enough
looking detail.
Now it is time to get on to the big stuff and that's the
boom, the mast, and the luffing jib. They
all come as separate pieces just like
the real crane and you have to bolt them
all together. To do this there are tiny
black nuts and bolts and it's best to
get a tin to put them all in when you
start your work. Tools are also provided
to help you do the task and one piece
takes the nuts that you can just put
into the end,
and the other tool is a bolt holder.
You feed the bolt in and it's tight enough
that it doesn't just drop out. After that
you can guess the rest. You put in the
bolts you add the nut and tighten it up but
there's no need to over tighten it. Then
you just repeat the operation many, many times.
<9 seconds later>
And here we are we've preassembled the
big main boom and it is big. Actually
it's very big.
We can follow that with the mast which
is not quite so big, and lastly we have
the luffing jib which is quite big.
It's all very well but where are you
going to drink your coffee and for that
you need a cab and it's time to fit that
on the model. It comes as a separate part
and it's a good idea to line up the
holes using a screwdriver before you try
to insert the pin,
and there is the steel pin ready to be
pushed down and home. There is also a
secondary pin to insert, and for that we
fold out the small brackets,
line it up and then drop the pin in, and
there we have it done.
So now we move onto the big stuff and we start by adding on
the mast. Once it's more or less in
position, again it's good to line up the
holes using a drift or screwdriver and
then it's secured on both sides using a
large steel pin. One good thing on the
model is that the live mast comes ready
reeved, but the spacer that's used to
keep the lines taut prevents the back
stops of the mast being seated, so we'll
have to do a temporary bodge job and use
an old screwdriver.
We'll then press on and attach the main
boom and again that's an easy fit with
large steel pins to secure it in place.
The next bit of assembly is to attach
the various straps. Fortunately these do
come in assembled lengths so there's not
a bazillion nuts and bolts to do up. They
are made of ductile metal so they will
bend easily so you have to be a little
bit careful how you handle them, and
don't force anything. If the connections
are too tight just loosen them off a bit
to straighten out the straps. After that
you need to follow the manual closely to
get the right straps in the right place
and to get the right end, at the right
end.
We now need to go in for some careful
maneuvering to get the live mast attached to
the back mast, and we'll start by
carefully removing the packaging from
the reeved lines.
Let's move the back mast forwards
temporarily and then we come to the
tricky part which is moving that spacer
towards the back and here we fast
forward to the spacer moved, and now we
can lower the mast so that the back
stops get seated properly.
With that done we can then attach the
hanging straps from the mast and we'll
attach the first pair to the VPC beam
assembly. We now need to attach the
second pair to the live mast and to do
that we've got to raise the live mast up
a bit and that's a little bit tricky. The
trick is to keep the lines taut whilst
you unspool the drums and keep it that
way whilst you attach the straps and
then remove the spacer. With that done we
can now move on to everybody's favourite
and that's the reeving operations. To
start with we'll take some line off of
the winch on the back mast and run it up
over the top so we can start the reeving
of the boom luffing gear. This is
probably most easily done up in the air
so to facilitate that we put in a
temporary arrangement by tying off the
boom and the mast so that's held fixed in
place so we can start the reeving of the
luffing gear and much fun awaits us.
<11 seconds later>
Now it's done and we also used a second
temporary support on the luffing bridle
and with the work done the temporary
supports can be removed. So the last
major assembly to do is to attach the
luffing jib and that's quite easy to do
on this model.
It pops into place so there can be a screwed
connection at the pivot point, but also
helpfully there were a couple of ratchet
bars on the back stops, and you can press
those into the top of the boom which
makes the luffing jib self-supporting,
and that's a minor godsend because it
enables the luffing jib to be
self-supporting whilst we reeve it up.
And here we go again happily running the
rope through the pulleys...
<happy whistles>
<3 hours later>
Damn, it's popped out
again. Damn. Damn.
<happy whistles>
<19 hours later>
Oh god I can't believe it! I've done it!
After a bit of work the reeving is done
and the luffing jib is supported. There's
still a bit more rope work to do and
here we've hung the heavy hook block
from the main boom and that's quite an
easy hook to reeve up, and from the
luffing jib we've hung a smaller hook
block which was actually is a bit more
fiddly to do. We are near the end of the
assembly now so there's one or two
things to attend to,
and firstly we need to detach the pins and
free up the lower end of the live mast,
and by winding in on the winch drums you
can see that it's opening up.
The final things to do are adding some
detail and we'll start by adding some
covers to the holes in the bodywork and
those holes are there to allow you to
operate the live mast winches. The
covers are plastic, and they clip into
place. Finally there's an array of
walkways and platforms that have to be
fitted on both sides of the crane and
these press in and are a decent fit
with only one or two being slightly
loose. And that's it! The assembly is
complete, and we can stand back and look
at our model. This is a big crane so
let's do a dim check and to the top of
the main boom it's about 55 inches or
140 centimetres, and here to the top of
the luffing jib it's around 80 inches or
2 metres, and the jib is not even pulled
back to its highest position. So that
completes the assembly. For the detail,
features and overall rating see Part 2
of this video series.
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