Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[diggerjones]

You forget how small they are, mine is 5 now and it's been the best 5 years of my life.
It's funny when babies are born they look like there dad even girls, goes back to when we were apes.
Hope they are doing well.

[v8druid]

You forget how small they are, mine is 5 now and it's been the best 5 years of my life.
It's funny when babies are born they look like there dad even girls, goes back to when we were apes.
Hope they are doing well.

Thanks Dylan ..... I don't have any of my own, so have virtually, in fact, no experience of new born little people at all
It is pretty remarkable though that, suddenly, they are 'here amongst us' and will be around longer than us, all being well.
For months she has just been 'Bump' and I've not really given a lot of thought to that.

All change now, eh?

We have been informed tonight, by 'the perpetrators', that the latest addition, to the clan, is to be addressed as M.s Clara Elizabeth Price ........... or 'bump' for short........... but doubt I'll get away with that for long!!

[v8druid]

Right chaps ....... thinking heads on please.

Spent an hour or two today with the covers off the VA-r trying to work out where the hell to put this ....







After a lot of wiggling, jiggling, juggling and head scratching ..... I have a plan !

It’s a straight forward quicky valve which, if my understanding is correct, works thus:-

P is fed continuous pressure from the machine and feeds A port, which operates the extend/close stroke of the hitch ram. Once closed the pressure is then dumped to T via the pressure relief valve in the valve block body (the shiny bit). If the pressure in the cylinder drops for any reason the dump valve returns to giving pressure to A again until the relief pressure is reached again and it dumps to T once again.
To open the hitch the solenoid is activated, diverting P to B ... again once the end of stroke is reached in the cylinder, the relief dumps to T, unless the pressure drops in B, etc.

Now I need some thoughts/opinions from you on the next bit ....

Rather than running two new lines to the VA-r to provide a continuous pressure to P and a return to tank for T, I am considering using the feed to the aux lines on it, to provide me with a supply, albeit an intermittent supply, dependent on the use of the aux cetop control valve and the proportional pedal supply, feeding that with pressure.
The hitch has a check valve to maintain a closure pressure and also it’s a double-locker with a secondary cylinder in the circuit operating the second pin lock.

This is how it currently works and how I’d propose to plumb it .......

I select a Cetop solenoid with a button, on a stick, before pressing the prop pedal. The Cetop then directs flow to whatever valve I have selected – rotate, or tilt left/right, or open/close on the aux circuit, which is fed through the VA-r, by the Roemheld rotary coupling, to the Aux QCs under it.

If I take the aux. close circuit plumbing, disconnect it from the Roemheld and feed it to P on the quickie valve, with T from the quickie valve, then feeding back to the Roemheld’s close circuit port, with the hitch closed and gripping, it will simply bypass to the aux close circuit, courtesy of the relief valve in the quicky valve.

To release the quick hitch, I’d then select release electrically, with a switch in the cab, energising the solenoid in the quicky valve, selecting P to B, select close on the aux circuit button on the stick and press the pedal to provide an oil supply to the aux circuit and thence the quick hitch valve which will release the gripper and the safety latch, then dump any excess oil to the Aux, via the Roemheld.
Once open I can release the pedal and aux button and the hitch’ll remain open until I de-energise the quick hitch valve solenoid and give the valve some oil again with the aux button and pedal.

I picked Lefty’s brains the other night, (on t'other one), on how his Engcon pin-grabber system works and this something along the same lines, except that I have to manually give my VA-r oil pressure, when I want to use it.

The hitch is the Hill double lock I had off Mick, (another from t'other one) and also needs to be fully crowded to release the gravity operated extra safety latch, before the secondary rear pin lock will release.

I’m going to have to have a bit of a juggle about in the ‘belly’ of the VA-r to accommodate said valve, but I have it sussed and the plumbing routing sorted in my mind. It’ll give Marty at Fast fluids a bit of a challenge ...... again, but he loves a challenge!!

As for the hitch mounting ....... I’ll come back to that again, once I’ve managed to get it sorted, which I’m pretty sure I’ve also got my head wrapped around now, but for the minute, I’d value some opinions on my proposals.

It’ll ultimately give me a very useful and usable set of five smaller buckets to go under the VA-r for all the fiddly bits and bobs, that it’s ideal for.



As for some of the rest of the day ......... spent an hour reclaiming some box space, by relocating the Wing to its new home for the winter ......... the new shed!!



Be nice to have the floor space back and not have to worry about catching her, every time I struggled past it with something heavy/bulky in me hands!!



Doubt it’ll stay clear for long !!

[v8druid]

I think I've thought of a snag in my proposed flows!!
..... Let's see if anyone picks up on it ...... Mog might I think, but he sounds like he's gonna be busy for a while ....... a very long while ........ 30,000 tonnes worth of long while

[v8druid]

decided it won't work the way I said - can't put the valve in series in the system as I need to back-flow the aux. for 'open' and the valve won't have that!!

Could 'Tee' it/piggy back it, in the 'close' circuit, with a couple of non returns in the P and T lines of the valve, so when I reverse flow it will take the only route available through the aux attachments plumbing only and not back-flow the Quicky valve.

Had a text from Tom Lomax at Exc@v8 this morning - couldn't reply on't t'other one ......... can't remember his log in - LOL

He's saying the pin grabbers need a constant feed, even though they have check valves to maintain pressure and is suggesting what I had originally considered - put the valve on the 'Drema and pipe down the dipper to the VA-r's rotary and through to the hitch.

Several issues with that, which is why I'm trying to incorporate it into the VA-r's plumbing.

Cost of all the new pipe work and the hassle, two extra pipes from the dipper to the VA-r to route, plus when the VA-r's off her they will have to be on QCs (no sweat), but the P and T on the hitch valve would be stop/dead ended, unless I link them, but would then be totally free flowing, with no back pressure from the hitch ram ?

I'd also considered using the existing Miller plumbing and going with a 6 way diverter (somewhere on't dipper - a right PITA !!!) to swap between hitches .... Miller or Hill and pinning the Miller when swapped to the Hill - it's always pinned with the VA-r on board ........... would not want that falling off ....... be a disaster!!

What you have to remember, in all of this, is that the way I have this set up, oil-wise, is how the early tilties were plumbed (to a degree) and they had quickies, so it must be do-able

It's a can of worms though!! I'll get there, just back on the learning curve again and having to suss just how it's done/it all works!!

So ...... here's the latest thoughts ...... drill and tap the two Banjo bolts in A and B ports, in the Cetop manifold in the pic, 1/8"BSP.







Then fit a 1/8" - 1/4" adapters, to pipe to P and T, with some non returns in the lines, to suit the flow directions, to the QH valve which is going to live where the leccy Rubbolite is currently.





The Rubbolite junction box is then going to have to live above the main P feed pipe and rotating union, on a bracket, attached to the back end of the VA-r lower chassis





I was considering going down to 1/8" plumbing, everywhere, but the 1/8" non return valves only have a 3 ltr/min flow rate, which is a bit low in anyone's books, but I might go down to 1/8" from the A & B ports, out of the QH valve, for ease of routing, as it's pretty 'kin tight down around the Roemheld ports.





Will be a play it by ear in Fastfit's 'toyshop' when I go get some pipes made up ............ assuming I haven't got it wrong again.


That'll get me some oil to the underside of the Roemheld's other two ports .........





............. to pipe to the Hill

[v8druid]

Forgot to say that, having spoken with Tom Lomax, earlier this evening, he tells me he's had pin grabbers let go, without constant line pressure ......... but ......... one of the guys on t'other one, who has a pin grabber under his Engcon, tells me that his hitch only has pressure when he operates a motion, as his oil supply to his tilty only pressurises on demand?

Anyone got any thoughts/experiences????

I also have a Q. for the tech-ier guys here ..... is the oil pressure to the hitch, full service, or servo level pressure?
IIRC the Miller on the 'Drema is using the servo circuit to feed it (I think- will have to check that statement tomorrow)?

[v8druid]

That's not going to work either !!


I'd need to isolate the QH valve from the Aux ....... when I want to use the aux to close under pressure ........ or it'll simply by-pass through the QH relief to T


Would need yet another solenoid valve to isolate the Tee off and I'm really struggling for space ......for a valve, or the necessary plumbing ........ or put a manual open/close lever valve in the P tee line and leave it open, unless using the aux. line.


I do have one more idea I'm thing about, but am going to have to go take a look-see if it's feasible/fit-able ......... but it's lashing down ATM

[v8druid]

Right......well after all the ongoing discussion on HTF to make it work, I thought I ought to be doing something towards being able to actually make use of said Hill, once we decide how!!

Took a few pix of the ‘guts’ of the beast ....... as a memory refresher, just in case, as it might be in bits a while ........ but I’ve never failed to get summat back together yet, no matter how long ‘twas in bits ....... including a few things I’ve never seen in one piece in the first place!!



Didn’t want to ‘pollute’ ‘em with shards, spatter, etc., so first thing was a strip for a good clean and to remove as much mineral oil from its rams as poss., for the ‘Drema’s tank’s sake.





This was Friday and was going well until.............



............ it started bouncing off the bench.
At least I had it all apart and could retreat to cover to finish the clean up of the bits and pieces, before drying everything off and calling it a day ....... a very soggy day.

Had some time over the weekend, between the deluges ...... which wasn’t a lot of time ..... hell it’s been a wild weekend ...... to suss exactly what I was going to do with it.


This morning, although still pretty wild, was at least a little drier ..... on / off, so .... the Hill had to have it.

Re-scribed me lines ..... to a clearer, cleaner mark after a weekend’s oxide had obscured ‘em a touch and set about it .....





These 1 mm discs really are the bollox, for producing a seriously nice, straight cut .... exactly where you want it and have used ‘em for years to get fine control.



I have got some 1.8 mms for the 9”, which are pretty awesome too, but ...... they are a bloody handful for accurate cutting with so would rather use a couple more 5” and get it jus’ right.



Got a job for the old cheeks too, so wanted ‘em as bang on as I could get it ......



Yer know me ...... "waste not, want not" !!

Was just getting ‘wound up’ on t’other side .....





......... when Pam’s sister and her hubby arrived for the afternoon, to see ‘the new arrival’, Clara, a bit of a catch up and Gareth wanted to see the finished article, in the shape of the new shed.
‘Twas a pile of bits the last time he saw it, so that put paid to any further progress this afternoon ......... as did the torrential rain that seemed to arrive with ‘em !!!!

Been half expecting a tap on the shoulder all morning ......... from Mr Hill, saying “WTF are you doing to my hitch” ?

[v8druid]

Nice an’ dry this morning – almost and t’other side was coming off ....... after I’d marked a few datum references for a few bits that are going to need replacing/repositioning, post Druidisation .....



Set to it .......



and was going well, ‘til it nipped on a burst through ......



Just goes to show that even the most experienced of ‘grinder jockeys’ can get caught out ..... in less time than the blink of an eye ..... beauty of a 5” – you can keep hold of it, especially when you’re braced, waiting for ‘something’!!

Anyway ... drama over and it was off and sorted ....



Well happy with the results and more parallel that it was originally – one side was 2mm higher than the other !!!!!
As the cheeks that came off are now a pair, on the pin, I’ll assume it was a tad cock eyed in use – must ask Mick if he ever noticed anything about it?



Marked up the new layout on the now flat faces and put it aside for today, to get the rams emptied of mineral and washed off.





I’m going to have to re-assemble this, before I can suss the heights, etc., for the next stage, to make sure all the various bits, pieces, etc., clear each other, don’t foul their neighbours and leave room for the plumbing !!

It’s coming though!

[v8druid]

you were going to get a post on the day's disappointments/issues/problems/head-scratchings yesterday ........But then saw that Mel Gibson was on, in We Were Soldiers ...... ain't seen it in such a looong time ...... so .......... no post, as I'd planned!!
and with today’s bloody awful weather I’ve made no progress on it either!!

Got everything washed off and cleaned, checks out of the cylinders and 99% of the mineral oil out of ‘em ..... so nice to have a ready supply of 150psi on tap, at the flick of a switch, to blow the pipes and everything clear too.



Loosely re-assembled ‘the beast’ to have a suss of just how much clearance I needed to clear everything, particularly hose fittings into the main cylinder.



I’m trying to determine the differential in open/closed position on their locations and stood trying to work out why there was so little movement, when it suddenly dawned on me ......... yon Hill has been gotten at in a previous life and I’m guessing long before Mick had taken possession of it, as he’d said there were ‘issues’ with the ‘grab’ on a couple of the buckets ....... now I could see why, having gotten it all clean and easily visible.
Certainly the main cylinder and possibly the secondary one too had been replaced ..... I’d thought they didn’t ‘look’ the same sort of ‘vintage’ as the rest of the hitch. In fact fairly new !!

I’d also thought that two ‘stops’, welded inside the body, didn’t look of the same standard as the rest of the construction of the unit – positively cobbled in fact, with pigeon sh*t welds.
Now I could see why.
The main cylinder is, at a guess, about 35-40mm shorter closed, than it should be and the cobbled stops are preventing the grabber from coming back and fouling the contents of the hitch body, when the cylinder closes !! It’s also not going full stroke to grip – the ram is, but the grabber isn’t, due to it not having enough extension in the rod.

Lots of head scratching, trying to decide just how to over come this problem – re-position the eye end, on the grabber? Re-position the cylinder end eye by extending it?
Then it came to me, having had it in/out, several times
The cylinder has a good 102mm of stroke – more than a lot of hitches – so ....... extend the ‘dull end’ of the rod – cut the eye off and extend it by the amount it’s currently unable to travel, due to the ‘cobbled stops’, preventing it from doing so.
Actually, it needs to be a little less than that, which I can’t determine exactly, until I remove these ‘cobbles’ and have yet another measure, with everything installed in position to decide where it has to stop, to not clout anything it shouldn’t.

So that was going to be today’s exercise and was all set to get on with it, when ‘Monaro Doug’ turned up, with a throttle body and TPS off his rally car with a request for some input and some careful metering to set it up, for him. Three hours later ...... a hell of a lot more head scratching and mutterings and we’d conclusively decided his two Throttle Position Sensors were **cked/beyond redemption/totally U/s !!
Toyota UK started at 267 quid FFS!! ..... got it down to 136 quid from some Jap spares specialist and eventually found two in the states for $20 each, new in their shiny Toyota boxes.
Rip off Britain or what!!!!!!?

They should be here next Wednesday for the princely sum of $27 shipping.

Used to buy a lot from the states ....... ‘til their shipping charges went off the scale.

The Roemheld was a classic example – 50 – ish quid for the unit and more than 60 squid to get it here ...... but worth every penny !!

Been waiting for something else to turn up for a while $6 to buy and $19 to ship ..... in a jiffy bag .... which probably weighs as much as the item !!

Cest la vie ...... haven’t seen it anywhere else to buy!!

So ..... as I say, no progress today due to the bloody incessant precipitation!!


Tomorrow is supposed to be drier, but BLOWY AS F..K MAN.jpg

That I can live with

[v8druid]

Had a few hours yesterday re-furbing the grabber, re-profiling the hook and sorting the one pin hole out with the ol' hot stick and die grinder. Will be a lot better now.







Lopped the 'cobbled stops' off last thing of the evening and intended to be sorting the ram stroke today, to give full travel to the gripper after tidying up the remnants of those naff stops.



It’ll be good as new then - near as damn it

All fine and dandy, by the time I've finished sorting it and will do what I want to do with it, jus' sweet.
Probably just as well Mick had a new tilt hitch for his duckling - this needed work and may well have given him grief - now't that can't be sorted with a lil' Druidry though and keeps me out of mischief !!


Well it was another "blowy as ****" day here, all day and I mean Blowy Man !!

Having gotten the hitch body cleaned up, I could chuck the bits back into place to have a physical suss of what I’d already worked out dimensionally and confirm the length of the extra bit required on the end of the piston rod to get things moving as they should.

This is where it needs to get to



And this is where it actually travels to full stroke at present



Bit lacking in the forward travel dept. !!!!!

Hitch opening was restricted by those stops and without them the grabber would come back and clout all the other internals in the body ....... and still be 37mm short of its close stroke length .....









So .......



It (the ram) was going to have to come to bits, so I could extend the rod by 55mm, to put the grabber exactly where it was supposed to be with the cylinder at its fully closed stroke...



WTF do people insist on pouring ½ a tube of Loctite into cylinder end caps!!!!!



Three turns of PTFE is more than adequate and it’s grub screwed as well on this one FFS!!!

[v8druid]

It was a hard fought removal, but got there to find I was not the first one in there!!





Was expecting to see a Stetson in there somewhere!!



Quick suss of the existing length and set to it ......

Eye off, new 30mm rod sussed and set up for welding, after marking a new cut length, once attached......



Excess lopped off and eye refitted ...



Followed by a quick check ...



Before re-assembly ....



I’m afraid that end cap’ll never be as handsome as it was, again ....... after a close encounter with a 36” Rigid, a 48” stillys and a length of pipe !!!
It had to have it ........ Loctite should be banned !!!!!!

By the time I’d gotten this far and had a tidy up I was up against the usual trouble ........



Acute shortage of Lumens!!!

Had another cutting tool incident yesterday too – virtually new Roebuck ......





Disintegrated with one blow from a 5 pounder !!!!
Have to say the material does not look the best!!!!

Anyways, having hopefully sorted the Hill’s issues, I can now turn my attentions to getting the lil’ bugger mounted ....... if it stays dry.
Have had to hang on to the bench today, to steady my self in the wind, for welding!!

[James Waterfall]

You've a nice project going on here v8. I'm only catching up on this thread this morning. The hitch will be a fine job. I presume you've it sussed by now that the hitch should be supplied with full system pressure while the machine is working?

[Stock]

You've a nice project going on here v8. I'm only catching up on this thread this morning. The hitch will be a fine job. I presume you've it sussed by now that the hitch should be supplied with full system pressure while the machine is working?

Well Mr formwork long time no hear.................

[James Waterfall]

Well Mr formwork long time no hear.................

Hello Mr Walsh how are you keeping?