Madill 071 Mobile Tower Yarder

[ARMORGUY]

This is incredible, it shows how skilled you are.
The tracks look just great, and solid. I'm looking forward to the weathering of this unique model.

[Beekster]

So, it seems about time to get the spar ready for installation. So far, that has been a bit of a nightmare. You see, at the very least the three large drums need to have their lines spooled on before the spar can be added. The plan is to spool the lines, leaving a two or three feet of slack so that the spar can be put on and the lines draped and adjusted. It's the spooling part that is tricky. This is what it looks like after about three hours of trying to get it to work, having the line wrap where it isn't supposed to go, clearing the jam, and trying again. Not shown is more track breakage as a result of all the movement. This image shows the current status of the Skyline:


The Skyline is the toughest line to spool, because that drum has a hitch in its motion. Might as well start with the hardest one, right? The trick is to keep the line spooling on smoothly, working up the drum from the attachment point at the rear (nearest the deck) towards the front. The problem is that pulling tension on the line to keep it lined up right tends to unspool the drum, undoing what was just done. I have to spool on three or four turns, each using an inch or so of line, then hold light tension while I superglue the lines together. I am hoping that eventually, I won't have to keep doing the superglue bit. Time will tell. So there's less than a foot of line spooled so far, and I've stopped three times to tweeze the lines to where I want them and lock them down with superglue. And wait for that to cure before going back at it. Only another 29 feet of line to spool for this drum. Then repeat twice more. From now on, wherever the yarder goes the spar goes with it, somehow. By leaving some slack I will be able to turn it upside down to fix the track, then bring it upright again. Then spool the three powered guyline wires, attach the spar, cut the fixed guylines to length and attach & tension them, then fix all the chipped paint that is the inevitable result of all this travail.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

This part would drive me crazy!!

[Beekster]

It is driving me crazy. Track is broken on both sides, which is annoying. I probably shouldn't have put them on when I did, fragile as they are, but I was afraid that if I waited until the spar was on it would be too unwieldy since I would have to have the whole model on it's side to attach a run, and flip it over for the other. Danger, Will Robinson!, especially when the spar and stiff-leg with hydraulic cylinder are fitted.

And as of this moment, the line on this first drum has been wound/glued all the way to the forward end of the drum, and it can start winding back the other direction. I can get two or three turns wound on before I have to tug and tweeze everything taut and lock it down with a drop of glue. There is some method to my madness here. I don't know whether or not I need all 30 feet of line to fill up the drum and have the amount of slack I want for the loose ends of the lines. If I get this wound to where it looks like another two or three layers will fill the drum and I still have several feet left, I will cut the line and glue it down. Then measure the other end, guesstimating how much slack I want, then cut again to remove excess material. Glue the line to the end on the drum, and when dry keep spooling. If a cut and join is buried a couple of layers deep, no one will be able to see it. I'll have an excess piece of line to measure, and can cut the other two before I start knowing that I won't need all 30 feet. Insane though it seems, there is logic at play here.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Hang in there Beekster. You amaze me!

[JED]

WOW long tedious work indeed but you seem to have cracked it 👍

[Beekster]

May 10, 2021 11:08:31 GMT -6 JED said:

WOW long tedious work indeed but you seem to have cracked it 👍

More or less.  The tracks are back off; they couldn't tolerate the induced motion.  The model is on a piece of foam, and as I spool the line I apply light pressure to keep it as taut as possible.  That produced enough flex that several track joints gave way.  Some are easy; the end connectors popped off the pins.  Others are not; end connectors broke off with pin inside and will require careful alignment and a solid glue joint to fix.  I thought it best to avoid further track damage by removing them.  Still spooling the Skyline rope as of this moment, and I may not have to do the cut and splice thing...might be enough room on the drum to spool most of the 30 feet of line.  It is indeed tedious; I can spend a few minutes spooling line then have to stop and apply a few drops of superglue to hold things in place.  I use a weight off to the side to keep the line taut while the superglue sets up.  Fifteen or twenty minutes later I repeat the process.  The operation will require a LOT of touch-up painting; all the finger friction from spooling the line on the drum is rubbing a lot of paint off.

[Beekster]

And I am done for the day, and we call this progress:



The Skyline rope is wound on as far as I will go for now; there's about three feet of slack in the line. The spooling is uneven, piled up a bit more towards the back, but that can't be helped. Besides, about half of the slack will end up being wound onto the drum in the end, and I can direct that into the front portion that needs more line. The line for the middle Haulback drum has just been started, and I will continue with that tomorrow. It took three days, off and on, to spool the Skyline but I am hoping that the next one goes a bit faster. You can also see plenty of white spots where paint has been rubbed off, and some of the touch-up will have to be the orange which means localized spritzes of Dullcote once the model is all together. That should be fun...
also are the two cables going into the battery box; they are routed with other stuff under the deck and essentially disappear under there. The material is the same engine dress-up wire you car guys use.

So, the plan is to get the three big drums spooled, then the powered guyline wires, leaving them slack, too. Then carefully flip the model over once again to fix the tracks. Part of fixing the tracks will be a first dark brown watercolor wash of the tracks & suspension, and the white glue in that mixture will help hold things together (I hope). Then attach the spar, spool the smaller utility lines, then finish the fixed guylines for maximum support. Then fix what's busted, repaint where needed, and seal the touch-up with Dullcote. Oh, and I have to finish the cab and exhaust pipe too.  And finish weathering the beast, all with that spar sticking up like a giant fragile spear.

[JCON]

That works!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

You'll need a welcomed break after all this spooling.

[Beekster]

May 11, 2021 9:23:49 GMT -6 dogfish7 (R.I.P.) said:

You'll need a welcomed break after all this spooling.

Taking a break now, Dogfish.  Spent another hour spooling the Haulback this morning, and it is going surprisingly well now that I have a method worked out.  About another hour  after lunch and I will have the line spooled, so less than three hours total for that drum.  Then I can start the last big one, the Main drum.  The start of the spooling is the most critical and hardest.  The line has to be superglued into the starting hole, and left to dry.  Then the first run across the drum has to be carefully spooled so that it lays flat and even.  Flat and even doesn't stay perfect as things progress, but starting it right certainly helps.  this first run takes quite a while, because you have to tug the line to keep it taut, tweeze it to keep each loop tight against the next, and superglue frequently to lock things down.  Naturally this takes time since you have to take breaks to let each glue application set up.

When I started this, the whole area looked quite a mess with lines everywhere and I was worried about tangling.  The Skyline wire wanted to twist on itself quite a bit, but eventually I figured out that by laying it out on the floor and pulling three or four feet of slack through the sheaves towards me, then pulling some back, the line would relax.  I laid out the Haulback line on the floor from the start and pulled perhaps a third of it through the sheave and back before I started spooling, and that really seemed to help.  Now that two lines are nearly complete, there is less mess.  Once all six are on, I can lay the spar aside about a foot away and manipulate the model quite easily to fix things and not worry about tangling.  The terminated ends aren't long enough to really tangle, and the terminations definitely keep them from getting pulled back through the sheaves.  The line on the drums will keep the lines pretty well separated, so long as I don't get crazy with how I move the model around while fixing tracks and other casualties.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

No place for Cats!

[Beekster]

May 11, 2021 11:07:06 GMT -6 dogfish7 (R.I.P.) said:

No place for Cats!

Lordy, no!!!  We have no pets, so the only risk is from my own two feet and so far I have avoided dragging line around.  Second drum finished, and the first three turns on the third are glued down and curing.

[JCON]

I keep telling you guys I have a cat and she never touches my models or supplies! It's how you train them...

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Yeh, right.

[JCON]

You can ask Red if you don't believe me Bruce!!! LMAO!!!

[Dukemaddog]

May 11, 2021 13:06:12 GMT -6 JCON said:

I keep telling you guys I have a cat and she never touches my models or supplies! It's how you train them...

Same here. I have two cats and they have never done anything to any of my models both finished or under construction. The only time they have interfered with my model building is when they insist on sitting on my lap when I'm at my workbench.

[Beekster]

This is progress so far. All six large lines are routed and spooled, with considerable slack. The loose ends are tied off with tape, so this is less chaotic than it looks.



You can see that the right side track is back on; it suffered the least damage from the line spooling operations. Tomorrow I will carefully flip the model over and start working on getting the other run back together and on the model once again.

[JCON]

I feel like an old sailing ships rigging is all over the bench, ha, ha!!!! Very similar indeed!!!

[Beekster]

May 13, 2021 15:59:05 GMT -6 JCON said:

I feel like an old sailing ships rigging is all over the bench, ha, ha!!!! Very similar indeed!!!

Similar?  Exact is more like it.  All of this is various Model Shipways black rigging thread in several diameters that approximate the real sizes, or at least one variation of them.  The brochure lists three sizes of line for the Main, Haulback, and Straw & Tag drums; different lengths for the different sizes and different load capacity.  The Skyline doesn't have options.  The operators know how to evaluate these variables and select the lines best suited for the size of logs they are pulling and the distance that those must be yarded to reach the landing.  Of course, a substantial change in the kind of wood to be hauled might mean replacing one or more lines to operate safely.  I have to assume that offloading an old line and spooling a new one is substantially easier on the real machine...probably requires a lot more muscle, but definitely no tweezers.