LeTourneau

How This Radical Scraper Changed Earthmoving Forever
Heavy Machines Era

I remember reading something about LeTourneau a long while back. It was all about how he was using electric motors to drive the wheels on his machines. There was a diesel engine driving a generator which provided electrical power to the motors (obviously). And it was presented as something really great and wonderful, but it never explained what was so great and wonderful about it. Many years later I was looking diesel locomotives and I suddenly realized, or somebody told me, that the whole reason for using electric motors on the drive wheels is because you can get full torque from the motor at zero RPM. Imagine if you had a conventional manual clutch and transmission like you would have in a semi-truck, installed in a locomotive. Now you try and start from a dead stop and you have to slip the clutch a bit to get the train rolling. Yeah, the clutch will be on fire before the train even thinks about moving. A conventional clutch is not going to work. So, electric motors. Now LeTourneau's idea makes sense. And now we have a video about the history of the company and I have an excuse to tell my story.

Meme Harvester

Village Hemorrhoid heading out to the Meme Fields aboard his Meme Harvester

Caterpillar Wine Mixer

Bump Starting Old Iron with @ziptiesnbiasplies
DEBOSS GARAGE

Much of this equipment is left over from the Canadian Trans Mountain Pipeline. The pipeline was built in 1952. Note that is entirely within the year, not started in one year and finished umpteen years later. It was completed in less than a year. It is 700 miles long and runs from Edmonton, Alberta, across the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Trans Mountain Pipeline

The last section of pipeline is assembled on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, near Laidlaw, British Columbia, Canada, February 18, 2024. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

A second pipeline was recently laid alongside the original. The new line has almost double the capacity of the first one.

Pipe

Mechanical Meditation

California Bob found this quite fun:
Car Dismantler Powerhand VRS (Vehicle Recycling System)
Powerhand

Powerhand is based in Scotland.

Uniberp replies with a link to a TikTok video:

This guy gets metal the old fashioned way, he chops up electronics with an ax.

Sometimes he does a live stream, which I have found mesmerizing for a few minutes until I start to feel vicarious exhaustion and hopelessness.

I enjoyed watching these guys digging a road in Turkey:

Caterpillar D7g Bulldozer And Excavator Removes Giant Block Rock~Dev Kaya Çıkartma Operasyonu
GREYDER MEHMET
These guys are pulling a bulldozer out of the mud.
Amazing Expertly Technique Skills SHANTUI BULLDOZER Falling Into The Water Help Heavy Crean Success
Construction Cambodia
I am amazed by how thin those cables are. They don't look to be more than 3/4 of an inch thick and they are lifting that multi-ton bulldozer. It is Cambodia, so maybe they are working a little closer to the edge. Shoot, we probably have guys here doing the same kind of sketchy looking things. A 30 ton load will break a 3/4" steel cable. This bulldozer, a Shantui DH17, weighs about 9 tons, so they should be okay. A 3 to 1 ration is not the normal safety factor of 10 to 1, but at least they are not on the hairy edge.

Killdozer Returns

An Israeli military vehicle waits as armoured bulldozers clear path in Gaza (Handout/Reuters)

From a story on Aljazeera about some idiots in Norway.