Czech 'walking' bucket chain mining machine.

[Spud]

Like something out of a Tim Burton or a dystopian movie. The background music just adds to the surreal ambiance.

 

[thermite]

Like something out of a Tim Burton or a dystopian movie. The background music just adds to the surreal ambiance.

There's an Amish vid on yewtoob of mere humans moving a barn by cooperative lift muscle power.

And they were NOT purpose built for moving barns.

This rig was designed to do what you just saw it do. Shoes are dear in that part of the world.

Far BIGGER surprise if after all that planning and Engineering and expense it FAILED to move itself, yah?

Talk about wierd yard art...

 

[michiganbuck]

I had thought a chain bucket on a narrow barge would be good for channel deepening work.
If I hit the lotto I might build it.

 

[thermite]

I had thought a chain bucket on a narrow barge would be good for channel deepening work.
If I hit the lotto I might build it.

Prolly cheaper to RE-build an idled one or buy new?

They got a lot smaller, more nimble, and flatbed transportable - ultimately one-man BACKPACK transportable.. than they started out as "back in the day".



Gold dredge - Wikipedia

A more useful book than "Catcher in the Rye" was "Too Much Sun" (Lee Olds)

https://www.amazon.com/Too-Much-Sun-Lee-Olds/dp/B0006AWIO0

It is PAINFUL to read, what with the protagonist so VERY unimpressive... as a teener "came of age" as a hand on an Alaskan hydraulic mining dredge! With the assistance of a native American woman. Of "a certain age!"

But that's what that age could BE like! Circling the possible drain.. whilst FAILING to "come of age!"

Too many people I already knew lived in those pages. More followed.
Avoiding that pattern was where the value was to be found!

Especially as I wasn't yet as old as HE was at the time!

Mind... not the best choice if a mere 200-odd pages takes yah more than an hour. Faster is better.

Now and then, out of the blue, yah DID hit something downright cawfee-spewer funny, though!

 

[michiganbuck]

like this but smaller
channel chain bucket barge photo - Bing

 

[thermite]

like this but smaller
channel chain bucket barge photo - Bing

Off-the-shelf item, out Indohooliga way. One-man portable on UP!

 

[michiganbuck]

I am planning a gold prospecting venture this summer. The place I have been researching for a time is a secret. I need the right weather so the river is doable. I have had some small good luck in Canada and Colorado, never any good luck in Michigan and this venture is in Michigan.

 

[Homebrewblob]

This isn’t new but definitely impressive.
I’ve seen a few of these “walkers” before.

What I really connect to is the abandoned walkers/crawlers stuck in the old gold rush towns from times past.

Something about a derelict WOODEN mining machine abandoned in the middle of nowhere rotting away.

Always makes me want to just see it attempt to function as-is.

It would be cool to see the rust and dirt fall off, cables twitching, metal moaning and the cobwebs ripping as the machine once again comes to life.



In reality those old Derelict machines would just bang and let the smoke out, but a boy can dream!

 

[Spud]

This isn’t new but definitely impressive.
I’ve seen a few of these “walkers” before.

What I really connect to is the abandoned walkers/crawlers stuck in the old gold rush towns from times past.

Something about a derelict WOODEN mining machine abandoned in the middle of nowhere rotting away.

Always makes me want to just see it attempt to function as-is.

It would be cool to see the rust and dirt fall off, cables twitching, metal moaning and the cobwebs ripping as the machine once again comes to life.



In reality those old Derelict machines would just bang and let the smoke out, but a boy can dream!

There is a YouTube channel called "PAmining" , where the host does a walk-around of abandoned or working machines and gives a run-down of the specs and its use.

PAmining - YouTube

I watched the bulk of his videos. I am not a miner , but have found larger construction / mining machinery interesting , from whence I was a kid. And living here near Milwaukee Wisconsin, I am a stone's throw away from what used to be Bucyrus Erie and the still operating P&H mining, makers of the world's largest face shovels and walking drag-lines.

 

[thermite]

I am planning a gold prospecting venture this summer. The place I have been researching for a time is a secret. I need the right weather so the river is doable. I have had some small good luck in Canada and Colorado, never any good luck in Michigan and this venture is in Michigan.

Of the many mining museums visited in scores of years cruising the globe, one of the most interesting and also educational - gold as it happens - is this one:

https://sovereignhill.com.au/gold-museum-ballarat

Worth a read, if not also a visit.

Or even TWO!

 

[hobbyman]

Interesting to see buckets digging. When I was much younger the experts determined that the efficient way to extract the tar sands in northern Alberta was to use a bucket wheel excavator. They are commonly used in Europe to surface mine coal. The idea seemed good except that in winter the tar sand is more like concrete. The booms were made using tubular construction and pressurized with air. When the boom was overloaded and started to crack alarms would go off and welders would be sent to repair the cracks before they had a catastrophic failure. I worked with a guy who was on one of those repair teams. Match this system to miles upon miles of conveyors and it was a perfect system destined to fail.
Eventually everything was scrapped and they went with a conventional open pit mining procedure using excavators and ore trucks. Bucket excavator systems only work with soft materials.