The Mantis Crane

Hello everyone! After lot of work, my first crane is now finished. Being rebuilt a few times, it features 360º rotation, nearly 20 cm elevating amplitude, and its most important feature, a mantis shape when elevated.

Its design it's quite simple, the vehicle was built around the turntable brick, having one motor for elevating the crane in front of the vehicle, and another one for rotating placed in the rear. Unlike some cranes, it has no definite superstructure, which I am thinking on to have in the next crane model; and the battery box and receiver are apart from the crane. Why? This is because I've tried to place the battery box in the crane, but every single possibility degraded a lot its aesthetics.

Both motors have been geared down to work well, but as you can see in the video below, the elevating and descending processes are both too fast, that's because I didn't have enough space to gear it down properlly. Making that mantis shape wasn't too hard, it was accidentally created, but still, it is not hard. To create the body I used some beams, but not making it too deep or width. The head was easilly made with three small beams, and finally the arms were made by a pair of cornered shape beams separated 1 stud suspended in the air with a simple structure made of axles and a pair of double cross blocks.

For the next time I'll try to make a bigger superstructure with a motor inside it to save space in the vehicle and have a place to locate the battery box. Also, I want to build a bigger cabine and maybe add manual steering. But these plans are not definitive, I'll maybe change my mind. If you have any questions, please, just leave a comment!

Photos:

Another photo with the "mantis" raised.

The "mantis" detailed showing all of its components.

The whole vehicle with the crane on its original position. Also you can see the gears on the side of the vehicle, which rotate the superstructure; and below the chassis, wich end in the worm gear, thus elevating the crane.