Wondering about making convairer belts (pics)

[mikesmowers]

I have been working some on the unloading system at Fillmore Concrete and am not happy with the convairer belts. What do you all use to make them? Also what do you think of my idea for unloading Hoppers into the bins? The workers are tired of using shovels.




This one is taken from an "airplane"



This is just a freebe (You will not be charged)



Looking forward to your suggestions and comments.      Mike

[mecovey]

Hey Mike - your work looks great. Are you looking for a way to model conveyors that actually load live loads (coal etc.) or a way to simulate conveyors?

[Paul W. Beverung]

Hi Mike: What yu have looks pretty good. Walthers makes conveyors in a kit. I think there are 3 per kit. They are the same ones that come with the Glacer Gravel. Check there catalogue. You might want to add a bin at the top of your conveyor that comes from the track. The bin would have several chutes coming out of it, one for each bin of meterial.

[mikesmowers]

 mecovey, No the conveyors no not need to actually un-load the cars. I thought you all might have some ''special'' tricks to make them look more realistic.   There is a chute at the top of the conveyor that has 2 outlets that allow the rock to be diverted from the sand pile and vicas versa.    Thanks,    Mike

[chutton01]

I think I know what looks wrong, although I cannot be certain from your pictures of the conveyor belts - since they are outdoor ones, do they have a framework supporting them along the line of travel (as opposed to the struts you already have) - almost all outdoor heavy duty conveyor belts I've seen (images or in real life) have a significant amount of rollers, and so need a frame work (truss, usually) along each side to support those rollers - often the conveyor ends up semi-enclosed, with plates along the side frames, and a half-roof covering it (often half rounded, with struts from the framework supporting that).

If you have said frame work, then I stand corrected...

[dragonriversteel]

Hello Mike,

      Right now as we speak....waiting for glue to dry, on a HO scale scratch built mobile crusher unit. Now what does this project have to do with yours, you ask ? The conveyor for removing the crushed rock is scratch built using and old copy machine drive belt. I'm still working on this project, but I'll take a picture for you ,top show you what I'm talking about.

Building conveyor's isn't that hard at all....yours looks pretty darn good.

BRB with photos.

Patrick

Beaufort,SC

Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}

 

[dragonriversteel]

Heres the almost done mobile crusher Mike. All I used for the conveyor was an old drive belt off of a cope machine.I think it was a cannon copier or something like that. It looks like a conveyor belt....must be a conveyor belt, besides from three feet away,only a rivet couter could tell.

 

 Anyhow this project should be done and painted this weekend. Try the copy machine belt route....that is if you can find some.

Patrick

Beaufort,SC

Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}

[mikesmowers]

Thanks dragon, looks real good. the only thing is the cogs are pretty big for what I am looking for, I  wonder if a person could ''shave;; the cogs down a little. I bet I can find some old copy machine belts since my printer died a couple of weeks ago. and I throw nothing away, I may deed a part of it on my layout someday.

[tomikawaTT]

Mike,

The sly, cunning trick is to enclose the belts in a long, slanted shed like the ones that come with Walthers New River Mining Co and Glacier Gravel.  In many jurisdictions, the local codes require this to control noise, dust and falling materials.

The three-packs of conveyors Walthers sells are the kind used to move coal or gravel from a pile to a dump truck - 1940's era.  Small, with wheels on one end, capacity probably measured in wheelbarrow loads per hour.  Not the thing for unloading a hopper car, unless the hopper is loaded with coal to be sold retail for home heating.  (As I said, 1940's era.  Actually saw this in Port Washington, NY, in 1946 or so.)

The suggestion that more supports would be a good idea is also valid.  Heavy duty conveyor belts are fairly hefty pieces of machinery, and the stuff they carry isn't exactly light weight either.

An operating conveyor can be an impressive model.  Keeping it operating could get to be a royal PITA!  Even a little bit of grit in the wrong place could cause havoc, and make you wonder if the whole idea was worth trying.  If anyone has ever built a conveyor belt in ANY scale (including 1:1) that didn't end up with grit in inappropriate places, I've yet to hear of it.

Chuck  (whose coal processing plant will use covered conveyors - and open skips)