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Cat 6040 excavator assembly time lapse

alco

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Very neat. Thanks Zed, I'm going to have to keep an eye on this one.
 

Gavin84w

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Thats pretty neat and good to see the get her done aproach, boy if that was in Australia the ribbon tape man and bollard man and the witches hat man would have all gone home rich from the sales.
 

Nige

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G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
Thats pretty neat and good to see the get her done aproach, boy if that was in Australia the ribbon tape man and bollard man and the witches hat man would have all gone home rich from the sales.
Yup, you feckers have a lot to answer for .......... :tong:tong

I remember the quote in Colombia when Drummond (backed up at the time by Thompson Tractor their Cat dealer in Alabama) first arrived there back at the end of the 90's to open up their mining operation. "it appears that there are 2 kinds of gringos. Gringos and Alabama gringos" ...........
 

JimBruce42

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Very cool, thanks for sharing. Question about assembling these big brutes, are the hydraulic cylinders empty of oil, and if so do they take the caps off to pull them out to hook them up? I would assume so, but really have no experience with it. 6040 is about a 500 ton hoe?
 

still learn'n

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ok maybe dumb question but im curious how does everybody keep everything together to make sure everything gets done like bolts tight and everything hooked up right im sure they have book to tell them what all to do but with that many mechanics? Jerry
 

alco

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Very cool, thanks for sharing. Question about assembling these big brutes, are the hydraulic cylinders empty of oil, and if so do they take the caps off to pull them out to hook them up? I would assume so, but really have no experience with it. 6040 is about a 500 ton hoe?

Yep, the cylinders are all empty when they come in. And you're close on the weight......the 6040 is about 450 tons, or a little more than 400 tonnes.
 

Nige

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ok maybe dumb question but im curious how does everybody keep everything together to make sure everything gets done like bolts tight and everything hooked up right im sure they have book to tell them what all to do but with that many mechanics? Jerry
every mechanic carries a white paint pen in his pocket. As each bolt is tightened you put a white cross on the head. Later someone goes back checking for white crosses on every bolt.
 

Cmark

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ok maybe dumb question but im curious how does everybody keep everything together to make sure everything gets done like bolts tight and everything hooked up right im sure they have book to tell them what all to do but with that many mechanics? Jerry

Each mechanic carries a steel marking paint pen in his pocket and when he's finished torquing a bolt or installing a hose or whatever, he marks it with a dab of paint.

I think it's a GREAT system. Simple and easy to implement. I try to get all our guys to do it, no matter how small the job. It also gives the mechanic great peace of mind. If you get taken off a job for a couple of days and then return to it, if something's got a nice white line of paint on it, you're not doubting yourself thinking "did I tighten that drain plug or not?"

I'd encourage any mechanic who doesn't do this to give it a try. When you look at a finished job and see little dabs of paint everywhere, it gives you an enormous sense of wellbeing. :)

Edit: Written while Nige was writing his reply.
 

overworked

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Same here, we try to mark everything, bolts, hoses, filters. Cell phones are the worst, I hate seeing an engine going together and the phone in a techs hand, makes me think were are his thoughts.
 

JimBruce42

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Thanks Alco, I'm still getting the hang of the new 6000 series numbering system. Watching some of the time lapse of the stick being put on, it seemed pretty logical that they would be empty, but ya never know.

I hope we get to see some action shots or a short video when it finally tracks down into the mine the first time.
 
Last edited:

alco

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I hear ya Jim. I think they should have left the old numbering system, but then again, I also think they should have gone back to the old Red and White from the O&K days. Just for reference, this would have been an RH170 with the old system.
 

Gavin84w

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The only bolts i have ever marked are those to be torque turned, never marked any others in my life, i used to work on the logic if the bolt goes in it is tightened, if i can,t tighten it, it does not go in. I have seen many loose bolts that have had X on the head.
 

caterpillarmech

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I am the same way. If it is in, it is tight. Done and don't have to double check as I know it was done right the first time. Now I still look over all my jobs at least twice to make sure it is perfect.
 

Zed

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I agree, it is a good code to only install a bolt, if you are going to tension it straight away. I only install a component if the guys have all the hardware and tools, torque specs etc. to install the component and torque the bolts exactly as per spec. Also a good idea is to double check the hytorc pressure guage. i know of a case where the hytorc guage was working fine, but it was way out of spec. They only found out when swing bearing bolts were stretching beyond their limits and breaking. Thus, all the bolts installed previously were overtightened and had to be replaced. Thats a lot of time and money right there.
 

Nige

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I have no problem with the 3 posts above, if that's the system you work to then go for it. However maybe it's just me but in pretty much every assembly I've been involved in we often go back through the machine looking for stuff like wiring harnesses to re-route or hoses where we're not happy about their proximity to a sharp metal corner somewhere, or even rubbing on an other hose. The factory don't always get it right on the production line and have been known to make some pretty spectacular assembly blunders. Uusally you don't always spot them until maybe you're a couple of steps past that point and have to go back.

However hands up every mechanic on this forum who has looked at a particular hose when the machine assembly is over & done with and thought "that needs to run better than it is right now" and having made that decision literally had to slacken off the fasteners on half the machine to get it where you want it to be. At the end of it you sometimes look back at all the effort and wonder why you bothered. You may end up with so many maybe not necessarily loose fasteners but slackened enough so that you can rotate a clamp for example. We use 2 different colours of paint markers so that we can see where we've been the first time and any subsequent time afterwards.

Our last step is always to send someone back to double-check a sample of fasteners all the way across the machine.
 

JimBruce42

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I'm impressed... two and a half weeks and it went from parts to digging... too bad it is out of sight now.
 
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