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Crawlers, Dozers, Loaders & Backhoes Discussion Forum

What's in the counterweight???

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Roy Suomi

01-21-2008 09:30:51




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Has anyone ever wondered what's inside the counterweight on an Excavator..Most are fabricated sheet steel with a surprise inside..Someone said sand years ago...There's a lot of excavators being built in a land where sand can be put to better use, like making more land ..Maybe filled with old dirty books and poo ?? Don't know..What's your thought ??




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daveleeander

01-30-2008 18:04:17




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 Re: What's in the counterweight??? in reply to AJ., 01-21-2008 09:30:51  
Roy,

Several years ago when I worked at the strip job Big Muskie was on, we cut up a couple of Marion Shovels and one old dragline. I'm not sure how old they were, but the counter weights were filled with various pieces of steel punchings, old bolts, nuts, studs, and one of the shovels had a bunch of 50 cal. armor piercing projectiles in it. We all grabbed a coffee can full of the .50 cal. They made wonderful center punches. :D
Dave

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Oldcraneguy

01-28-2008 01:19:00




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 Re: What's in the counterweight??? in reply to Roy Suomi, 01-21-2008 09:30:51  
Cant say for sure on hoes but older cranes mostly used steel punchings, they look like flattend BB's only smaller, cant see why hoes would be different. Don



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Jonathan in mA

01-21-2008 13:26:12




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 Re: What's in the counterweight??? in reply to Roy Suomi, 01-21-2008 09:30:51  
I was wondering the same thing several months ago, and there before me was a damaged counterweight and an excavator with a hydraulic breaker on it.. had to get it into the scrap dumpster somehow, so I decided to find out. It was full of scrap steel parts, small discs and odd shapes that were the result of being punched out of 1/4 " sheet steel. the media that it was mixed in was a sort of black slag type material. Something that looked like a by-product of steel production.

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135 Fan

01-21-2008 12:19:06




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 Re: What's in the counterweight??? in reply to Roy Suomi, 01-21-2008 09:30:51  
I always thought they were solid castings but maybe not. I worked in a welding shop that built some counterweights for a large crane. A rectangular box was made and used drill stem was used for the weight. I had the job of cutting the drill stem that was about 6 or 7 inches in diameter with about a 2 1/2 inch thick wall thickness. The foreman said to go to the tool crib and get the biggest tip for the torch you can find. That was a hot job. I was wearing canvas overalls and a leather jacket and it was about 90 deg. outside. Sand was put in the box to fill in all the spaces between the pipes. A crane with a load meter was brought over to see if the counterweights were the proper weight. I think they were something like 15 tons each and there was 2 of them to build. Using the old drill stem, they saved a lot of money on using something else for weight. Dave

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AJ.

01-21-2008 11:52:20




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 Re: What's in the counterweight??? in reply to Roy Suomi, 01-21-2008 09:30:51  
I have come across concrete in some and solid cast in others.
AJ



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john_bud

01-21-2008 10:22:35




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 Re: What's in the counterweight??? in reply to Roy Suomi, 01-21-2008 09:30:51  
Rumor has it that the ones from China are filled with Toxic industrial waste.

jb



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