Ace-Garageguy

Future Shock was kinda 'out there' in 1970, but it accurately describes a lot of what we're seeing today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock

Pretty bizarre reading some of the haters online insisting Edison was a big zero who "exploited" people working with him, and took credit for other's accomplishments. Which brings me to Thoughts and ideas that hold forever true: Some things never change.

More stuff that was too cheap to let slide...that I'll really try to get to by 2070. The Mack trucks give me a complete set of the series, some of which are decent builtups. One of 'em (I have a couple extras) will eventually be an AP Mack as used on the Hoover Dam project. EDIT: And how cool is this? Also...a Heller R8 Gordini, because I saw a nice build on this very board. I figger a better pair of carbs and a couple other upgrades is all she needs. Ferrin restaurant owner friendamine longtime back ran a couple Gordinis and a Porsche 911 as his dailys, and I did a lot of work on 'em.

"Complete a project"...sorry, I'm not familiar with the concept.

Sounds like some smoothbrain learned a new word.

Venison. Yum.

Medication can have unpleasant and unpredictable side-effects

One of my favorites:

Power is the only thing some people live for, and I'm not talking about Reddy Kilowatt.

Relationship advice for furries pops right up on Google.

Or bail, or plug the hole in the boat, or if it's raining too hard to fix the roof, at least put buckets under the leaks instead of whining. In short, when a difficult situation arises, DEAL WITH IT. Behaving like a competent adult gets easier with practice.

Or a giant sloth.

I do have two 1/87 (HO) scale models of the Hulett ore unloaders.

Understanding how steel is made from ore or scrap is fundamental to understanding how massive machines are made. The casting process for making huge components is also required knowledge to "get it". The video below, while not great, gives some insight into casting and finishing massive machine parts.

There's no shortage of internet and YT rabbit holes you can go down, eventually leading to the kind of thing you want. This one isn't so much about building massive machines, but it presents various starting points for more research.

By the way...does anybody know what's really going on?

Yes. There are multiple massive steel castings, sometimes joined by very special welding processes. The building of these fantastic machines is fascinating, if you're into that kind of thing. Note the size of the rest of the machine relative to the size of the bucket in the OP's post (lower right, photo below). Remember...this thing could move to different work sites under its own power

It makes me sad to see fantastic machines like this dismantled and sold for scrap, with the remains exhibited as curiosities. EDIT: Particularly because this country, the US of A, pretty much no longer has the industrial capability to make anything like them. China has DOUBLE the industrial output of the US today, and America's output is primarily motor vehicles, aircraft and aerospace products, and other relatively small things...plus, we buy in a large percentage of materials and parts and subassemblies rather than making the stuff here. Sure, massive machines may not be useful today for any number or reasons (not all of them rational), but we're in danger of forgetting our heavy-industrial heritage in an age where the perception is increasingly becoming that past generations were backwards and incompetent, and that anything that can't be done from a phone app isn't worth doing. These industrial artifacts are every bit as worthy of "historical preservation" as any piece of great art or architecture. A society that has no understanding of its past is likely to fumble its future. The last 2 (of about 80 built) Hulett ore unloaders, once slated for reassembly and preservation, have been cut up for scrap as well. Designed in the late 1800s, they worked continuously from 1912 up through 1992...and without them (or something similar that made rapid unloading and transfer of huge quantities of iron and other ore possible), much of America as we knew it, the America whose unmatched industrial capacity was largely responsible for saving the rest of the free world in two major global wars, might never have developed.

I saw this up close at Saturday's ACME meeting, and it is absolutely staggering. Work of this caliber represents a whole new level of excellence in scale-modeling. It's the ultimate combination of state-of-the-art "technology" with every "traditional" model-building skill. While few of us can hope to ever achieve results like this, every one of us should be inspired to do the best we can with what we have, and never stop improving.

Whole lotta stuff on YouTube. Search "miniature figure painting" in the YT header for many more vids.

I saw this in person at Saturday's ACME meeting, and if anything it looks better up close. Great concept, well executed.

Toes growing out of your nose make it tricky to picket.

"About time" said little Johnnie's teacher, as he handed in the reeking, reconstructed pages of his homework that the dog ate.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.