shapes
Chapter 6 - Post Panic Attack Trauma
19/07/1999
After the fun of the High Wycombe fete comes the clear-up operations. MPM's shovel was very badly dented and even had a hole through from Panic Attack's spikes (See pictures). The scratches can just be painted out but the dents highlight two problems:- the shovel isn't powerful enough and it is susceptable to damage despite being 2.5mm thick steel!! Perhaps 4mm thick would have been better after all, although I don't think we can do the weight.
I knocked out the worst of the dents with a club hammer, but it's not possible to get is perfectly back in shape. The next thing to do is to mount a third pneumatic piston to lift the centre of the shovel and protect the middle section from impact. Based on my calculations, the three pistons will give us the capacity to lift over 100kg! (The two could only manage about 65-70kg at best due to losses in the system).
To fit the third piston I have taken out the whole drive system plus one motor and the central frame support. A new bar is welded to mount the cylinder on and new fittings on the shovel (not seen here). All done smoothly then onto the next problem - one of the drivebelts broke (despite being steel banded) under stall so I checked the motor drive. 
I found that the rear mountings on the motors are flexing, which causes the belts to jump and snap in the drive. Under stall this strain either pops them off or just snaps them. The solution is to re-build the rear mounts from thicker steel - they are currently just made from 12 gauge steel. I will use 2.5mm steel as used on the front mounts and this should cure the problem.