Crane
Built by Richard Marsden in March 2020
A return to a classic Meccano theme. The crane is hand-operated, for small hands, for when the current COVID-19 precautions are lifted and they are allowed to visit again!
I used nylon fishing twine to string the crane, not having any strong thread to hand. It is 0.58mm diameter and has a 40 lb breaking strain. I don’t know if it has aged – I bought it over ten years ago – but it isn’t very flexible and needs quite a lot of tension to bend round the pulleys. It hasn’t gone brittle or lost its strength though. When I bought it the shop owner expected I was going fishing for lugworms (or something worms, I’m not quite sure) in the Thames mudbanks. He gave me an odd look when I said it was for a model crane.