Featured in a personal favorite episode of mine titled “Something in the Air”, the dockside steam crane is an obscure yet beautiful prop I had great pleasure replicating. My goal for this project was to experiment with creating a functional crane model that could swivel 360 degrees, move its arm up and down, and retract its chain via a rotating piece near the center. This fully-articulable model was made using a variety of materials, and remains one of my proudest structures!
Making of: Dockside Steam Crane
The crane's screen used prop (season 5 condition)
My CAD design of the crane - designed to be semi-functional, with a fully rotating body and several slots for jewelry chains to maneuver the arm up and down
The fully assembled model after 3D printing. The crane arm was snapped into place, securing it onto the main body
A cut toothpick poking through a chain was jammed into two plates and snapped onto the body to create a working winch. The chain was then run throughout the rest of the crane's arm
After the crane's functionality was figured out, it was painted, detailed, weathered, and varnished! Paperclips and toothpicks were used for other bits of metal detailing