Legos!

[DHC6twinotter]

So, some of you know I'm a big Lego fan, or more specifically, a big Lego Technic fan. If you don't know what Lego Technic is, it is the branch of Lego that offers a more technical side of building. They have parts such as remote controls, motors, linear actuators, pneumatics, as well as a large assortment of gears and axles.

Anyways, even thought this is a Toyota forum, I thought I'd post up a project I've been working on for a while. It is a tractor based on the Case Steiger 335. The tractor is remote controlled and includes a pneumatic 3-point hitch and auxiliary pneumatic outputs for attachments.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/case_steiger.jpg

Specs:

Drive--One large motor at each axle, with differentials.
Steer--One medium motor driving two linear actuators.
PTO--One medium motor.
Air Compressor--One medium motor.
Pneumatic Valves--Three medium motors, one per valve.
Roughly 2000 pieces (just a guess).
18 inches long, or 36 inches with disk attachment.
Fake I6 engine with moving pistons and fan.

Front left view:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture3.jpg

Rear view with pneumatic hitch. The yellow thing under the cab is a small pneumatic cylinder rigged up as a pressure regulator. This makes the motor driving the air compressor turn on/off as needed.
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture10.jpg

Rear 3-point hitch and aux air outputs:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture8.jpg

The chassis with body removed:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture17.jpg

Under hood view of the I6 motor and air compressor (yellow cylinder in front of the motor):
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture4.jpg

I built the tractor in modules. This module has the 3 pneumatic valves and corresponding motors. The white gears are "clutch gears" that allow gear slippage once a certain torque is met. This keeps the motors from stalling once the pneumatic valves hit their limits:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture25.jpg

The steering mechanism. The two linear actuators can be seen in the background. The motor would be connected to the grey shaft sticking out in the foreground. The tan gear in the middle is part of the gear reduction for the drive axle.
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture29.jpg

The disk:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture32.jpg

The mower:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Tractor/picture9.jpg

And finally, a really horrible video I made. I'm not overly fond of Window's Movie Maker.
Lego Technic Case Steiger (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yWnUYdXLtA#ws)

More pictures:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=474751

Anyways, so that's a look at my nerdy hobby. :hillbill:

[some_odd_girl]

Pretty cool! It's awesome what can be done with Legos. I like the pics, what'd you use for the background? (Photo nerd here! Haha)

[DHC6twinotter]

The first picture used my driveway as the background, but everything else was a roll of some thin foam that I picked up from the local arts/crafts store. I just used one piece for the bottom and back, and the back is close-pinned to some chairs on top of our deck table. The sun did the lighting. I did bump up the contrast a bit too. Camera was just my old Canon SD450 that I've had since '06.

[Seanz0rz]

woah! this is the first im seeing pictures of the legos youve done. WOW!

those are very awesome! i lack patience for lego. it takes too much time and fiddling to get everything to fit, i just like to cut and weld stuff together, make it do what i want to do!

those are amazing! im in awe...

[Obi..]

Nice..I stick to basics more and rarely have the time to do designs anymore.

Current builds are..

Sopwith
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal4/3301-3400/gal3308_Lego_Bamford/06.jpg

R2-D2
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2093/2302526491_ec753cfb45.jpg

Then there's some other little things like my racer and all gold Bionicle.

How much have you spent ordering the bit's you needed, or did you use the forum for trades?

I sold off Optimus and BigFoot last year for school $$. R2's up for bids next since I have a spare one N.I.B. :D

[DHC6twinotter]

Thanks Sean!

Shane, I remember when that Sopwith Camel set came out. Very cool set with some unusual brown pieces.

I'm not really sure how much I've spent on the tractor. Most of the pieces were from sets I've accumulated over the years, but I did have to order a few. I ordered a few of the electronic pieces, and about $60 worth of other parts for this build. If I were to rebuild this and order all the parts, It would probably be $4-500 for parts. But again, most of this is stuff I've accumulated for years.

Cool thing about Legos is that the parts can be used for other builds. I'll probably take the tractor apart sometime this week and use some of the parts for a few other projects I'm working on. Currently working on a JCB 3CX backhoe (almost finished), a Bobcat loader with dual steer modes, and a small scale 16 cylinder radial engine with a variable pitch prop (nothing fancy--just uses the same cylinders that I have in the tractor).

[4x4mike]

Wow, good looking Daniel. I was a total lego kid but never at the level you are. Your project looks like a lot of fun and totally cool. I love that engine, compressor and PTO.

[Robinhood4x4]

Very Cool. I think my legos helped steer me toward being an engineer, but when I was growing up I could never find the technic kits in the store and the internet didn't exist.

Fun fact: Did you know that the Lego company is the largest manufacturer of tires (by number of tires) in the world?

[DHC6twinotter]

Thanks Mike!



Very Cool. I think my legos helped steer me toward being an engineer, but when I was growing up I could never find the technic kits in the store and the internet didn't exist.

Fun fact: Did you know that the Lego company is the largest manufacturer of tires (by number of tires) in the world?


I was really interested in engineering as well, and that's what my major was when I started school. I'm horrible at math, so I ended up switching my major to GIS. And lately, I've been tossing around the idea of going back to school and getting a 2nd degree in Meteorology, but that means more math courses. :confused:

I did know that about the tires too. Pretty cool! :D

[arjan]

I don't have much time or room nowadays, but I collected most of the 70's technic lego sets I could find on ebay.
Had some to start with from when I was a kid, and slowly collected the rest. Some of them are still in bags, I never even got around to assembling them.

Beside that I have tons of legoland & space lego from the late 70's/early 80's. I really played a lot with that stuff when I was a kid.

Below is my technic collection to date. I have a couple of doubles also (bulldozer, crane, & helicopter)

[Obi..]

Sweet, I had more than a few of those! FWIW watch our for sale thread, I pulled my spare sets out of storage and they're going up on the chopping, erm, shopping block soon. :D
(*Holy Chit, I looked them up on ebay, the Sop's are going for ~$275-$300 and the R2's for ~$75-$100.. Whoever wants a good deal pm me?)

[DHC6twinotter]

I don't have much time or room nowadays, but I collected most of the 70's technic lego sets I could find on ebay.
Had some to start with from when I was a kid, and slowly collected the rest. Some of them are still in bags, I never even got around to assembling them.

Beside that I have tons of legoland & space lego from the late 70's/early 80's. I really played a lot with that stuff when I was a kid.

Below is my technic collection to date. I have a couple of doubles also (bulldozer, crane, & helicopter)

I love those classic Technic sets. Lego had a lot less variety of pieces back then, and it's amazing to see how the set designers were able to build what they did. I started collecting Lego in the late 80s, so most of those sets were before I got into Lego.



Sweet, I had more than a few of those! FWIW watch our for sale thread, i pulled my spare sets out of storage and they're going up on the chopping, erm, shopping block soon. :D


Cool, I'll keep an eye on the for sale section. Most of what I collect now are sets with the newer "studless" pieces, but there are a handfull of older sets that I would like.


My current project is almost done. I've been doing some testing on it, and I've got a few bugs to work out. It's a large project and I'm kinda pushing the limits of Lego parts. I've cracked a few gears already. :hillbill: I'll post pics of it in a couple weeks.

[DHC6twinotter]

Hey all,

So, this is a project I've been working on for the past 10 months or so. This is a remote control backhoe based on the JCB 3CX.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Backhoe/picture15.jpg

There are 9 motors, and 12 functions (11 if you don't count the gearbox selector as a function). The LEGO remote control stuff only lets you use a max of 8 channels. Because I have 12 functions, I had to build a gearbox to duplicate the function of 4 motors. When the gearbox is in the forward position, I can lift and dump the front loader, as well as operate each stabilizer. When the gearbox is in the rear position, I can control the various functions on the boom. I have a motor dedicated to switching the gearbox position.

Functions:

Drive | 2 XL motors
Steer | 1 m motor
Boom | 1 XL motor
Gearbox Mode Switch | 1 m motor
Dipperstick | 1 m motor*
Dipper | 1 m motor*
Dipperstick Extension | 1 m motor*
Boom Slew | 1 m motor*
Right Stabilizer | 1 m motor*
Left Stabilizer | 1 m motor*
Loader | 1 m motor*
Loader Scoop | 1 m motor*
Working steering wheel
Fake I4 engine with moving pistons and fan


*Functions operated through gearbox

Specifications:

3 XL motors
6 m motors
2 battery boxes
5 IR receivers
3 extension wires
1 set LED lights

10 linear actuators
1 mini linear actuator
4 wheel drive with center differential
8 output gearbox
Pendular front axle
8.4 pounds
25x140 studs (approximate)
5500 pieces (approximate)

Pictures:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Backhoe/picture6.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Backhoe/picture13.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Backhoe/picture19.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Backhoe/picture5.jpg

LEGO didn't make a wheel large enough, so I had to piece together my own. For each of the rear wheels, I built an internal frame and each wheel has 32 smaller LEGO tires stretched around the frame. This took forever to do. :confused:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Backhoe/picture28.jpg

Video:
LEGO Technic JCB Backhoe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1AzwEnd0PU#ws)

All in all, I'm really happy with how it turned out. Some of the motors are straining a bit, and knowing what I know now, I think I'd do one or two things differently.

Anyways, just thought I'd show you all my project. :D
More pictures on my Flickr (http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/64133593@N08/")

Thanks!
Daniel

[Seanz0rz]

WOW.

OMG.

holy awesome lego skills, Batman!


thats all i really have to say about that..........

[DHC6twinotter]

Here's another smaller project I've been working:

This is a 16 cylinder radial engine with variable pitch propeller.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Engine/picture1.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Engine/picture2.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Engine/picture4.jpg

The variable pitch mechanism is built without the use of a swash plate. Everything is done through gearing. The propeller hub is built like a shaft within a shaft. The outer shaft spins the prop assembly, and the inner shaft changes the blade pitch. Under normal conditions, both shafts are driven by the motor and spin at the same speed. However, when the hand crank on the side is turned, the speed of the inner shaft changes and the result is a change in blade pitch. The differential is the key to the whole system and allows the speed of the inner shaft to vary.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/dhc6twinotter/Engine/picture3.jpg

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only problem I have is the number of cylinders. To my knowledge, there was never a 16 cylinder radial engine built. Because of the spark plug firing order, most, if not all, radial engines were built with an odd number of cylinders per row. Radial engines were built with 3, 5, 7, or 9 cylinders per row. Two row engines, like mine, would have been 6, 14, or 18 cylinders. Then there are the engines that have more than 2 rows, like the Wasp Major with 4, or the giant Russian Zvezda radials with 6 or more rows. I think that covers most radial engines, but I'm sure there are exceptions as well as more obscure engines out there.

Anyways, I just thought I'd show a little project I've been working on. I hope to build a plane to go with the engine some time. Sorry about the dark pictures. It was overcast the day I took them. :laugh:

A video:

LEGO 16 Cylinder Radial Engine with Variable Pitch Propeller (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xxDuqpyjOU#ws)

That's about it for the time being. I've just started on my next two projects.

[YotaFun]

Dan, you need to try to get a job for the LEGO corporation, these are amazing.
And I am sure with the endless resources LEGO has to offer, you could build anything your heart desires!

I miss building things with mine, still wish I had the time, its great to see new projects being made

[DHC6twinotter]

Thanks guys!

Avy, that is one of the things I'm pursuing. I've been going to various LEGO conventions and trying to get my name out there. I just got back from a convention in Seattle, and there were some set designers there. They don't design in the Technic theme, so I'm not sure they noticed my stuff. A friend of mine that I went to the convention with is an editor for a LEGO magazine, and he said people were noticing my stuff, but I dunno.

I did apply to work at LEGO as a set designer a couple years ago, but it didn't really pan out. Now that I have more work to show though, I'm hoping they have another opening soon. Being from the US doesn’t really help my odds any either. The company is based in the small town of Billund, Denmark, and most of the designers they hire seem to be Danish, Dutch, or German. Well see though...I'm not going to let that hinder me from pursuing a job there.

[Obi..]

All else fails apply to be a retail rep for them. A friend of my wife and I did it for years. Not super profitable, but it's decent pay for decent work.

http://jobsatlego.com/

[DHC6twinotter]

I finished up a new project a few weeks ago. This is an airplane based off the Piper Super Cub.

LEGO Technic Piper Super Cub (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxR7JVQAYsc#ws)

The real Piper Super Cubs don't come from the factory with drooping ailerons. There are kits available to add them, and I thought it would be a fun to build a control mixer for them. The variable pitch prop is a pretty rare feature on the real Cub, but from what I gather, it was available on some military spec Cubs. I think there are kits available as well.

The plane was a rushed build for an online competition. I wanted the body to look better, but I ran out of time.

I had a blast building this, so I'll for sure be building more planes in the future.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Looks great Dan!! best of luck in all your lego pursuits....

[04 Rocko Taco]

Now build me some of these....

http://jpbrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/LEGO-Gun-Thompson-M1A1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1LCj-CuqVJs/SNXA7Kpl0zI/AAAAAAAABBc/-a10b3-g93w/s400/BrickGun_GLOCK_17_WP_06_800x600.jpg

http://cdn1.gamepro.com/blogfaction/images/ak.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3564/3483171992_9cb99cb3bc_b.jpg

[DHC6twinotter]

Funny you should mention the guns. I was at a LEGO convention last year, and some kid built some really realistic looking guns. Somebody complained, and the cops came in and took a look. The kid was told to put an orange tip on them next time. :laugh: They were very cool.

I"m still pursuing the LEGO thing, but they don't have openings for product designers very often. I'm pursuing other job opportunities as well. :)

[YotaFun]

Dan, that was AWESOME!!!!
That is def the business you should be in, designing kits for them!

[Robinhood4x4]

Are you building these from scratch or from instructions?

[DHC6twinotter]

Dan, that was AWESOME!!!!
That is def the business you should be in, designing kits for them!


Thanks Avy!



Are you building these from scratch or from instructions?



I'm building them from scratch. I usually keep something built for a few months, then I take it apart and use the parts for something else. The parts come from sets I've accumulated over the years, and I order what parts I don't have from LEGO or from a LEGO parts website, Bricklink.com.

[Robinhood4x4]

That's impressive. Very cool.

[Obi..]

NICE Dan! FWIW Lil'One and I tore down and rebuilt Sopwith and R2 after seeing this thread and realizing her cheap-o big blocks sucked. :D

Chris, use some more imagination? :D

Stormtrooper Blaster
http://www.mos-eisley.net/images/e-11lego1.jpg

LightSaber
http://www.coolgizmotoys.com/images/2011/10/9-560x502.jpg

[DHC6twinotter]

Nice gun and lightsaber! I like that 24tooth crown gear you used on the lightsaber's handle. That part usually doesn't come in that shade of grey.

That Sopwith Camel is a great set. Lego has a new Sopwith Camel coming out later this year. I don't buy very much non-Technic sets, but I may have to pick up the new Sopwith. :D

[DHC6twinotter]

Here's a picture of the guns I mentioned earlier:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6177/6222602920_f540e119a0_b.jpg

[CJM]

Build an Aliens pulse rifle next!

[DHC6twinotter]

LOL....that would be awesome! I think the guy that built those guns had some Halo guns as well. Cool stuff.

[fenrisx]

Needs more cowbell.

[arjan]

I like that 24tooth crown gear you used on the lightsaber's handle. That part usually doesn't come in that shade of grey.


I have quite a few of them in light grey, it was the standard colour in the '70s and '80s.
I have collected most technic sets from the '70s and early '80s.
They are not as advanced as the modern stuff, but I was always impressed what they could do with the limited number of pieces available back then.

[DHC6twinotter]

Yeah, LEGO did some really cool stuff with the older Technic sets. They even made a helicopter with collective blade pitch. I don't think LEGO has done that since, although the new helicopter coming out this fall looks to have collective (but maybe not cyclic control).

LEGO changed the light grey and dark grey colors several years ago. It's not very noticeable unless you have the colors next to each other. The 24 tooth crown gear is a fairly old part and not used much any more, so most of them are the older shade of light grey. The light saber that Shane built has both shades of light grey and both shades of dark grey, with the crown gear being the newer light grey. My guess is that gear came in one of the RCX sets.

LEGO has some variation in the black color too, but that is only noticeable if you look really close and have a white light shining on it.

[arjan]

This is what I still have on the shelf in the bedroom. My wife puts up with it ;).

I have have no room to display the rest. I guess that's the helicopter you're talking about.
I actually have that set twice, I also have doubles of that crane, the red tractor and the bulldozer.

For a while I was really into collecting old lego through ebay. The habit has (luckily) tapered off a bit.