Bill Ward’s Brickpile

This old-fashioned fire truck was built in July, 2004 for the display that my LEGO club, Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group & Train Club put on at a museum in Pleasanton, CA. Since the 4th of July was during that exhibit, we added a parade to the layout, and what’s a parade without an old-fashioned fire truck? So I built one.

More pictures of the model can be found on Flickr and on Brickshelf (once moderated).

Technorati Tags: lego, town, vehicle, firetruck, fire, truck

I spent most of the day today at the 2006 Cal-Stewart Spring Meet of the Train Collectors Association (TCA) at the Santa Clara Convention Center. My LEGO club, Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group & Train Club, had a big train layout on display all weekend (see my previous entry with pictures of the setup on Friday).

We had a 30×30 foot space, most of which was taken up by the layout, with a few tables offering LEGO parts and sets for sale by our members. My contributions to the layout included the Coast Guard base, San Ladrillo train station, and several smaller buildings and vehicles around the layout.

Pictures of the layout can be found on Flickr. Click the photo to see them.

Technorati Tags: lego, baylug, bayltc, trainshow

Friday evening, March 10, I was at the Santa Clara Convention Center helping set up(*) the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group & Train Club layout for the 2006 Cal-Stewart Spring Meet of the Train Collectors Association. It’s a combination conference and show, running all weekend. Saturday, March 11, it’s open only to conference attendees, but on Sunday it will be open to the public (for a small fee). Come on down and visit us! See the event information on the BayLUG site for details.

Pictures of the layout can be found on Flickr. Click the photo to see them.

(*) – not really. I was really late showing up and the other guys had already done the hard stuff. I just put a few buildings and cars down and took pictures….

Technorati Tags: lego, baylug, bayltc, trainshow

Stephen and Austin Nolen have produced an amazing video for the song “1985″ by Bowling For Soup. Now I don’t know whether they got permission from the band to use the song, but I love what they came up with. It’s a great song, and the LEGO animations fit the music very well. It’ll take a while to download though, so start the download and then make yourself a nice lunch. Depending on your Internet connection you might want to get dinner started while you’re at it.

Technorati Tags: LEGO, Animation, Brickfilm, BowlingForSoup, 1985

Have you ever tried building a scissor lift in LEGO? I’m working on a project that calls for that kind of mechanism to lift it up, like those food service trucks at the airport. It is based on an “X” shaped arrangement, which, like the two parts of a scissors pivot at the middle. By bringing together the two bottom (or top) ends, the top is lifted into the air.

The approach I took was to use Technic worm gears (like a screw) with a rack gear on it. By turning the worm gears the rack gear should move along its length, which moves the two bottom ends together, elevating the top. The problem is that LEGO gears just aren’t up to the load this places on them, and the teeth skip. I motorized it, gearing down the motor to get more torque, but the gears would rather skip than lift the weight.

Has anyone out there successfully built this kind of scissor lift mechanism in LEGO to lift a nontrivial weight? If so please comment below or email me any tips you may have. Thanks!

P.S.: Sorry for the gap in posts – I’ve been sick with a bad cold for a week or so…

Technorati Tags: LEGO, Technic, gears, scissor lift