Bill Ward’s Brickpile

I just stumbled across a way to build a 7-way radial symmetry in LEGO.

A technique for building 7-way radial symmetry in LEGO. The blue 2×2 plates are connected to each other using plate hinges in a ring, and when I built that I noticed the ring looked like the right diameter to go around a 4×4 round piece. The hinges actually protrude a little into the center, but by sandwiching the two 4×4 rounds together and filling the space inside with a round 2×2 plate and seven (leaving one stud open) 1×1 round plates, you can make it all fit nicely. And since the 4×4 rounds and 2×2 round plate have axle holes, it can easily be connected to any Technic mechanism.

If you stick an axle in the middle it twirls like a top – it’s very well balanced.

LDraw code after the break:

(more…)

This is how I wash LEGO parts… how do you do it?

I’ve tried a few approaches.  The laundry washing machine (in a mesh bag) worked fairly well, but I think a few bits got loose and got in the drain so I stopped doing that.  The dishwasher (mesh bag in the top rack) also works OK, but I think it gets too hot in there – I had some warped bricks from the heat.  Handwashing seems the safest, to ensure I don’t lose any parts down the drain or have them melted.  If the water is cool enough to not damage my hands, it’s cool enough to not damage the bricks.

I always wash used bricks when I get them, and also any model that has been on display for any length of time tends to gather dust.  I’m very allergic to dust, and I live with someone who’s very allergic to animal dander, so I need to keep my collection clean.

Anyway, here’s the four step process I use to wash bricks.  Please post in the comments if you’ve found a better way or have any war stories about dirty bricks….

1. Soak in soapy water.  I use All Free/Clear laundry soap – I figure if it’s good for synthetic fabrics it should be good for plastic bricks.

2. Transfer to mesh bag and rinse in bathtub.  I had to do this in three batches, I had so many dirty bricks.

3. Use laundry basket, lined with towel, to carry to living room.

4. Dump out on towels on living room floor, with fan blowing on them.  Luckily I live in coastal California, so the humidity is low and they actually get dry this way.  I’ll stir them periodically, but they’ll be dry enough to sort and put away in a day or two.

Anyone want to come over and help me sort?  I’ll give you free pizza!

Every once in a while I get a request to share building instructions for my models. I am willing to do so, but haven’t quite figured out the best way. I was wondering if people might want to comment and make some suggestions?

Some possibilities for formats are are:

• LDraw files
• PDF of instructions generated using LDraw and LDpub
• Printed instructions in black & white or color

The ugly side of the equation comes when I contemplate compensation.  Do I sell them or just give them away?  I think it depends on how much work I have to put into them.  I won’t go through the trouble of creating printed instructions for free, but I might be willing to share the LDraw files for free (Creative Commons licensed).  The question is, how much would people be willing to pay, and is that enough to justify the work it would take me to prepare nice looking instructions?

I had an email inquiry about my LEGO sculptures (see also sculptures on my old site), and I sent the person a bunch of information about where to get LEGO parts in quantity. But then I thought it might be useful to share that information with the world on my blog, so here it is:

[Update 12/23/2008: the rest of this blog entry has been moved to a Page "Buying Bulk LEGO" so it can be found more easily.]

I’ve been using my Flickr account exclusively for LEGO photos as well as other things, like pictures from Earthquakes soccer games or various scenic shots I may take from time to time. I always tag my LEGO pictures with the lego tag though. I stopped using Brickshelf in 2006 when Kevin Loch suddenly shut it down. At that time I uploaded my back catalog of LEGO photos to Flickr and updated links in all the blog entries… what a chore that was! Then he said it would stay up after all, but I was so miffed I didn’t go back.

But I recently realized that a lot of people are still using Brickshelf. So, I’ve started uploading my pictures there too. I’m working my way backward in time through the blog, uploading all the photos to my Brickshelf account that are only on Flickr. I’m not planning on posting any links to the Brickshelf pics, but in case anyone finds me through that outlet, they’ll not miss what I’ve been doing. I am putting a ‘readme.txt’ in every folder I add, which has links to the corresponding Flickr page and blog entry.

How do you do your image hosting?

I recently bought some plastic bins at the local pharmacy (Longs Drugs, if you’re curious) and found them to be very useful for sorting LEGO parts.

These are sold for organizing small things in a drawer. My mom used to have something kind of like it to sort her silverware when I was a kid (though not the little ones). I’ve put them to use sorting LEGO. I connect them together in a big array on a small table, and then designate each one for a particular type of LEGO part.

It’s usually not possible to have enough bins for every possible category of LEGO part, so I do a multi-stage sort. First I sort into broad categories, which is what you see here, and then I take each category and do a secondary sort, and in some cases even tertiary, to their final categories.

How do you sort LEGO?

Lately I’ve been getting into board games, card games, etc. And it got me thinking. LEGO would be a great medium for games.

I’m not talking about regular games that just happen to use LEGO as pieces… There’s Brikwars but I don’t think that’s really LEGO-specific enough. And there are various LEGO-produced games, such as chess and such, which are neat but not really innovative at all.

No, I’m thinking about a game where you have to build some structure out of LEGO while your opponent tries to stop you while building their own. I remember once I came across rules for such a game but don’t know what I did with it.

Does anyone know of any such games? If not, how about creating one?

Technorati Tags: lego, games, boardgames, strategy

As I wrote recently, Unique Brick Tecniques is a great blog for discovering some of the clever ideas people have posted about.

The obvious way to connect two LEGO pieces is by putting the studs of one into the underside of another. But there are other ways. For example you can use a right-angle bracket to connect bricks at a 90 degree angle. For example, the headlights or taillights on most LEGO cars and trucks are often attached this way. In the AFOL (Adult Friends of LEGO) community, the term for this is SNOT (“Studs Not On Top”).

But the trouble with most SNOT techniques is that the bracket pieces take up bulk that sometimes you can ill afford in your model. One of the techniques featured on Unique Brick Techniques a few weeks ago is a very compact way to make a 180 degree connection between two plates. It seems to have been discovered by Brickshelf user “kerouac” (whose full identity I have not been able to find). Read more about it in the threads on Classic-Castle.com and LUGNET.

Technorati Tags: lego, snot