Tips on work area when building a Technic set

[paulrobinson]

Hello,

I was a massive fan of Lego and in particular Technic as a child. Now I'm coming back to it as a 31 yr old AFOL.

As I child, when building a large set, I used to put all the pieces on a large tray (un-sorted). As an adult, I realized that this was rather inefficient so, I now sort into about 5 groups of parts, each in there own tray or tub. It's a bit of a pain as some of the tubs can be quite deep with pieces making it hard to find what I'm looking for. It's also annoying when I have to put it all away as i have many tubs and trays to pack up.

How are the rest of you doing this? Is there a preferred organization process that I could adopt? Maybe you have some sort of large tray with dividers in, for example?

Any advice would be great,

Paul.

[TommyL]

I sort by color and if the bags are numbered I only open one bag at a time.( Why couldn't they number the 8043 bags is beyond me...) In those color groups I do arrange them somewhat from smallest to largest. I also have 3 small bowls for the red axles, blue triple pins and black double pins since they are used so frequently and really love to roll off the table. I would be interested in hearing what others have done.

Also, once I pull it apart, they go into various tubs based on size and type. When pulling it apart, I use a large sheet pan with turned up edges to contain any parts that usually fall off during break downs.

Edited October 26, 2012 by TommyL

[Erik Leppen]

I used to honor the sorting in the original bags in the set - I kind of liked that. More recently (however that was with 10220 which is not a Technic set) I decided to not use bins at all - I just put all the bricks on the table, unsorted, but kind of small to large from left to right (still honoring the assortment as they come out the bags). The build might take a bit longer - but building this way has a certain charm to it. And you don't have the disadvantage of having to reach over the edges of bins to reach parts, and the daylight falls on the parts better. I found it much easier, and more enjoyable.

Also - fast building is not a goal. In fact, if building the set it takes longer, it means the fun takes longer :D

[Edwin Korstanje]

This is how our friend Dluders build

I am just kidding David

[DLuders]

Yes, I suppose the picture above is true sometimes. I'm lucky to have "borrowed" my wife's folding table and placed it in the living room. There are Lego parts on it for MONTHS at a time!

[Edwin Korstanje]

Yes, I suppose the picture above is true sometimes. I'm lucky to have "borrowed" my wife's folding table and placed it in the living room. There are Lego parts on it for MONTHS at a time!

You lucky bastard, your wife is great

[timslegos]

The bulk of my parts are in sorted bins; however, when I am building something big, the unused and deiscarded parts end up on the floor next to the bins. Building>cleaning time .

tim

[Edwin Korstanje]

When i build sets, mine working place is very orgeniced, but when i build moc's it's a mes

[Lipko]

Am I the only one who works on the ground?

Sets: I just build from the original box and a little extra box for pins+small parts, I only open the relevantly numbered bags.

When I'm MOCing, I group parts every time I start to build in a day, always with relevant conditions. For example I only collect red and black beams and rare half-stud-offset-whatever-connectors and everything else is form the box. Grouping/collecting lasts about half an hour. I don't have many sets though.

[Andy D]

When I build sets I sort into small containers (glad food storage containers). My sorting is by size, color and function. This can take quite a while, but I get to look at new pieces and try to determine what they might be for. When building, I then remember pieces and can find them by size, type, color or function.

I realize that my sorting technique might take longer, but building is not just half he fun, it is most of the fun of LEGO

Andy D

Edited October 26, 2012 by Andy D

[camaudio]

Am I the only one who works on the ground?

Sets: I just build from the original box and a little extra box for pins+small parts, I only open the relevantly numbered bags.

When I'm MOCing, I group parts every time I start to build in a day, always with relevant conditions. For example I only collect red and black beams and rare half-stud-offset-whatever-connectors and everything else is form the box. Grouping/collecting lasts about half an hour. I don't have many sets though.

I play with my sons legos on the ground, but all the technics stay on a table.

These cases come in handy for the small parts

[SNIPE]

I take mu cabinets out of the corner , put them in a row on the floor and start building using the floor.

Sometimes I build small stuff at my desk.

Before the cabinets I had two big boxes and at one point one big one (one box was more system the other was more technic) but when it was all in 1 box some of them were still in original lego boxes or build as models, these were sets bought in modern times.

One of my cabinets is just for the unimog at the minute and instead of a cabinet for system I have a flat storage box that isnt sorted except for some more common parts I have like plates.

Edited October 26, 2012 by SNIPE

[Moz]

Heh, there's a huge ongoing thread on this in the general area that has some Technic content. I have a desk for Lego (and I keep moving non-Lego off it, and one day it shall be for Lego building only!) with shelves above it to hold parts. The wooden trays for plastic Lego bemuse some people, but custom sized plastic trays are out of my price range (I have compartments 12,10,9,8 long for axles, for example)

Edited January 19, 2013 by Moz

[Blakbird]

I mostly use the dining room table. The more room, the better. I usually do a basic sort into panels, liftarms, and "other". It is helpful to remove the large parts so you can more easily find the small parts. I never use bins because it is too hard to see the part you are trying to find. You can see my basic sort and build layout here. Sometimes for a very special project or a review I will do a much more thorough sort like this. Sorting takes a long time, but it makes the build go much faster.

[D3K]

I bought one of these at a local hardware store

In it I have a system (always changing though), for example I have yellow beams in one of the larger drawers, yellow bent beams in another, and the same goes for black as well..

In the smaller trays I separate gears (bevel in one, clutch in one, normal and screws in one etc), pins (black, blue, this and that), connectors, small L-beams, thin liftarms of different colours, rubber bands, string and links, etc etc.

It really is quite nice and keeps things organized (and it was really cheap!).

Just make sure you do not leave too many drawers out at once! I found that out the hard (and extremely annoying) way.

Also, I bought several of these

Great for the smaller, but not so plentiful parts.

For example transluscent parts of different colours, rarer connectors, pneumatic T-bars, U-joints, small (2L, 3L, 4L) axles, gray pins, half pins, tan pins, etc etc etc.

Also very cheap.

Beams/liftarms of lenghts more than 7L, as well as panels and other larger parts, i keep in plastic zip-lock bags, and wheels (all sorts) I keep in a good old shoebox.

I have one box for pneumatic hose and cylinders, and one for all the Power Functions equipment.

As long as I keep my building somewhat in line, and don't make too much of a mess, I can pack it all up and place in my closet in a couple of minutes!

[nychase]

I mostly use the dining room table. The more room, the better. I usually do a basic sort into panels, liftarms, and "other". It is helpful to remove the large parts so you can more easily find the small parts. I never use bins because it is too hard to see the part you are trying to find. You can see my basic sort and build layout here. Sometimes for a very special project or a review I will do a much more thorough sort like this. Sorting takes a long time, but it makes the build go much faster.

Pretty much exactly the same.

Above 1k parts requires some level of a sort.

Building Custom Moc's is usually pretty easy though since you usually have everything sorted already from the collecting phase.

[dr_spock]

I tried the floor but I get a backache now. I use a little corner of my computer table for building. All my parts are in containers underneath the table.

[z3_2drive]

Drawers really help if you dont want those many little containers standing out, and a big desk is great! Like mine:

[Kierna]

Transparent tackle boxes with adjustable compartments meticulously aranged and sorted are my weapon of choice. I'm a motorcycle builder, so thankfully my sheer volume is nice and low.

[Lost_In_Noise]

My setup:

All the big parts goes here, along with any panels depending on set.

All the liftarms.

Pins, bushes

..and connectors on top of eachother.

I've found the the time spent searching is nearly zero when building a set.

[legomuppet9]

Am I the only one who works on the ground?

Sets: I just build from the original box and a little extra box for pins+small parts, I only open the relevantly numbered bags.

When I'm MOCing, I group parts every time I start to build in a day, always with relevant conditions. For example I only collect red and black beams and rare half-stud-offset-whatever-connectors and everything else is form the box. Grouping/collecting lasts about half an hour. I don't have many sets though.

I work on the ground, no space anywhere else

[paulrobinson]

Thanks for all the info, much appreciated!

[Alasdair Ryan]

Here is my building table......

Edited October 27, 2012 by Alasdair Ryan

[legolijntje]

Here is my building table......

And here a bigger version of your image You forgot to link to the normal picture instead of the thumb.

[Alasdair Ryan]

And here a bigger version of your image You forgot to link to the normal picture instead of the thumb.

I had to wait for the picture to be re-sized.