13 replies to this topic

[LegoCityMann]

I was searching the web for news articles on LEGO and came across a cool blog at http://www.brickbending.com The techniques and examples are so cool I had to give it a try. Here's what I made. It contains 300 1x2's of various colors.



I figured it would fall apart the first time I tried to move it but it's surprisingly stable. I was able to pick it up, hold it, and even roll it around and it still hasn't shattered back into 300 pieces. I've seen something similar done alternating 1x2's and round 1x1. Anyone else tried this with any success? The website has a alot of other cool examples of what this guy has done with this technique.

~LCM

[Artanis I]

Very interesting... some cool shapes there, it would be difficult to integrate any of that stuff into a regular scene though. But I'm sure some smart cookie would be able to find a way to fit the technique into a MOC.

[Lego Otaku]

I've done it with 1x3 brick and 1x1 round brick.  A bit more stable than 1x2 bricks and 1x1 round bricks for handling or rolling but both are fine as towers or something in a MOC.

[Brickdoctor]

This technique of stressed bricks has been around for a while. You can use it in everything from towers to ship hulls.

[Fallenangel]

Brickdoctor, on 22 June 2011 - 07:54 AM, said:

This technique of stressed bricks has been around for a while. You can use it in everything from towers to ship hulls.

That's right! Famously applied here:





EDIT: I also came across a presentation on it in the Eurobricks Index of Tutorials when I first joined.

Edited by fallenangel309, 22 June 2011 - 08:41 AM.

[Brickdoctor]

I was actually thinking of Town ships, but that works, too. Which MF is that? Pepa Quin's?

[Fallenangel]

Brickdoctor, on 22 June 2011 - 08:43 AM, said:

I was actually thinking of Town ships, but that works, too. Which MF is that? Pepa Quin's?

Yes, that is Pepa's amazing MOC... I even seem to remember him referring to the technique as 'stressing the brick' in an interview or something of the sort.

[tedbeard]

I used it to build a bridge in 2009:

[davee123]

The most extreme use of this technique I've ever seen was a radius of roughly 11 or 12 bricks, being done by one of the Master Builders on the Millyard Project.  The wall kept literally EXPLODING from the strain, and he had to repeatedly start all over again.  Not sure how many times he built it before it finally stayed together!

DaveE

[Legocrazy81]

Wow, those are cool! I really like the spiral one that was in all yellow. I've seen a few towers on here than were a cylinder, I'm gonna have to gather up some 2x2s and give that a try.

[Brickdoctor]

davee123, on 22 June 2011 - 04:02 PM, said:

The most extreme use of this technique I've ever seen was a radius of roughly 11 or 12 bricks, being done by one of the Master Builders on the Millyard Project.  The wall kept literally EXPLODING from the strain, and he had to repeatedly start all over again.  Not sure how many times he built it before it finally stayed together!

I would assume he just kept doing it until the stress bent each individual brick and allowed him to finish the model.

[Eskallon]

I love this technique and find it to me it seems like the best possible way to build and round tower, no other way will ever the give the quality way of how this works. I would love to one day the 'great tower' from Hogwarts being built like this.

[davee123]

Brickdoctor, on 22 June 2011 - 06:17 PM, said:

I would assume he just kept doing it until the stress bent each individual brick and allowed him to finish the model.

Well, the bricks he used each time weren't necessarily the same bricks in the same orientation-- but yes, I'm sure the stress on the plastic was sufficient to start warping the bricks! If it weren't glued (it's one of the few parts of the Millyard that's actually glued), I expect if you took those pieces off they'd be BADLY bent. But mostly, it was just funny to periodically look over at his table when he was building it, and seeing a sudden spurt of 1x2 bricks go flying into the air as the model flew apart.

It's hard to tell the tight diameter in this picture, but here's one that I found of the bent wall:

http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?i=949629

I don't know exactly what radius is, but I'm the one that took measurements on the buildings for the overhead map, and looking at my electronic notes (not my handwritten ones, which would have better info), it looks like 11-12 studs of radius.

You can see in the picture where he interspersed some rows of 1x2 plates in with the 1x2 bricks (the old-brown horizontal stripes), but I don't remember why he ended up doing that.

DaveE

[Brickdoctor]

Wow. Looking at the gap between the edges of each brick, I can tell they're under quite some stress. Perhaps the rows of plates were used to keep the structure together. Stacks of plates are usually stronger than bricks.