How to build scaffolding from axles?

[bbjones]

Hi all,

Please forgive me barging in, but I'm a bit desperate for some help for a Christmas present.

I'm an old-school Lego builder trying to design a model of a scientific instrument. The instrument is called SPIDER; you can see a picture of it here. I used the Lego designer to come up with a pretty decent model of the main instrument (the white part in the picture.)

There's a scaffolding around the instrument that does two things: first, it holds the big solar panel. And second, it attaches to the balloon that will carry it around the South Pole from its launching station at McMurdo, Antarctica.

I was all set to build the scaffolding using axles and the toothed toggle part (4273). The idea was to include some 1x2 bricks with axle holes (32064) to extend some short axles, and then use the 1/2 bush with teeth to lock in the right angles. From there I can construct some approximation of the scaffold.

However, as I'm sure you are all well aware, LEGO hasn't made 4273 for almost 20 years. (Told you I was old-school.) I'm sure there is a new paradigm for how things like this can get made, but I can't quite figure it out. The new angle pieces (like 32192) have two axle slots and a pin slot, so mounting that big white instrument in the pin would just let it spin around.

I'd be very grateful if you could share how you would build that scaffold.

Thank you!

-Brian

[62Bricks]

Are you constraining yourself to new parts only? Those toothed toggle parts are about ten cents each on the used market.

Probably the closest current parts are the notched hinge parts 30552 and 30553 which allow you to set two axles at a wide variety of angles. They lack the hole at the joint through which you can place a pin or another axle, so you'd have to build around that. There is also 41532, which would allow you to connect a hinged axle to a pin hole (using 30553) with a friction pin. That restricts rotation to a certain degree.

You can also achieve angles of 30-degree increments using 57585 and some straight axle joiners:

[bbjones]

Well, at least I'm not totally crazy!

I think you are right -- doing it with the toothed toggles on the used market is the way to go.

Thanks!

(of course, I'd still love to hear other ideas!)

-Brian