Creaky Lego - first vintage rebuilt question

[duster408]

I brought out my 8855 I received new in 1988. It had been hanging built since then hence it had LOTS of dust. I disassembled and ran all the pieces through my heated ultra-sonic cleaner using water and Dawn Dish soap. I kept the temp around 105º F. After I inventoried the pieces and replaced several connectors that had cracked on their own, I started to assemble. The studded pieces are much tighter and creak compared to the new sets I have assembled in the last 3 years. Is it because the oils in the plastic have dried-up or did the older stuff have tighter tolerances? I thought about using something like Armor-All on them. Has anyone else had this experience? I have 8-10 other models from the late 80's to mid 90's I will be rebuilding.

[deraven]

In my own experience, I'd say that the answer is "both." Older pieces definitely had more clutch power (and in fact some were re-designed because they had too much), though I thought that was mostly done with by the late 80's. Most of my stuff from then seems OK. Embrittlement with age is likely another factor as you noted. The ABS will be a bit less flexible so rather than silent flexing you'll get a bit of creaking as the parts strain against each other and strain internally.

It's not really a matter of "replacing oils" when it comes to aged ABS (especially if it's had a lot of UV exposure) so I doubt something like Armor-All would do much besides make the bricks slippery, but perhaps someone else with a more in-depth understanding of materials science/polymer chemistry can chime in!

[duster408]

I rubbed a tiny bit of baby lotion on the studs of one and tried it, much easier but after a few times it became too easy. No creak though. Oh well.

[3797]

I rubbed a tiny bit of baby lotion on the studs of one and tried it, much easier but after a few times it became too easy. No creak though. Oh well.

That may have been a bad idea. Have you heard of bricks and other pieces cracking for no obvious reason? Some say that this may be caused by handling LEGO with greasy fingers.

[mpfirnhaber]

I think it's both the washing process and the old bricks. New LEGO elements fit together with a satisfying snap!, but I've found that older elements seem to rely more on friction than precise engineering to keep them together. It requires a heck of a lot more squeeze to get two plates flush when you're dealing with pieces from Classic Space sets than anything from the last couple of decades.

I've also noticed intensive washing will increase the squeaking and creaking that you mentioned. I just got a bunch of CS parts the other day, and ran all the white and gray through a hydrogen peroxide bath to counteract the yellowing. That increased the squeakiness of the bricks quite a lot compared to what they felt like as I took the sets apart (they shipped half-assembled for some odd reason).

[duster408]

That may have been a bad idea. Have you heard of bricks and other pieces cracking for no obvious reason? Some say that this may be caused by handling LEGO with greasy fingers.

I have read that warning from LEGO but find it some-what hard to believe. LEGO uses ABS to make their pieces, the "B" in ABS is butadiene which is derived from petroleum. I could be wrong, I'm not a chemist. Since getting back into LEGO's, I was upset that so many of my models that I haven't seen or paid attention to in 15 years have cracked connectors (3651, 4265, 4273). What shocked me was those same pieces I had many extras stored separated in two fishing-tackle boxes are also cracked. They were loose, nothing inserted but yet have cracks.