Inspiration from Meccano

[aeh5040]

In the last few weeks I have been looking at some of the creations people have made using Meccano (aka Erector in the US). The community appears to be smaller than the Lego one, but it tends to be more focussed on the mechanical, and there is some amazing stuff to see. I have no intention of starting yet another expensive toy hobby, but it provides some great inspiration for possible MOCs. Here are a few things that I find quite astonishing. The first one combines aspects of akiyuky's ball factory and lift triggered by a stuck ball - need I say more? (The first two are from the same builder).

Edited December 6, 2015 by aeh5040

[rollermonkey]

Woah.

Those look way more difficult to get alignments to work properly.

[aeh5040]

Those look way more difficult to get alignments to work properly.

Yes and no. I think one area where meccano has an advantage is that fine adjustment is more often possible. You can screw something down tightly in almost any position (although it can be quite tricky to do this in practice). With Lego the geometry is more constrained, but on the other hand the alignment is automatically correct for many purposes.

Not that I'm an expert in Meccano. But I did dabble with it as a child.

Edited December 6, 2015 by aeh5040

[Kelkschiz]

Mind is blown... I played with Meccano a couple of times but found it tedious with all the small nuts and bolts. This however is very cool!

[Victor Imaginator]

Steam poetry... More than just a complex mechanism. Thanks for sharing your findings, this is best what i seen about meccano.

[doug72]

Back in late 1950,s i received a No. 9 set for Xmas ans spent many hours build models with it.

We even had a shop in the town where I lived that sold only Mecanno.

Saved up for weeks to buy extra long angle beams to make tall cranes.

Never managed to upgrade to a No.10 set - top of the range but I have a reprint of that instruction book.

I have built a Lego version of the Giant Block Setting Crane and currently trying to build a version of a Dockside Level Luffing Crane.

Lego has its limitations when building a version of a Meccano super model. i.e beams are only 15L long - a 30L and compact worm drive gear boxes to suit a range of 8T / 24T / 40T gears would also be uesful to Studless Technic standards.

Even had steam or electric power.

Meccano has a degree of flex in its componants - Lego doesn,t.

Trying to replicate a jib that tapers in two directions has taken quite a while before it looks OK.