The Technic Confessional

[Didumos69]

- this is not to be taken too seriously -

Okay, it's been over 30 years ago, but it's still bothering me. Time to come clean .

I have cut my own 3L axles, I have made a constant-velocity joint from two U-joints and I even made my own crankshaft and pistons !

I'm sorry, I will never do this again . I hope you can forgive me!

PS If you want to come clean too, or just like to confess your Technic sins, please confess them here.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Didumos69

[Aventador2004]

Your hammerhead instructions being free will forgive you . The only thing was when I accidentally broke a 16x2 plate and made a 7x2 plate from it. not exactly a sin

[ColletArrow]

@Didumos69 How did you implement the metal crankshaft and pistons? Cutting a 6L axle into tow 3Ls doesn't seem too bad, is it because you wanted them in black?

I have cut the ball off of two Axle Towballs (2736), to create a '1L axle with stop'. Not too bad a sin (I don't think), but a very useful part to have - especially when creating steam locomotive valve gear! This was inspired from @LEGO Train 12 Volts's BR 22-012, but the pair have been invaluable for holding mini linear actuators in place on very small builds (where the maximum width is 3L!)

@Aventador2004 I have accidentally created a pair of 5x4 plates that was originally a 4x10...

[agrof]

I have enough parts, I have lot of ideas (not only Technic), and I am too lazy to sit down to build actually... Is there bigger sin, than owning things, and not to use them? 

[Didumos69]

1 hour ago, ColletArrow said:

@Didumos69 How did you implement the metal crankshaft and pistons? Cutting a 6L axle into tow 3Ls doesn't seem too bad, is it because you wanted them in black?

I used iron wire and a heated needle to melt small holes in the 1x1 brick pistons. I remember doing this at my father's workbench in the garage. The crankshaft broke, I don't recall how. I think in an attempt to attach one of its ends to an axle. The white tape around the crankshaft was to keep the piston connectors in position. Cutting my own 3L axles was because at that time they didn't exist. The need for small pistons also arose from only having the square 2x2 pistons back then.

Later on I started modding my bike and then my moped.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Didumos69

[mocbuild101]

It's okay to modify parts sometimes, other people have done worse...

I modify parts quite often, but 99% of the time they already are damaged or broken.

[1gor]

A the beginning of "Technic" era we all started to "redesign" parts, or at least plan to "redesign" them with sometimes less success, but more often without success...specially when small gears got broken and then glued to axle and then broken again etc - you know from your experience (with some musical backup based on Sun and Beach...you know the details).

So no need to ask for forgiveness, you should look at this as some kind of creativity and every beginning is difficult 

[Didumos69]

16 minutes ago, I_Igor said:

So no need to ask for forgiveness, you should look at this as some kind of creativity and every beginning is difficult 

I wasn't really serious about asking for forgiveness, it was an attempt to dramatize a little, I hope that was clear. After the serious Purism-topic of last week I thought let's take the subject a little more light-minded .

[DugaldIC]

I have to confess, I mucked up! I ran a long extension through my Aston the wrong way and didn't realize till I went to hook up the front lights so I got my hands on a torn extension and a broken reciever and made a double DBG end extension to correct my mess up (don't worry it will be corrected in the instructions haha)! Other than that the only thing I've done is shaved a 3l stop pin to mimic the new brown ones before I got my hands on the Porsche set. Not too bad I don't think ! 

[J_C]

I never meet my own Technic deadlines.

e.g. I did not start instructions for finished MOC, which I will wanna probably build again. I had set myself a deadline for these instructions to be finished before Easter, I did not even started with it yet

4 hours ago, Didumos69 said:

 

this is good idea for topic 

Edited May 23, 2017 by J_C

[1gor]

1 hour ago, Didumos69 said:

I wasn't really serious about asking for forgiveness, it was an attempt to dramatize a little, I hope that was clear. After the serious Purism-topic of last week I thought let's take the subject a little more light-minded .

it is logical response to topic...

[syclone]

Well, here's my confession :

-1x 4l red axle cut to 3'5 l 

-8l axle broken by a buggy motor, resulted into 3'5l and 4l axles

-Broken 2l pin with bush became a bush 

-Custom adapter for 9v battery (minizip style) from a wire off a broken motor

-Broken 13l beam became a 6l beam (I broke Ir when I tried building a 1:1 crossbow)

Hopefully that can be forgiven, Only one part was cut intentionally, the rest were made off broken parts

 

Edited May 23, 2017 by LXF
error due to touchscreen

[Didumos69]

1 hour ago, LXF said:

-8l axle broken by a buggy motor, resulted in two 4,5l axles

This is interesting. You gained 1L ?

EDIT: Aha, I get it know, the answer lies in your signature .

Edited May 23, 2017 by Didumos69

[M5Technic]

2 minutes ago, Didumos69 said:

This is interesting. You gained 1L .

LOL.

I cut 5L axles into 2.5L so my cv joints never slip out...

[Thirdwigg]

I have cut one 24t crown gear.

I regret nothing.

 

[StudRobotics]

Those are some old Lego pieces you got there, @Didumos69. That's some crazy "Lego-illegal" modding you did to those pieces. I don't think I ever modded a Lego piece ever, but sometimes I use non-Lego material such as paper and cotton to make outfits and whatnot for my EV3 robots. Check out my old Dancing Santa Robot.

[proran]

Wow, it's a funny topic! As with most of us, the worst thing I've done was before my dark ages. Now the bricks are precious. So back then in my home country, there was no Bricklink, and pneumatic sets were unbelievably expensive in the scale of my pocket money or even a Christmas gift. But I wanted these cylinders so badly... So once, I was happy enough to came across these 'Technic Service Packs' and bought two small pneumatic pumps. I've tried to convert one to a cylinder by drilling a hole in the upper part, gluing a small plastic tube there and deactivating the one-way valve by inserting a piece of a needle in the lower tube. Unfortunately, it worked only for extension, as, apparently, the pump is designed to suck the air from outside while contracting. Nerveless I'd used it in a couple of MOCs, as usually you don't need pressure to contract the cylinder, the gravity do the job. I'll see, if I can make a picture, that piece of horror should be still around somewhere...

[Attika]

6 hours ago, LvdH said:

The worst (and only) thing I did was painting 6 LBG half bushes black...  Black bushes are just impossible to find and LBG bushes are everywhere, so I can forgive myself.  

There is a different way to get black bushes:

And due to the nature of this topic I'm really really ashamed. 

[Lipko]

4 hours ago, DugaldIC said:

The only thing I've done is shaved a 3l stop pin to mimic the new brown ones

I did that too. And for the Pneumatic Contest. I'm the Ted Bundy of this thread.

[Attika]

1 minute ago, LvdH said:

That method is slightly harder for getting half bushes...  

Oh, the hasty me... The "half" slipped my attention. Can I take it back? 

[syclone]

2 hours ago, Didumos69 said:

This is interesting. You gained 1L ?

EDIT: Aha, I get it know, the answer lies in your signature .

Oops , meant 4l and 3'5l , stupid touchscreen phone.

[Attika]

6 minutes ago, Lipko said:

I did that too. And for the Pneumatic Contest. I'm the Ted Bundy of this thread.

What dark things are just coming up from the deep.... I'm proud of you.  I didn't see this coming.

[Marxpek]

I have shunted a battery box to feed this speedy tracked racer with 2 buggy motors, besides that no confessions (however i already said i shunted it in the video, so does that count as a confession?)

please do not mind the video quality... 2nd (out of only 6) video i made and i'm still trying to improve...but i had a lot of fun with this tracked racer and i think shunting the box for it was worth it.

 

Edited May 23, 2017 by Marxpek

[jorgeopesi]

Other than that the only thing I've done is shaved a 3l stop pin to mimic the new brown ones

I also did it but I don´t feel guilty at all, when I see abusive prices for parts that I can do I don´t care, another part I have done is the 11 axle. The only thing I remember and I still care it was cut a 12 axle to get one of 2 because I was lost it, it was my first set technic and I didn´t have spare parts, I don´t know if I bothered more lose the 2 axle than cut it, It was the 8848 set more than 30 years ago...

Edited May 23, 2017 by jorgeopesi

[nerdsforprez]

I promised to keep my collection more organized and do a better job cleaning my "shop" when done. 

 

Needless to say, I have not kept that vow.  In fact, i just bought more shelving and now have shut down all "building" operations until my organization/cleaning project is all done.  Along with family vacations and the kids being out of school this may take several months.......