LEGO Sorting Machine

[tofuwarrior]

I have been increasingly interested in an automatic LEGO sorting machine. I buy $1000's of loose pieces and large sets. Often times the sorting takes way more time than I want to put into it though.

So far the best I have come up with is a variable sized screen method. Similar to Box 4 Blox. It still takes a good deal of time to really bulk sort bricks though. I've considered that maybe there are ways to vibrate the screens to speed up the process of them dropping through to lower sizes.

Anyone have ideas for new creative ways to mechanically sort into categories like: small bricks, large bricks, small plates, large plates, tiles, panels, studs, technic pieces, misc small parts?

I will post some pics of my crude sorting screens

[Zeya]

Very interesting, I would love to see the devices you use.

I was thinking of getting a box4blox, but I don't think I will because I don't buy huge lots of mixed bricks. But if I did, you had better believe I would use some kind of sorting tool.

One idea is to have more levels than the box4blox (4) or the Lego sorting head (3) have. There's probably more room on the larger side of the elements (e.g. large plates), but maybe also on the smaller side like for 1x1 studs. Another way to improve that design is to simply make one that has a larger surface area, for a more hardcore/adult use. The sorting head seems pretty small, and I hear the box4blox gets cracks if you accidentally drop it. So you could use sturdier particle board, for example.

Another possibility is to just filter multiple times. Separate the trays, and then send the filtered larger pieces through again, and I suspect smaller pieces will fall out of it again the second time through.

Another idea: make a mindstorms robot to help you sort by color!

[Si-MOCs]

Have you considered fathering children?

Not necessarily the cheapest sorter available, but pretty fun to make

In all seriousness, I've never heard of the box4blox - it's a good concept to at least sort in rough sizes. And I would be also interested to see your contraption.

OMG That's what the LEGO head is? I've seen them before, and I never paid close attention, I assumed it was just a big head shaped storage container... now I might consider getting one. plus it's a giant Minifig head

[Zeya]

OMG That's what the LEGO head is? I've seen them before, and I never paid close attention, I assumed it was just a big head shaped storage container... now I might consider getting one. plus it's a giant Minifig head

It's actually called something like "Lego Sort-and-Store Head". It's just like box4blox with the holey trays (with one less tray, iirc) but I guess it's better at staying as a container and you can theoretically store all your bricks that way. (Some moms would probably love that for their kids.) So yeah, it's a storage device as well.

[bricklayer]

Quite cool....basic but it seems to be effective.

Im sure something must be possible.....but it would cost.

[RubeusHagrid]

Have you considered fathering children?

Not necessarily the cheapest sorter available, but pretty fun to make

LOL!!!

I'd like to see a bigger version of the BOX4BLOX, possibly electric, and with colour sorting of course

[brickmack]

Well for color sorting you could perhaps make like a conveyor belt thing that you would dump the parts onto and then have a few robotic arms that would go down and grab parts of certain colors and put them into containers. I saw something like this at brickworld that sorted colored balls but I can't seem to find a picture of it now. Of course the one at Brickworld had the balls in nice orderly rows, so unless you individually put each part on the belt (More effort than sorting after a while) you would need something that could scan an entire area rather than just 1 small spot. I've seen some interesting things people did using a webcam as a sensor, but I imagine writing a program to scan for colors and then tell the arms where to grab the parts at and all that stuff would be quite difficult. Also with such a wide area of dumping there would be the possibility of parts slipping through the spaces between the links in the technic track that would probably used as the conveyor belt, so you would probably need something to catch those parts so they don't slip into the gears and break something. Also if you are sorting through thousands of dollars of parts at a time, the sorting buckets will likely fill up pretty fast. Maybe you could build in an ultrasonic sensor or something that would see if the bucket fills up past a certain point, and then stop the machine and make some kind of sound to alert you to change the bucket. Of course, you would still have to sort through each bucket, but it would probably go faster.

[Brickdoctor]

Well for color sorting you could perhaps make like a conveyor belt thing that you would dump the parts onto and then have a few robotic arms that would go down and grab parts of certain colors and put them into containers...

I'm sure this could work with Mindstorms, given enough robotic elements. Simple color sorters have been around as part of the main Mindstorms sets since RCX. The problem is that unless you plan to store your bricks by color, it's often harder to sort out elements of the same color and harder still to find a brick in a pile of bricks of the same color. If you have a lot of bricks, but not so many that you can sort by color and element, sorting by color isn't practical.

[brickmack]

I'm sure this could work with Mindstorms, given enough robotic elements. Simple color sorters have been around as part of the main Mindstorms sets since RCX. The problem is that unless you plan to store your bricks by color, it's often harder to sort out elements of the same color and harder still to find a brick in a pile of bricks of the same color. If you have a lot of bricks, but not so many that you can sort by color and element, sorting by color isn't practical.

True. Perhaps the same idea but with some kind of passive RFID tag inside each part which would identify part type (And possibly color if the user wanted to sort by color at a later time) and then have an RFID scanner instead of a color reader? Not sure if a passive RFID tag would have any negative effect on ABS though, and you would have to be careful about what type of tape or glue or whatever was used to attach it inside the brick. Also the glue would have to be washable or otherwise non-permanent if the person wished to resell the bricks at any point. Of course RFID's START at 5 cents (American) each, so when dealing with such massive amounts of parts it might get a tad expensive. Perhaps the robot idea isn't as good as I thought... Anyone have any thoughts?

[Brickdoctor]

True. Perhaps the same idea but with some kind of passive RFID tag inside each part which would identify part type (And possibly color if the user wanted to sort by color at a later time) and then have an RFID scanner instead of a color reader? Not sure if a passive RFID tag would have any negative effect on ABS though, and you would have to be careful about what type of tape or glue or whatever was used to attach it inside the brick. Also the glue would have to be washable or otherwise non-permanent if the person wished to resell the bricks at any point. Of course RFID's START at 5 cents (American) each, so when dealing with such massive amounts of parts it might get a tad expensive. Perhaps the robot idea isn't as good as I thought... Anyone have any thoughts?

But then in order to attach all those tags, you have to handle each and ever brick anyways, so you might as well sort the entire collection while you're at it. It could work for later sorting sessions, but that's only worth the trouble if you're the kind of person who doesn't resort after building an MOC.

In reality, at this time, the best LEGO sorting machine is the human brain, and sorting your whole collection yourself is a great way to get a good idea of what's in your collection.