Gee's General Newbie Topic

[dhc6twinotter]

5.5 long axles?! It's all news to me. Where I come from the axles are only 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14!

By 1/2 width liftarms, do you mean "thin"?

And to make things even more interesting, there are actually two different lengths of 5.5 axles. Older ones are slightly longer than newer ones (or maybe it was the other way around…can't remember).

In addition to the other axles that Milan mentioned, there is also a 3 with stud, 4 with stop, 4 with center stop, 5 with stop (new), and 8 with stop.

If you are using M motors, you could mount them by using a 1x4 technic brick on the front with a couple of pins. L and XL motors could be done the same way, but addition side bracing would probably be a good idea. Mounting it that way would eliminate any 1/2 offset. Alasdair Ryan posted a good way of mounting it.

Other methods to solve the 1/2 offset could be by using a 8 and 16 or 16 and 24 tooth combinations. That would give you an extra 1/2 stuff offset. You would have to use one of the following bricks if you did this:

[Gee]

Thanks for the advice guys!

@hrafn: I'm no mathematician, so that had my brain smoking!

@Alasdair: Thanks, I'll have a go at building that! I see that you have overcome the odds vs evens problem by adding thin liftarms onto the side of the XL motor. Is the motor attached to the 1x6 technic brick by pins or is it attached by the sides to the chassis rails?

@VMLN8R: Those look pretty manageable when I get hold of some more studless bricks. Thanks for posting.

@dhc6twinotter: I've seen a couple of the axles with stops, they look pretty useful, it would certainly eliminate having to put bushed on the ends.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Gee

[legolijntje]

And to make things even more interesting, there are actually two different lengths of 5.5 axles. Older ones are slightly longer than newer ones (or maybe it was the other way around…can't remember).

[...]

Yea, that's quite annoying. I've got a blurry picture about it on my old Brickshelf. It's so furstrating when using the (too) short version and a bush doesn't fit very nice

[Gee]

Here's my first ever attempt at a PF MOC. Go easy on me, I know that this is very mickey mouse compared to some of your builds, but we've all got to start somewhere.

Some issues I noticed:

- Fitting the PF stuff that doesn't attach to a plate is tricky, it's clearly designed for studless.

- The steering is crap. This would probably be solved with RTC steering - again studless.

- The differential in Alistair's photo was different to my old one, on which the input gear was slightly too big, so I had to use a 24 tooth gear instead.

- I did have it geared up but it clicked like buggery so I had to swap the 8 and 24 over.

- The remote is crap, but that's a minor point.

Of course your comments and criticisms are most welcome!

Edited to add bigger picture.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Gee

[Doc_Brown]

Hi Gee!

Like you I just discovered studless about a year ago, and took me a while to get into it. I like things being symmetrical! And the odd distances annoyed me.

For the last few months I've been collecting more and more studded bits, to try and learn how to combine both systems to their best potential.

Could you provide a larger pic please?

Its funny, you know I have no idea how to build using studded! haha.

It's gone from my mind.

What is wrong with your remote?

[Gee]

I changed the pic to the biggest allowed (800px I believe).

The remote is crude as didn't spend any time on it. It works, of course, but I was more concerned with the actual vehilce. I have a feeling that if I were building basic remote cars in studless it'd be a lot easier.

When I decided to get back into LEGO I was adamant that I was going to just buy PF motors and use my pile of studded Technic bricks. Now I see that I'm going to struggle to make the kind of vehicles that I want (cars, crawlers and trucks) with studded. I likely enjoy it a whole lot more too if I'm not trying to overcome additional issues of compatibility, if that makes sense.

[Junpei]

You should enter this in the Technic Challenge!

What's wrong with the steering? Is it just too fast?

[Alasdair Ryan]

Alasdair Ryan posted a good way of mounting it.

@Alasdair: Thanks, I'll have a go at building that! I see that you have overcome the odds vs evens problem by adding thin liftarms onto the side of the XL motor. Is the motor attached to the 1x6 technic brick by pins or is it attached by the sides to the chassis rails?

Guys stop trying to make me feel clever.

Glee the motor is pined on both sides using pins.

[Gee]

You should enter this in the Technic Challenge!

As what? Crappest MOC ever?!

Yeah, the steering is too quick and you can't get it back to centre.

I couldn't pin the motor on the sides due to lack of thin liftarms to sandwich between the motor and my technic bricks. Ended up pinning it to the 1x6 brick. Worked OK.

[Alasdair Ryan]

Try gearing the steering down more,worm gears are good for this kind of thing.

Or if you have a spare £20 buy a servo motor.

[Gee]

I think that I will end up getting a servo motor, but I bought the M motor for steering, so I wanna get some use out of it first. I've got a worm gear, but that added another level of complexity to my first attempt!

[Technyk32231]

I'll just drop these here, in case you find them useful:

I love that drag link steering!

Here's my first ever attempt at a PF MOC. Go easy on me, I know that this is very mickey mouse compared to some of your builds, but we've all got to start somewhere.

Some issues I noticed:

- Fitting the PF stuff that doesn't attach to a plate is tricky, it's clearly designed for studless.

- The steering is crap. This would probably be solved with RTC steering - again studless.

- The differential in Alistair's photo was different to my old one, on which the input gear was slightly too big, so I had to use a 24 tooth gear instead.

- I did have it geared up but it clicked like buggery so I had to swap the 8 and 24 over.

- The remote is crap, but that's a minor point.

Of course your comments and criticisms are most welcome!

Edited to add bigger picture.

Looking good! That battery box is really hard to use with a small(ish) chassis... Edited December 15, 2013 by Technyk32231

[Gee]

Hahaha! You're too kind Technyk!

[Gee]

Having seen what a PITA it is to build the PF stuff into studded builds I'm keen to get a studless set to give me experience in building studless and also give me a stock of parts.

I have my eye on a medium set for the following reasons:

- Price; can't drop any big wedge on LEGO in the near future.

- I don't want PF stuff as I've recently bought the motors, box and remote separately and don't want to duplicate.

In studless I have only 2 sets - 9391 and 42005. I do have a shed load of studded stuff inc pins, axles and gears.

So, with that in mind, I have my eye on 9395 (Pick Up Tow Truck). Seems to be a good bet for a load of liftarms (of which I have hardly any) and nearly 1000 parts for £50 seems to be a good deal. What's your thoughts?

I may pick up either 9392 (Quad) or the new Snowmobile in the near future for the smaller steering arms.

[i know I could have posted this in the "what set shall I buy" Topic, but seeing as though Jim created my own Newb thread, I thought what the hey!

[JGW3000]

9395 was at TRU, in the States, for 50 % off last week as in-store special only, of course sold out and I missed it as I had a late lunch that day (its good and bad to work less than 1/4 mile from TRU, with nearby fast food )

I'd recommend a 42006 mobile crane as a good set to get, lots of panels, beams, pins, etc..., the 9395 should come down in price in both the stores and secondary market, there are way too many of them available.

[Gee]

42006 would be OK, but I'm not fussed on the LAs or tracks for the time being. Also at the same price, it's got nearly 250 fewer parts than 9395.

[legolijntje]

The 9395 is a nice set to have. I don't know what pf parts you have, but the instruction manual also has a few pages that show you how to build in your own pf parts (or they say you need 8293).

Take a look at page 39 of the instructions to see what I'm talking about

That's also something to consider, so you can see how they use the pf in a real set

[Gee]

Thanks for the pointers!

I've got an XL motor, M motor, receiver, remote and box, so could easily PF this set, although I probably wouldn't bother as it doesn't add much to it and looks very odd.

Another set I'm considering that fills the above criteria is 9396, plenty of useful bits.

Hopefully I may be able to pick up both of these sets in the post Xmas sales.

I'd have bought them before, but they're both sold out on the LEGO site and I like to collect my VIP points if the sets are the same price as elsewhere.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Gee

[efferman]

it is easy to hide a M Motor inside of the hull

100_8971 von efferman auf Flickr

[Gee]

So today I sat down to have another go at making a simple RC car. This time, instead of using studded parts, I used the only studless liftarms I had - from set 9391. This was quite constraining and there's much better ways of achieving some of the things I have done, but I just don't have the parts (yet ;-) ). Here it is:

My thoughts on this:

- It looks and works better than the studded one I did before.

- Building studless is more 3D than studded (if that makes sense).

- It's hard to get used to the odd number of studs (I'm used to even).

- It needs a differential (I haven't got one that would work).

- The steering works but needs some tricky set up to get the right tension on the elastic band (note to self - buy a servo motor).

- 8 tooth gears are really weak! I broke one when I had this geared 8-24-24.

- When geared 24-24-8 it's plenty fast enough (especially with these big wheels).

- It's now geared 16-16-16, which is a good compromise.

I'd be pleased to hear your comments and criticisms. Please do bear in mind that this is my first ever studless MOC and I'm very new to this sort of thing.

[Junpei]

Looks a lot better than your first one! I noticed that too when I started building with studless; you can build in all directions because studless is based off of 1x1 units.

[Gee]

Here's the latest attempt at a simple RC vehicle:

I used the return to centre steering idea form Mahjqa's Flickr (there's a photo of it in an earlier post). this one works really well actually. For a while I couldn't get the RTC to go fully back to centre until I worked out that I had used friction pins in the steering joints where I should've used non-friction. It's little things like this that I'm learning from building these simple vehicles.

I also got round the problem with not having any workable diffs by going to single wheel drive. The car is very maneuverable and has a small turning circle. I'm fairly happy with this one and if I had different wheels and tarted it up a bit with bodywork, it'd look OK.

I'm also learning a lot about gearing with these little projects. The beveled gears' teeth grind together sometimes when starting off or if I get stuck on something. How would I get round that? Gear down more?

As always, your thoughts are most welcome!

[skppo]

I'm also learning a lot about gearing with these little projects. The beveled gears' teeth grind together sometimes when starting off or if I get stuck on something. How would I get round that? Gear down more?

One of the things I have the most problems when building is bracing. The bevel gears need a solid support or they will slip. In your MOC nothing is keeping the two black

beams around the xl-motor from separating outwards, allowing the belvels to slip. A cross beam or a self contained support around the gears would do the trick I suppose.

[Gee]

Ah, I see what you mean, that makes sense, thanks for the tip. I've run out of beams now anyhow! I'll bear it in mind for when I get some more parts.

[Lakop]

Gee, it takes practice and time to get back into it and you're on track. You're where I was a while ago, making prototype's as we learn the new parts. The look of the model can wait for now. You'll be making trophy trucks and crawlers before you know it. I've made my first RC model purely as an excercise, which I posted before, and am now looking to make a video of it to post.

Keep it up.

H