Your thoughts on "cutting lego" ?

[Breakdown]

Hi . . . . . . not sure what to expect, but penny for your thoughts in terms of how you'd feel if I started sawing into lego plates and bricks???

I realize that it's an illegal building technique, but . . . I'm considering it, unless there's some one out in cyberspace with a better idea.

I'm trying to equip set #6394 with some garage doors. So the idea is that I'm going to take a four 2 X 1 red plates (super rare . . . I know) and saw into it for the garage door grooves.

Help with idea:

1.) Has anyone already done this?

2.) Do you think that the door will glide over this plate reasonably well??

3.) Do you have a better idea?? I really don't want to take the red out of the whole set, but that's the obvious "other" answer?

Questions of personal faith morals?

1.) If I take a circular saw to a piece am I going to hell??? Lego hell? Some sort of horrible MegaBloks reality that's arguably worse than hell??

2.) Is this okay because a 1 X 2 plate is not rare, no one will miss it??

3.) If you do think that this is a Lego-sin, is there something that I can do to make up for it???

Sorry if this topic has been covered, I tried the search function and came up empty handed.

[tkatt]

If I'm understanding you correctly your plan is to stack 4 plates and make a groove in them.

So you'll be using this and...

trying to come up with something like this?

Don't use a circular saw. You'll probably lose a finger. I could see it being possibe to add a groove with a Dremel, or similar rotary tool. But it would probably just be easiest to track down the bricks with a groove from Bricklink or Brickowl.

I have cut Lego in the past. It was a 32x32 baseplate that I cut into two 16x32 baseplates. I made the cut with an exacto knife. I hesitated to do it, but I needed a 16 wide baseplate and ultimately both pieces maintained thier functionality so I felt ok about it. When it comes to modifying Lego parts some people will tell you it's a sin, but the parts do belong to you and you can do anything you want with them. But really, don't try and use a circular saw on Lego. I just can't see that working out well. Unless what you call a circular saw is different than circualr saws I'm familar with.

[Artifex]

I'm sort of the type of person who cannot see toys from my childhood being chopped, cut, broken, etc, etc, etc. Even a toy such as Lego bricks/parts/pieces/whatever, which come in the gazillions.

I have seen some awesome work done by people who like to customize -- and being a huge fan of GIJoe and Playmobil, I can say I've seen that quite a lot.

I won't judge you, if that's your concern, and why should you care? You are an adult, after all, and quite responsible for your own actions.

But as you asked, well, it always pains me to see GIJoe, Playmobil and Lego, for that matter, in a state that's not it's original or intended.

Why do you need to cut that? I ask not to stop you from doing it, buit as you are building garage doors, what about something like 4217 1x14 brick with groove?

[Saberwing40k]

So, you want to use one of these:

on little tiny Lego pieces? You'd definitely destroy the pieces, and maybe lose a finger. I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do, as I have looked at the set in question, and I do not see a good place to add garage doors of any kind. In any event, Lego does make parts designed specifically for making garage doors, and those are available cheaply, either directly from Lego themselves, Bricklink, or Ebay.

Regardless of that, on the idea of modifying pieces being a sin, there are many stances on it. The Lego Group's official stance is, naturally, "NEJ!". But, you don't work for them, so you don't have to worry about that. As a fan, the only thing you have to worry about is being able to enter contests, as most Lego contest, fan run or official, have a rule against modifying parts. Ultimately, it's up to you, but most fans are against it. Part of that is that the Lego system has rules, and one of them is that you may only use parts from within the system, with the key exceptions being stickers, and sometimes third party stuff like BrickArms guns; among Technic builders, strings and rubber bands are allowed as well.

Personally, I'd only modify a piece to obtain something new, not made by Lego, and that I could use elsewhere. Even then, I'd be more likely to fabricate said piece, maybe through a 3-D printing service like Shapeways. However, I have a small bin of broken parts and some not Lego bricks (Kreo and Megablocks), and if I needed to make a custom piece, I'd take one of those, and use that. I have used some Kreo parts in a custom action figure, and you do not need a power tool to work with them. That would be inadvisable. What I used is the smallest hacksaw I could find, with the thinnest blade I could find, and a set of jeweler's files.

But, overall, for what you are looking for, just get the pieces Lego already makes to do this.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Saberwing40k

[Breakdown]

Did plates ever come with a groove for garages, my inclination is no, I've never seen them. All I need is one plate, but I'm making two garage doors. So left-right X 2 = 4, so . . . not stacking them. I will likely stack the 4 to cut them, and maybe use some already chewed up lego to hold the piece in place.

Again . . . I'm open to other ideas, that doesn't involve destroying pieces 'n such.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Breakdown

[ritzcrackerman]

I'm in the process of getting some small train wheels cut with a slightly larger opening to accommodate a technic axle. Wish me luck. :)

I found a plastics fabrication/bending/cutting company near my home, and submitted for quote. They have done stuff like this before, but it won't be cheap. $20 minimum for testing cuts, and $100 minimum for a jig. They'll be using laser cutters, even though from their experience (apparently I'm not the first AFOL to try) even the laser cutter will sometimes burn the edges.

I've found dremel tools and LEGO just don't mix - any boring or milling just shreds up my edges, and I have a hard time getting a precision cut.

[dr_spock]

Look in model railroading magazines or sites, there are hobby sized lathes, drill presses, routers available for working on small parts.

You can probably file a notch into the 1x2 plate with a small hobby file. I don't recall 1x2 plate with notch for garage door. Perhaps you can redesign so that plate is not required.

[Boxerlego]

1.) Has anyone already done this?

Probably not.

2.) Do you think that the door will glide over this plate reasonably well??

No. Even with out modification stacking brick on brick if not done with an attention to detail can still have its rough spots.

3.) Do you have a better idea?? I really don't want to take the red out of the whole set, but that's the obvious "other" answer?

I would haft to see it.

1.) If I take a circular saw to a piece am I going to hell??? Lego hell? Some sort of horrible MegaBloks reality that's arguably worse than hell??

The only place I see where your going is the hospital. Think about it, is the circular saw the way to go. There must be a safer alternative.

2.) Is this okay because a 1 X 2 plate is not rare, no one will miss it??

Its not okay because the 1 x 2 plate is a very rare Technic piece.

3.) If you do think that this is a Lego-sin, is there something that I can do to make up for it???

Yes its a sin that circular saw isn't LEGO.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Boxerlego

[Breakdown]

Perhaps you can redesign so that plate is not required.

That would be way too easy!!!

[talos]

I have only modified one part, one time, to make a flag pole from a part (99784), I used cutters to cut off the 2 stud end to make it work...it looks like an actual part, no one knows but me... :-)

[grum64]

If you set about cutting a groove in a 2x1 plate using a circular saw I think you'd best change your user name to KitKat

Edited February 25, 2015 by grum64

[Slick Willie]

I cut blocks all the time. Usually to make those older brackets in colors that you can never find. So I just custom cut them, and glue them together with PVC glue to make the bracket.

I would only recommend cutting the blocks using ~~~friction~~~. A bench grinder/sander works great for this. It sits in place on its own, which leaves your hands free to manipulate the brick as you cut it. This should help prevent you from losing a finger, but you can end up with some nasty rug-burns if you let your skin touch the wheel.

I would never even think about using any type of "toothed" cutting tool, like a saw, to cut your bricks. It will only result in them either flying across the room, or ripping the plastic beyond the area of what you actually want to cut. By cutting with friction you are actually melting away the plastic, so it leaves you with a nice semi-smooth cut that you just buff-out with a cloth wheel. It will look almost like a new at the area you cut if you buff it correctly afterwards.

I make all of my jigs, cutting templates, and supporting blocks for the cuts out of Mega Bloks. Once completed, more Mega Bloks are sacrificed to prove that the cut and subsequent gluing will yield the desired result. After the Mega Bloks prototype has proven my design and passed quality my control inspection for strength and stability, it is then thrown away and Legos are loaded into the Mega Bloks jig to be cut/glued.

Once your new custom part is completed and removed from your Mega Bloks jig, the only thing left to do is to go show the new custom block to your woman (who will politely smile at you for your efforts and all the while not care about it), grab a beer from the fridge, and then sit down on the couch and admire the new part you created as you twirl it around in your fingers. Mission accomplished.

[just2good]

It's funny because the Space Needle LEGO Architecture set requires you to cut a rod.

[Breakdown]

It's funny because the Space Needle LEGO Architecture set requires you to cut a rod.

Do they at least include a circular saw in the set like the others have with the brick seperator??

[clm]

the space needle cut is a piece of flex tube that is considered "cut-able" and not one of the illegal connections. If it was a rigid rod then yes it would be bad. :)

Chris

[MAB]

I have cut parts in the past (especially minifig parts), and have no problem doing it if a purist solution doesn't exist.

I've used -

Stanley knife (thin bladed craft knife), good for thin parts and either straight or curved cuts.

Bench grinder, good for larger parts, where you want a flat surface.

Dremel type sander with a small circular head, for smaller parts where you want a curved surface.

Dremel cutter, good for cutting off excess, a few mm away from the final surface to be finished with sandpaper / grinder as above.

Hot wire cutter (thin tensioned wire with an electrical current running through it to heat it) - very good for getting concave straight and angular holes / grooves. You can get perfect 90 degree cut outs, which is often difficult with other tools.

If you want to cut a groove, I'd consider the hot wire.

[AFOLguy1970]

If you can make a clean cut and it improves your design, then I would say go for it. Personally, I would not cut any Lego because I simply am not that precise and do not possess the skill to make the cut look like it was done professionally. It looks like some of you have the tools to make a decent go at it. If anyone has photos of a successful mod using cut parts, please post them.

[frogstudio]

I'm going to cut some parts in a MOC I'm working on and it also involves garage doors. I'm doing a train shed and want to use the garage doors system. My problem is that the height needed for clearence of ny trains is 13 bricks. A slidig garage dor of that size simply doesnt fit into the 1x14 groved brick, so I plan to cut the las towo studs of two of them and ljoin them. I know some puerists will feal horro for this, but I really think it's licit and in some way, it's the way that LEGO designrs use. I would never cut a part if there is a counterpart for that function available.

[robuko]

It's your Lego, do what you like. But please be careful of your fingers!

[fred67]

Look in model railroading magazines or sites, there are hobby sized lathes, drill presses, routers available for working on small parts.

You can probably file a notch into the 1x2 plate with a small hobby file. I don't recall 1x2 plate with notch for garage door. Perhaps you can redesign so that plate is not required.

+1 Best post... put all four together and use a file (even a metal nail file), if you have to - perhaps make a slight, straight cut beforehand to help guide you, or maybe rig up a jig.

In fact, you might sacrifice some longer pieces to sandwich in the 1x2 so that they can be more easily held in place in a saw box.

I've never done anything like it, but I'm not adverse to modifying LEGO (see the Harry Potter wands in my signature).

[Breakdown]

I'm going to cut some parts in a MOC I'm working on and it also involves garage doors. I'm doing a train shed and want to use the garage doors system. My problem is that the height needed for clearence of ny trains is 13 bricks. A slidig garage dor of that size simply doesnt fit into the 1x14 groved brick, so I plan to cut the las towo studs of two of them and ljoin them. I know some puerists will feal horro for this, but I really think it's licit and in some way, it's the way that LEGO designrs use. I would never cut a part if there is a counterpart for that function available.

I'm assuming that it would make the door too "stiff" to fluently open at all, but you might be able to join two 1 X 14 (or whatever the brick size is) upside down and right side up.

[Breakdown]

SUCCESS!!!

This isn't the final destination for these pieces, especially the rear two which are just propping up the rear end of the garage.

The garage door slides over these even smoother than the 90 turn from the top piece to the bottom pieces. I'm happy.

Aesthetically speaking I was pleasantly surprised it's not really overly noticable when the door is open.

Took about 8 pieces to get 4 good ones. 2 didn't cut at the right angle and several shot across the room at really high rates of speed, and I wasn't able to locate some of these, they may be under the chest freezer, I wore safety glasses because of this concern.

Close-up of my work.

[Saberwing40k]

Oh, so that's what you wanted to do. The set you were talking about, 6394, is a completely different set than the one you were modifying. Personally, if it were me trying to add a stripe like that, I'd have used a sticker, but your modified pieces look right, like something Lego themselves would make, and function perfectly.

[dr_spock]

Nice work. Looks like you still have your fingers too.

[clm]

That looks great and I don't think anyone will mourn a couple of standard red 3023 1x2 plates or even miss them :)

Chris