Grum's Shed

[grum64]

Build Day 8 / Building Time - 5hrs / Total Building Time - 24hrs

When I went into to my shed today my usual enthusiasm for building was somewhat diminished. The reason, the prospect of putting together the CAT's V12 engine or more specifically its crankshaft. I've yet to find a way of doing them that makes it easier and so they usually add an hour or more to the days building. I've written about why they're so difficult in numerous posts over the years so I’ll spare you more repetition

Being a V12 I was fully prepared for a long, frustrating few hours but happily the first few parts went together without too much trouble. This went on right up until while pressing the last 2854 Crankshaft Centre into place I must have pushed it and the other end of the almost completed crankshaft (just 6 parts left to fit ) together too hard or at an angle and everything shot everywhere. The pistons & con rods were just about the only parts that stayed together. Thinking about now it was just as well it did really because if it came apart to that degree then I’d not put it together very well.

Thankfully, and unlike ‘part explosions,’ of recent times, all the parts were recovered and just over 3 hours later the crankshaft was reassembled. I even got the pistons into the bores pretty quickly & easily so allowed myself a few moments of self congratulation. It then occurred to me I’d got a pair of homeless pistons at one end and an equal number of vacant bores at the other. I suppose I could have left things as they were and just said I was building the British Leyland way but...

 

[Maaboo the Witch]

Putting together engines is the least enjoyable part of a build for me as well. Your D11's really shaping up, though!

[Edwin Korstanje]

On 4/28/2023 at 5:47 PM, grum64 said:

After a year, yes a year, spent patiently waiting 🤥 it’s finally happening! Binky’s back this weekend! I’m SO excited 🥳

Surely news as momentous as this needs front paging!

 

Wow that's  a beast of a mini. Big collover shocks. biggest truck turbo ever. Wow just wow buddy.

My doghter just got here 18e birthday and build this monster for her

[grum64]

15 hours ago, Maaboo35 said:

Putting together engines is the least enjoyable part of a build for me as well. Your D11's really shaping up, though!

It’s not that I don’t enjoy building them, it is Lego afterall. I just find trying to put them together incredibly frustrating made worse because I can’t find an easier way. When I do get it together it’s pretty fragile and I very often end up with it in pieces and starting again 🤯.

I’m also pleased how the CAT’s going, it’s starting to take shape now 🙂

14 hours ago, Edwin Korstanje said:

Wow that's  a beast of a mini. Big collover shocks. biggest truck turbo ever. Wow just wow buddy.

My doghter just got here 18e birthday and build this monster for her

Hello Edwin That’s one very nice present for your Daughter. I’m sure she’s one very happy Young Lady.

[grum64]

Build Day 9 / Building Time - 6.5hrs  / Total Building Time - 30.5hrs

With the building of the engine done I was looking forward to an easy day with no problems and for the most part that’s how it was until that is I swiped to the next page of the instructions and saw it was time for the 90° Elbow Macaroni pieces to make an appearance. Building using these little blighters can sometimes be somewhat problematic and today was one of those times. For a while anyways.

The first picture shows what I was trying to fit together. With the Macaroni piece being curved I couldn’t easily get any purchase on it to push the parts together and when I did it and the parts I was trying to fit to would shoot away, scattering in all directions.

After almost an hour of trying a solution came to mind. Fit the red 2L Axle into a hole on a 3x5 L Shape Liftarm and use the ‘elbow’ of the L to put my palm against to push the parts together. Simple and effective.

Fitting the Macaroni pieces with 8L axles that’ll eventually be the exhausts to the assembly proved to be a right royal pain in the proverbial resulting in three Macaroni pieces and four 8L axles finding themselves deposited in the recycling bin, all tooth damaged or bent beyond further use.

I really hate damaging parts and do my very best not to but unfortunately the way I build means occasionally some do end up in the recycling. Good job I’ve a plentiful and varied selection of spares.

Thankfully, with solutions found and new parts sorted out building progressed at a good pace.

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by grum64
Text correction

[allanp]

Nice progress  also only just noticed you are a fellow project Binky fan! You have excellent taste in  YouTube content good sir!

[grum64]

Thank you. I’m very pleased with how it’s progressing.

Yes, I’m a big fan of Project Binky, I’ E lost count how many times I’ve watched it from the beginning. In my opinion it’s the best of it’s type, no over excited, try hard presenters of false jeopardy. I just wish the updates were more frequent but with the amount of other stuff they’re involved in I’m surprised we get any updates at all. All the Bad Obsession guys projects are really good.

My other favourite channels are Harry’s Garage, Harry’s Farm and the Late Brake Show.

Edited August 23, 2023 by grum64

[allanp]

3 hours ago, grum64 said:

Thank you. I’m very pleased with how it’s progressing.

Yes, I’m a big fan of Project Binky, I’ E lost count how many times I’ve watched it from the beginning. In my opinion it’s the best of it’s type, no over excited, try hard presenters of false jeopardy. I just wish the updates were more frequent but with the amount of other stuff they’re involved in I’m surprised we get any updates at all. All the Bad Obsession guys projects are really good.

My other favourite channels are Harry’s Garage, Harry’s Farm and the Late Brake Show.

Agreed, and the way they basically designed and rebuilt the chassis and bulkhead from scratch and many of the peripherals from scratch is just amazing and speaks for itself, but they have great humor to go with it. Great stuff.

I don't suppose you remember the ".....is born" series of videos created by Marc Evans do you? He did a car is born, a plane is born, a car is reborn (which was a beautiful Jag E type) and my favorite is a chopper is born. I think they're all on youtube...it gives me very similar vibes to project Binky...kinda! Binky is kinda unique really!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NizBRLMDp4o&list=PLz6rFlieI6zedp3m5wPTdw-LemjyOQcEZ

Other technically focused channels I like are "smarter every day", "Adam Savages tested" and "The Engineer guy" amongst many others, as well as a bunch of machinists channels like "Abom79", "Oxtoolco" and "Keith Fenner", oh and a bunch of non technical stuff. I don't watch any TV at all anymore, it's all YouTube and Rumble and occasionally twitch for gaming stuff. Sorry to be off topic  but hey, maybe you watch this stuff in your shed so technically it counts right? 

[grum64]

Build Day 10 / Building Time - 4hrs / Total Building Time - 34.5hrs

Not much to show for 4hrs building I’m afraid. I'm embarrassed to say fitting seven 15100 Pin with Pin Hole cost me very nearly 2 hours! I’ve always had trouble fitting this pesky little blighter so frustration & delay was entirely predictable. What wasn't entirely predictable though was a trip to the local hospital which put paid to the days building.

I was having problems fitting the yellow 5L Axles with the black Connectors that pass through the 28T Turntables. They were supposed go through and the Axle fit into a Connector leaving the Connector at the opposite end sitting flush with the 'face' of the Turntable. Frustratingly I couldn’t get my finger in between the pinholes on the Turntables to push the Axle and Connectors far enough through so I was left with about a stud length of the Connector sticking out.

Obviously they couldn't be left like that so, in what seemed like a good idea at the time, I fitted a 5L Axle into each protruding Connector and put the thick fleshy part of each palm (no idea of the correct term) against them and pushed as hard as I could to get those Connectors sitting right. 

 

Edited February 3 by grum64

[Maaboo the Witch]

Yeesh! When Technic Attacks!

[2GodBDGlory]

Dang, that's scary!

[allanp]

Blimey Grum, sending prayers for a speedy recovery!

[Erik Leppen]

I don't think TLC do that kind of testing on their instructions... :p

[grum64]

11 hours ago, Maaboo35 said:

Yeesh! When Technic Attacks!

I've been pushing axles into place the same way for years and never had a problem, had a few 'near misses' but nothing this bad. It's entirely own fault. Doc suggested I start wearing baseball mitts 🙄. 

10 hours ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Dang, that's scary!

Indeed. Who'd have thought it. Still, makes a change from parts attaching themselves to my lip when fitting them together. That is painful 🥴

2 hours ago, allanp said:

Blimey Grum, sending prayers for a speedy recovery!

Thank you. I'm completely fine and will be back building in a few days.

58 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

I don't think TLC do that kind of testing on their instructions... :p

I guess they thought prospective builders would know better. They obviously didn't expect my level of stupid 🙄

[1gor]

The only important thing is that you'll be ok (anyway sh...t happens all the time)

[allanp]

This has me thinking, is it possible that I could I make some custom tools out of stainless steel (I'm currently in the food industry so everything is stainless steel) to make assembly and disassembly of Technic sets easier? I have some ideas in mind. I need to get on the lathe at work without anyone seeing me to try out a few things 

Edited August 29, 2023 by allanp

[karmadrome]

You literally pushed an axle through the palm of your hand?! Wow, Lego is more dangerous than I thought! Hope you recover quickly.

[grum64]

7 hours ago, 1gor said:

The only important thing is that you'll be ok (anyway sh...t happens all the time)

Hi Igor I’m completely fine, thank you. Not sure I can say the same for the young Doctor who, after he removing the axle from my hand asked ‘can you move your fingers?’ Of course I said ‘I’m sorry, I can’t’ after which the colour visibly drained from his face and he looked like he was going to burst into tears. Poor man, the nurse had omitted to inform him I’m a Tetraplegic. I felt so sorry for him. Needless to say, he was a very happy young man upon receiving said information.

7 hours ago, allanp said:

This has me thinking, is it possible that I could I make some custom tools out of stainless steel (I'm currently in the food industry so everything is stainless steel) to make assembly and disassembly of Technic sets easier? I have some ideas in mind. I need to get on the lathe at work without anyone seeing me to try out a few things 

Would one of your ideas happen to be a pair of parallel jaw forceps (not pliers) by any chance? It the one tool I’ve been after for years but haven’t been able to find anywhere. I’ve tried sponge (duck jaw) forceps and suchlike but they’re too wide to get into tight places.

5 hours ago, karmadrome said:

You literally pushed an axle through the palm of your hand?! Wow, Lego is more dangerous than I thought! Hope you recover quickly.

I too wouldn’t have expected it but as with so many things Lego, I was proved spectacularly wrong. Thank you for your best wishes. To all intents & purposes I’m fully recovered and will be back building (carefully) in a few days. To quote the great Monty Python, ‘Tis but a scratch’ 😀

[1gor]

When you mentioned Docs face, it remind me when I had injury at work (glass felt by itself on my hand when I walked to my workspace...). I ended in emergency room (in hospital) and (male) nurse forgot to give me local anestesia or whatever (and I thought that stiches must be done without anestesia because Doc worried that nerve on my left thumb (which I use writing this post) can be damaged, because he mentioned that possibility...). After hand was wrapped Doc said that I'll have some unpleasent feeling of stinging after anestesia worns out; and his jaw droppes when I asked what anestesia. Actually it was not bad at all (during surgery) just stinging during wound cleaning and desinfection and of course during stiching...now only little scar reminds me on that, but when I got to emergency with my wife after that the same Doc turned pale...my lesson is to better to stay away from doctors, whatever you do, you can't please them.

Looking forward to see CAT building process to continue in few days.

Kind regards my friend 

[allanp]

@grum64 Do parallel jaw forseps exist? Hmmmm. Now that's got me thinking also, can I make some? 

I'm thinking of a few different tools of my own creation. I already use a depth gauge thing I made, it's basically a bunch of holes at varying Lego depths (8mm, 16mm, 24mm and 32mm) so if I see that I need to put a piece 4 modules along an axle, I put the axle in the 4 module (32mm) deep hole and press the part all the way down and it's perfectly positioned along the axle. It's easy enough to make one from stacked Lego beams with connector pegs actually. But there's a few other ideas I'd like to have a bash at.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by allanp

[Mikdun]

Dear @grum64, glad you're OK. Seems like you are a bit too determined during the builds. 

 

[grum64]

19 hours ago, Mikdun said:

Dear @grum64, glad you're OK. Seems like you are a bit too determined during the builds. 

 

Who me...? 🙂

[Maaboo the Witch]

And there was me thinking sore fingernails and calluses were the extent of Technic-related injuries!

[grum64]

1 hour ago, Maaboo35 said:

And there was me thinking sore fingernails and calluses were the extent of Technic-related injuries!

I'm pretty sure there are many other ways to sustain an injury when building Technic. I just haven't found them yet 🙄

[grum64]

Hello My Friends

I hope you are all well.

I’ve heard tell that the CAT’s blade raise/lower is something not dissimilar to glacial and so would like to speed it up at bit if possible. I’ve been looking through the instructions (which is all I can do for a while 😠) and was wondering if swapping around the gears on pages 386 & 387 would provide the solution.

May I ask if anyone has tried this and if so does it make a noticeable difference in speed?

Thank you.

Edited September 5, 2023 by grum64