Niloc Posted July 16, 2016 LEGO and geometry, mix both and you create awesome techniques! Or not... I expected that by using a couple of the new ''A-shape 45 degrees wedge plates'', it would create a pretty nice wheel on which I could stack bricks and plates. So, as I excitingly started to build with so many ideas in mind (towers, tanks, tank towers... ), I ran into a problem. It just doesn't work...! I thought that the space between 2 opposite sides of the central octagon would be 5 studs. Odd number? No problemo. But to my surprise and dissapointment, it's 5 studs and 1 millimeter! 1 millimeter. As you can barely see here, the right side of the green plate overlaps the A-wedge by 1-2 millimeter, so it becomes impossible to use simple techniques to build on the wheel... The offset is ''uncompatible'' with the basic-even LEGO system: I tried to downsize the circle for fun. The offset becomes 4 mm. Still unsolvable: I'm sure there's a lot of precision and thoughts of ''system compatibility'' that go into the design of every new piece at LEGO. So I thought it was (kinda) interesting that the design of this piece doesn't allow to make a nice working circle. It's so close! Do you think there's a simple solution to that problem? Did the designers of the A-shape wedge made a mistake or was it all part of the plan? Do you know any other technique that comes so close to working? Brick on! (and feel free to steal that ''failed'' technique, if you can find any use to it) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrickCurve Posted July 16, 2016 Surprising... One possible use for it like that would be if attached to a suitable base, even though the parts don't quite connect, a base with jumper plates could make it stable enough for a tower to be built on. Not entirely certain as I don't have enough of the A wedges to test it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mesabi Posted July 17, 2016 Weird... have you tried other shapes? Maybe they optimized it for a different shape. I know that there's a http://brickset.com/parts/4539442 , but I don't have one to play with. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davee123 Posted July 17, 2016 (edited) I'm sure there's a lot of precision and thoughts of ''system compatibility'' that go into the design of every new piece at LEGO. So I thought it was (kinda) interesting that the design of this piece doesn't allow to make a nice working circle. It's so close! Do you think there's a simple solution to that problem? Did the designers of the A-shape wedge made a mistake or was it all part of the plan? Do you know any other technique that comes so close to working? The problem is math. 45 degree right triangles don't result in integers-- that's just the way it goes: In order to make that element work the way you're looking to do it, you'd have to make some other aspect "break" in the piece, so that it wouldn't work in the system. You could (for instance) make the element a little "wider" at the angle to fill the space, but then when you stacked bricks on it, you'd end up with a space that you don't want. The closest you can probably come is to make it "fudge" with different sizes of things in between. For instance, this isn't perfect, but it's close enough to work with a span of 14.5 studs (the math says it should be about 14.485 studs): If you need an integer number of studs in the middle, I haven't tested it, but you can put 10 studs in between each angle piece (rather than the 4 shown above), and that should give you a close-enough-to-fudge 29-stud gap in the center (actually 28.9705 studs). DaveE Edited July 17, 2016 by davee123 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
human panda Posted July 17, 2016 And on the Sunday, Lego made the Jumper plate, and all was good with the system of play Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rodiziorobs Posted July 19, 2016 (edited) I don't have any of these angled plates, but I did a similar thing with hinge plates. I had picked up several cups of them at the PAB wall last year and built them into regular geometries to form a Christmas tree. Tree construction by rodiziorobs, on Flickr This picture shows a seven-point configuration, a six-point, and a five-point. There are other pics on my Flickr that show smaller arrangements, as well. I used technic rods and progressively smaller wheels/tires to mount them vertically. You could use a technic beam held by keyhole bricks to place another brick right at the center of your shape. Even if it wouldn't be a perfect distance from either edge, it wouldn't be hard to build on. Edited July 19, 2016 by rodiziorobs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
