Tips on work area when building a Technic set

[z3_2drive]

today i have made some tuning at my table to prevent the parts falling off the table

(IMAGE)

i have used plastic L profiles and strong double sided adhesive tape at the side and the backside from the table.

I'm thinking of doing that too, small pieces are always falling off my desk and it's annoying finding every single one so they don't get sucked into the vacuum-cleaner did you just buy the L profiles from regular home improvement store and cut them to size?

[piterx]

this image represents perfectly how i usually build my mocs xD

you tidy guys!

[efferman]

Yes i bought them on a local tim taylor heaven called 'hornbach'. Roundabout 7 euro for five meters. The tape with 50 kg adhesive power per meter was with 13 euros per 5 meters more expensive

[Lipko]

That's more like it, Piterx!

I just wanted to make a photo of my work area, but I forgot. It took 2 minutes to get back everything in the cupboard in a box....

Edited January 19, 2013 by Lipko

[piterx]

ihihi yeah! messy and lazy !!

[Paul B Technic]

I use one of these tables under my window:

http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Furniture/Tables/OWBFLD6FGY

With these shelves

[krtwood]

I'm a woodworker by trade so every problem looks like something that can be solved by making something out of wood. I came up with a prototype folding tray design.

http://www.krtwood.c...o/lego tray.jpg

What I like about this setup is you can hang half of the tray off the edge of the table next to you so that everything is right there where you don't have to reach and you can see down into the compartments. If you need to stop it just folds right up to be put aside. All I did for this set (9395 ~950 pieces) was dump a bag into each compartment and then sort out all the straight liftarms into the shallow tray. When I make a final version it will be a little bit longer as some of the compartments were a little too small so it was harder than it needed to be to find that one odd part. I'll also make the shallow tray a double tray too. I'm also thinking about making a stand for the instructions rather than try to build on top of them.

[Graydingo]

My grandma gave me a piece of blue heavy duty cloth when i was a kid. 30 years later I'm still using it. :-) It's almost like leather, but synthetic with grippy white felt on the bottom and smooth dark blue 'leather' on top. It's big and it folds out onto my dining room table. Pins and other things really don't roll much on it and its hard enough to snap things together but soft enough to keep tiny parts from rolling around. http://imgur.com/jrqHalc

Edited February 23, 2014 by Graydingo

[Moz]

I'm a woodworker by trade so every problem looks like something that can be solved by making something out of wood.

That looks great. Similar to what I did, only made by someone with much better woodworking skills :)

I think I've posted a link before, but here's my setup: http://moz.net.nz/lego/2011-12-misc/

Just be careful of the "it needs to be a little bigger" problem :)

Also, for sorting a lot of Lego this string based sifter works really well (I tested the idea with a real tennis bat before I built them). Slightly labour-intensive to make, but well worth it when I was taking the road train apart. The smallest holes were 10mm spacing but laced diagonally, so about 7mm nominal centres or about 6mm square holes. The nylon line was from the fishing section at the local big box hardware shop, it was the thickest line I could find there.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Moz

[krtwood]

Moz, I think they look good :) I like the way you angled the compartments in the back. I really intend the tray for only building official sets so there definitely should be a finite size it needs to be to work well. Once you get past a certain piece count they usually start numbering the bags so there's only so many pieces you have to deal with at once. It could maybe be handy for mocing too, if you had a big enough collection you could maybe use the tray to go shopping for parts rather than bringing whole trays to the build area. Right now I have very little technic and not much more regular lego so storage isn't too much of an issue yet. I do plan on building a modular storage system to get ahead of the problem though :) I gave all my childhood lego to my sister to use for break time in her 3rd grade classroom. Luckiest classroom ever. I guess I will get it back when she retires but I'm not sure I want it back after 40 years of daily abuse by a room full of 10 year olds.

On the filtering subject, you can buy mesh that comes in all different sizes. I like mcmaster.com for random stuff like that in the US. I think these would work well since they are coated with plastic and come with a range of opening sizes that could be useful. Under $10 for a 12" square. http://www.mcmaster.com/#wire-cloth/=qtmcnj

[Lipko]

My working area:

[Captainowie]

I found out the other day that the process of laying everything out neatly in groups is called "Knolling".

Some pictures in this thread very good examples of this. Others not so much!

[legolijntje]

I found out the other day that the process of laying everything out neatly in groups is called "Knolling".

Some pictures in this thread very good examples of this. Others not so much!

Fun to know there's a word for that!

[Doc_Brown]

I found out the other day that the process of laying everything out neatly in groups is called "Knolling".

Some pictures in this thread very good examples of this. Others not so much!

HAHA, that is awesome! Thanks for that, I'm definitely not one!

Here is my new setup, trying a new system for organizing.

OzBen has brought a "few" of these too.

[OzBen]

HAHA, that is awesome! Thanks for that, I'm definitely not one!

Here is my new setup, trying a new system for organizing.

OzBen has brought a "few" of these too.

How dare you make fun of me when I have been drinking!!!! :-P

I'll make a sensible post when I'm sober lol

[Doc_Brown]

How dare you make fun of me when I have been drinking!!!! :-P

I'll make a sensible post when I'm sober lol

HAHA All good.

[kieran]

I'm a woodworker by trade so every problem looks like something that can be solved by making something out of wood. I came up with a prototype folding tray design.

http://www.krtwood.c...o/lego tray.jpg

What I like about this setup is you can hang half of the tray off the edge of the table next to you so that everything is right there where you don't have to reach and you can see down into the compartments. If you need to stop it just folds right up to be put aside. All I did for this set (9395 ~950 pieces) was dump a bag into each compartment and then sort out all the straight liftarms into the shallow tray. When I make a final version it will be a little bit longer as some of the compartments were a little too small so it was harder than it needed to be to find that one odd part. I'll also make the shallow tray a double tray too. I'm also thinking about making a stand for the instructions rather than try to build on top of them.

That is a really nice looking set-up, how is the bottom of the unit attached to the desk? what stops it from falling over?

[Anathaema]

That is a really nice looking set-up, how is the bottom of the unit attached to the desk? what stops it from falling over?

The wall behind it :)))

I building on a 50x50 cm IKEA table, surrounded by different toolboxes and depositing trays. All of the connectors and pins are safely stored separately

[krtwood]

That is a really nice looking set-up, how is the bottom of the unit attached to the desk? what stops it from falling over?

I originally intended to have a clamp that would slide into the bottom of the tray to attach it to the table, but I found it really wasn't necessary. You can hang the lower tray most of the way off the table and the weight of the upper tray keeps it from tipping over. It's heavy enough that it doesn't slide around when you're fishing for pieces. I don't think I'd want to do it like that if there were young kids running around, seems like a recipe for getting all your parts catapulted across the room :) I'll make a few to try selling once I've settled on a final design. Of course I'll have to thoroughly test it first with some more sets. It's a cross I must bear.

[squizz]

HAHA, that is awesome! Thanks for that, I'm definitely not one!

Here is my new setup, trying a new system for organizing.

OzBen has brought a "few" of these too.

Hey Doc, where did you find these vertical "new system" units? cheers Pete.

[kieran]

I originally intended to have a clamp that would slide into the bottom of the tray to attach it to the table, but I found it really wasn't necessary. You can hang the lower tray most of the way off the table and the weight of the upper tray keeps it from tipping over. It's heavy enough that it doesn't slide around when you're fishing for pieces. I don't think I'd want to do it like that if there were young kids running around, seems like a recipe for getting all your parts catapulted across the room :) I'll make a few to try selling once I've settled on a final design. Of course I'll have to thoroughly test it first with some more sets. It's a cross I must bear.

Looks really nice, good luck with sales

[Doc_Brown]

Hey Doc, where did you find these vertical "new system" units? cheers Pete.

No problem, Bunnings of course! $30 each.

[gregorijs3kivi]

I work on the ground, no space anywhere else

i work on ground to

[Ttimman]

Transparent tackle boxes with adjustable compartments meticulously aranged and sorted are my weapon of choice.

Me too! I used to build on the floor, but just got a desk recently. Really helped with part sorting, how? I can't tell you, but it did!

[OzShan]

On top of the drawers and containers mentioned, I also use a dump tray about 40cm by 30cm. It saves having to sort back to individual compartments when prototyping. About once a week it all gets sorted back into the proper storage containers.