Gee's General Newbie Topic

[Alasdair Ryan]

I thought it would be quite funny....

[Gee]

Indeed! I still reckon I'm a newbie though!

[Lakop]

Gee, I would say you are a returning newbie!

H

[Gee]

Well, I got 42006 and built it up last night. Took me about an hour and a half!

I know it's been reviewed etc elsewhere,but these are my thoughts as a "newbie" and someone who is new to studless:

- The engineering is brilliant, how the designers do it, I don't know.

- Half the parts are pins etc which is a change over how I remember studded sets.

- LAs are worse than pneumatics - it takes forever to move the arm.

- The action of the grabber is slow and pretty hard to do using the hand controls (there's a lot of resistance in the gearbox which makes it particularly hard for small children to operate.

- It seems to me that it is obviously designed to be motorised and this will likely overcome some of the issues above.

- I'm really disappointed in the 3-4 different shades of yellow in the liftarms. This has been mentioned in other topics. It really affects the appearance of the model to my mind.

I'm going to motorise it today and I'm sure that this will make it a lot more fun to play with!

[Freekysch]

The engineering is brilliant, how the designers do it, I don't know.

If you think this set has an brilliant gearbox, try to get 8043, you will be amazed.

[Gee]

I won't be able to afford 8043 any time soon!

[Jim]

It might be cheaper to Bricklink the missing pieces. Having the 42006 will get you started. I see you already purchased some PF elements too.

[Gee]

Of coruse! I hadn't thought of that Jim. I'll have to have a look and see what pieces I'm missing.

[legolijntje]

Of coruse! I hadn't thought of that Jim. I'll have to have a look and see what pieces I'm missing.

And you can use Rebrickable to find the missing pieces and save that as a wanted list on bricklink. Then, you can use Brickficiency to calculate the cheapest Bricklink stores.

Modern technology

[arik]

Well, I got 42006 and built it up last night. Took me about an hour and a half!

I know it's been reviewed etc elsewhere,but these are my thoughts as a "newbie" and someone who is new to studless:

- The action of the grabber is slow and pretty hard to do using the hand controls (there's a lot of resistance in the gearbox which makes it particularly hard for small children to operate.

That's quite fast building! It took me much longer. (But I came out of my dark ages only less than a year ago, 42006 being the first set for me.)

But actually you might want to check your gearbox and other power transmission to the grabber. I recently de-motorized it and even my 2 year old son could operate the grabber with his tiny fingers, there's not much resistance. Just make sure not to squeeze gears against liftarms, as it will cause quite a bit of friction.

+ Ari

[Gee]

I made sure that it was fitted together as loose as it could be. Looking at it, it seems to be because when operating the grabber, there's loads of gears that the drive has to go through. It's turnable, but has a lot of friction.

I put the motor on and some fresh batteries and the performance is pretty crap to be honest. It's very sluggish (a characteristic of LAs?) and the seems like the clutch gear struggles with the weight of the arm when it's got a few 2x4 bricks in the grab.

I like the set enough to keep it, but overall I can't help this nagging feeling that I am a bit underwhelmed and dis-satisfied by it.

[Alasdair Ryan]

I made sure that it was fitted together as loose as it could be. Looking at it, it seems to be because when operating the grabber, there's loads of gears that the drive has to go through. It's turnable, but has a lot of friction.

I put the motor on and some fresh batteries and the performance is pretty crap to be honest. It's very sluggish (a characteristic of LAs?) and the seems like the clutch gear struggles with the weight of the arm when it's got a few 2x4 bricks in the grab.

I like the set enough to keep it, but overall I can't help this nagging feeling that I am a bit underwhelmed and dis-satisfied by it.

I agree I got it not long after it came out and felt it was not one the lego's best technic sets,its now in bits.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Alasdair Ryan

[Gee]

I don't regret getting it and it suits my needs in terms of parts etc, but it's a shame that I'm disappointed by it. Don't get me wrong, I'm always amazed with any Technic set in a "wow, how do they come up with these things" kinda way, but overall the performance is a let down.

Even my 4 year old lad (who is mad on anything LEGO) only plays with it for 5 mins at a time and then gets bored.

[NevynPA]

I think that with "crank wheels" instead of tiny "thumb gears" it's be WAY less cumbersome to use LAs. Then again, I've never seen an LA. Old sets used part 3736 as a crank - worked well enough!

[Azzepa]

I think that with "crank wheels" instead of tiny "thumb gears" it's be WAY less cumbersome to use LAs. Then again, I've never seen an LA. Old sets used part 3736as a crank - worked well enough!

Using a crank rather than a gear works much better, as you can continuously turn it without having to remove your hand (I find using a frictionless pin works best as a handle, although you could put a axle connector on there too if you want a bigger handle). Easier deployment of the LAs, and without a horrible ache in your wrist.

[arik]

I made sure that it was fitted together as loose as it could be. Looking at it, it seems to be because when operating the grabber, there's loads of gears that the drive has to go through. It's turnable, but has a lot of friction.

I put the motor on and some fresh batteries and the performance is pretty crap to be honest. It's very sluggish (a characteristic of LAs?) and the seems like the clutch gear struggles with the weight of the arm when it's got a few 2x4 bricks in the grab.

I like the set enough to keep it, but overall I can't help this nagging feeling that I am a bit underwhelmed and dis-satisfied by it.

I still think there might be extra friction or faulty parts somewhere. It should be able to lift small weight (maybe around 100g?) easily, definitely more than a couple of bricks.

Speaking of the clutch gear, I think it kicks in too early. I've understood (not tested myself) that it starts to slip at 2,5-5 Ncm, while M motor torque is around 4 Ncm (?). So having gear reduction 3:1 between motor and the clutch gear means it starts slipping already when the motor is delivering 1-2 Ncm, or 25-50% of what it is capable of. I think the gear reduction should be after the clutch gear, if needed at all.

[Gee]

I've got one of those big old pulley wheels, but it'd look really odd on the back of 42006. If I go back to manual on it, I may use one of of these crank/pin/lifarm jobbies.

It will lift stuff up, but it does seem to labour and the the point you make about the clutch gear kicking in too early is definitely the case. I've stripped and rebuilt the gearbox on it and all parts are as the should be. Must just be the way it is. There are a lot of gears in between the motor and the end of the boom. or maybe I am just comparing it to the performance of the old pneumatics and expecting it to be at least equal to it (which it's not).

[Commander Smith]

^{I tried a crankarm on my 42006, and it was good. Mine can lift (with everything original) a ~12-15 stud long, 6 wide system brick pickup truck no sweat. The grapple works great and there isn't a whole lot of gear resistance. maybe you just got one of the worse ones.}

[Gee]

I doubt it, I think that LEGO's consistency is pretty good. It's more likely that although the addition of the motor makes the action faster (by a small margin), it actually decreases the amount of weight it can pick up due to the clutch gear slipping all the time.

I'm sure that this set will be in parts soon enough anyway! The only set that has ever stayed built for longer than a week in my house is 8868. It'll be a sad day when I tear that down!

[N-4K0]

Today I built my own 42006 with parts from my inventory + BrickLink-parts I received yesterday and today.

Among the parts I bought was the switch connecting the battery box and the L-motor.

When it was finished, it was smaller than I imagined it would be. The size of the belts and the boom looks a little oversized compared to the upper body itself, but it looks alright.

[Gee]

I've taken the PF out of this model and gone back to manual control but with a difference. I swapped the gears for the small liftarm/crank thing and it works a lot better. I'm still not over-enamoured with the performance, but it's the best it's going to get.

[Gee]

Moving onto different things. I've been looking at some LPEs lately. I understand that they have to be powered by a compressor. With that in mind, if I were to build a 1 or 2 cylinder LPE, would one mini-compressor be enough to power it?

The only pneumatic parts I have are from 8868.

[Junpei]

I think it would go a bit too slow for it to work well - I tried both a 1 cylinder and a 2 cylinder LPE (both with a flywheel) and neither worked very smoothly even with a large manual pump.

You should test it out first though, as the LPE's were of my own design and might have some... problems.

TLH

[Blakbird]

You pretty much have to use a shop compressor. I can't imagine making a LEGO compressor that could provide enough airflow unless you want the LPE to run very slowly.