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Big Ben Bricks Injection Molded Steam Driver Wheels with Traction Bands Review
ALCO posted a topic in LEGO Train Tech
Hello all, I am here with NAOLTC (North American Online Lego Train Club) to provide a review of Big Ben Bricks #11 size steam driver wheels WITH traction band grooves. These would be XL size under the old name scheme. Being size 11, this means these wheels are 11.5 plates in diameter measured on the rolling surface. Here is a size chart for comparison. This review is on-going in that I have already done some testing and playing with these wheels but as I sit here writing the review, new and different tests, views, needs for photos are occurring to me so I will be updating this review as time permits. Please check back for updates. Below is the current wheel size chart. Ben has had #11 wheels available for quite some time now and only recently has added traction band grooves. He asked me to provide a review on these wheels and so here goes: 1. Look and Feel These wheels arrived in a pack of 8. 4 flanged drivers and 4 blind drivers. This will allow for a steam locomotive wheel arrangement of x-8-x. They arrived with the traction bands already in place. Here are the wheels with the bands and without. As you can see, these are injection molded and have a superior finish to 3d printed wheels. On the back, you can hardly tell where the injection points are located. These wheels do not quite have the same glossy shine as the #9 wheels produced by LEGO®. (See size chart for reference) The photo below has the BBB #11 on the left and the LEGO(R) #9 on the right. 2. Pin and Axle Fit The pin fit is perfect. I tested this with different types of pins and they all easily snap in with a good little click. There is no lateral movement meaning the pins do not slide around but are secure yet have complete freedom for rotation. The axle holes also have just the right amount of friction to rival that of LEGO® equivalent connections. The tolerances on all eight wheels are very precise. 3. Traction Band Grooves The new great feature of this product is the size of wheel with traction band grooves. These appear to be built in the mold, so there is no evidence these were machined into he wheels after coming out of the mold. The grooves are pronounced enough to snugly hold a traction band, allowing just enough of the band to be exposed on the rolling surface to give the wheel traction, but not so much so as to raise the wheel off the rail head by a noticeable amount. I noticed that even the blind driver wheels have the traction band groove. At first I was confused by this, but I have come to realize that by putting traction bands on blind drivers, one could power an axle of blind drivers and still run your locomotive. (As of this writing, this is un-tested but I plan to add this to my future testing. Check again for updates) 4. The “Brumm” Test The name of this test comes from the sound one makes with their voice as they push a toy car along in play. So I quickly threw together a little frame and with make-shift side-rods to test “brumming” these wheels along the track with my hand. As I expected in the F-B-B-F arrangement r40 curves were no good. The flanges rubbed on the rails very hard and caused too much friction. Also, since the conical shape of the rolling surface is too fine to really be of any use in properly negotiating a curve of such proportions it really does not make sense to measure this. The traction bands on both sides of my frame also contributed to the additional friction but it was mostly the wheel flanges. This is the conclusion that I came to because when I changed the wheel arrangement to x-6-x or F-B-F I had no issues with r40 curves. You can see this in the powered test video in section 5 The Powered Tests. in my push test I did notice that the inside of the wheels seemed to get caught on the frame of my “locomotive” in the video below, you can see how I am attempting to push the locomotive along but the wheels are getting caught and causing it to stick. After closer inspection it appears that some of the injection points are ever so slightly rough enough to get caught on the technic brick frame. This did not seem to be a noticeable issue in my powered tests in section 5. Video of Brumm Test I removed the wheels to try to see what was causing the sticking and my only conclusion is that one of the injection points on one of the wheels was causing this. When I put some sideways pressure on the opposite side, the sticking sensation seemed to vanish. So this must be a one-off on one of the wheels. It is nothing a little sandpaper cannot fix though. 5. The Powered Test This is the test I was most excited for. I could not wait to throw down some track and get some cars out. I made a quick point-to-point layout so I could do some testing in both directions and through some BrickTracks r104 switches. I was very impressed with the grip this wheels and traction bands offer. While only using three cars, I feel this is a pretty good test. I’m not a PoweredUp expert so when I connected my hub to hand-held it somehow got set on all-or-nothing so my locomotive is quite jerky. I think this is actually creates a more difficult testing environment because of the sudden movements. On a model this situation might only happen if an emergency stop button were used….which would certainly cause the train to jack-knife. Anyway, great grip, really good stopping and starting. Check out the videos below. Video of Powered Test in x-8-x wheel arrangement Wheels are F-B-B-F Video of Powered Test in x-6-x wheel arrangement Wheels are F-B-F 6. (Intentionally left blank) Conclusion. I still have some more tests to run and I would like to get some more and better photos which I will add to the OP as time permits. But so far I have to say that I am really excited for these wheels and they will be very useful. I have a couple locomotives planned that will require these wheels and I am excited to use them in my building. This is a great product and greatly needed in this market place. Well done Ben. I would be happy to try to answer any questions and take suggestions for tests or photos or observations that anyone may have as time permits. Thank you for reading this review. -
Super Hero "Teleporter" - Pad Printed & Injection Molded
KO-Custom-Minifigs posted a topic in Minifig Customisation Workshop
Hello Everyone, I am brand new to the forum and I wanted to make an account to share with everyone my first pad printed custom minifigure! I give you... "Teleporter" http://s16.postimg.org/43gtrjz39/Teleporter_1_Smaller.jpg It features pad printing on the: head, torso (front/back), hips (front/back), Legs (front/back/sides) The custom red armor and the tail pieces are made of recycled LEGO plastic using an injection molding machine. The tail is fully posable and uses a ball joint to connect to the red armor. If you'd like to see more photos, or are interested in getting one you know where to find it - thanks for looking! Please let me know what you think. -Kyle