SNIPE

I have just looked at the manual for the 8455 and I must say, now I think it might well be more complex, I mean it has working HO steering, and 12 pneumatic cylinders as well as a working 3 cylinder engine and rear differential/driven wheels. it has rear outriggers, a two pivot (or is or 3?) rear digger arm, and a two pivot front loader and don't forget how much smaller the set is compared to the 8880, there's even a lego document released that helps correct some errors that might have been caused by building it, and lego themselves say in that document that the set is very technical. I bet it can be motorized too, but then again the 24009 is very complex too.

maybe its in LDRAW

the Dacta bins don't seem to have slots for dividers

This could win who knows It looks almost like a future official lego model design

Nothing can beat the 8880 unless its a MOC or a MOD, however I think the 8448 is very close to doing it, it has some clever mechanisms in it that I haven't seem anywhere else, it is also possible to make the 8448 rear or front engined and the 8448 is kinda the birth of stud-less though the set does not fully utilize it. The technic Enzo has interesting doors that are also pneumatic like the 8448 but it had less features than the 8448. You could redo the old sets but make them stud-less, I've did it with a couple of sets, its interesting and can be challenging as studded parts have some advantages over stud-less however when its being done you can see how much extra space there is because of the stud-less parts, this means you can add more functionality or more compact mechanisms, however you still have to take note of where the wheels are. You can also add more parts to make it more aesthetic after its been converted into stud-less because its arguably easier too.

Drums here for 10 years, started with guitar in 2005 but didn't get into that as easily but still play. And more recently a tiny bit of keyboard and saxophone.

Nice model esp the boom, maybe it would be better to use small cylinders all round but the ones with just one outlet that way less tubes are needed? I know they have a short stroke but that depends also on how their mounted with all the linkages.

458 spider is my favorite but there all great, 458 MOC has little gaps in the body work and the curves flow nicely.

Nah there is already a regular diff in the center.

I've took the reverse spring out because it doesn't really help much and uses up space for the forward spring also the spring cannot be pushed up against a pinhole because the chamfering causes the spring to get stuck and not rotate with the axle, I don't want the spring being wound onto the worm gear! so I just added a half bush between the hole and the spring. When I added the clutch gear it can disconnect the wheels from the motor but it also adds some slack since the teeth between the gear clutch and e clutch are far enough apart.but it isn't too bad. I'm not sure what a length differential is but it is like a differential yes.

When the spring is discharged it has an effect on the wheels yes they spring forwards with force. (because the spring pushes the worm gear forwards like a gear rack back to its original position) but depending on the surface it can move a little bit not fully compressed and decompressed. I don't think the spring has to be huge - you can give it more travel by making it stiffer but shorter instead of longer but weaker strengh. If I take the spring out, it will move too quickly and will apply the same torque all of the time and wont be as good for crawling , the trick is to move at low speed over the surface so the car doesn't tip up but go fast over say wet mud where it would get stuck (not that i'm putting it in mud)

Not sure yet i've tested it on ramps and it can get up quite steep ramps fine, and can get on ledges or drops that are around 2.5 inches tall I need to improve the torque now as replacing the 24tooth gear has gave it less but I should just be able to do that on the cabin side of the drive shaft or maybe by using shorter but stuffer springs. Lets say its trying to get up a ledge, the wheels are stopped but move slightly, sometimes it swaps between front and back wheels and it usually works fine and enables it to find grip to get up the ledge it does need some improving however. Fitting the steering arms and steering gear/rack is gonna be tough.

Hi I have made it so the wheels can be locked to the worm gear drive or so it can free wheel (this is useful if the car is starting to tip over, simply unlock the necessary axle, I also added a second spring so it works in reverse gear too. Upon testing it seems that when the load is too high it is automatically switching the axle to 'unlocked' but I can disable it from doing that by adding the old axle connector with ridges to use with the clutch, I think ill use some stronger springs soon too.

The springs are pre-loaded yes by a little bit, maybe I'm confusing torque with traction (i'm terrible at this) but heh, it works, I can see the wheels moving slightly to try and get grip like with a differential on an off-roader however this is acting like a locked diff but I guess you could make it switch between locked and unlocked by putting an 8 tooth clutch gear in instead of a 24T then adding a clutch. Also: Perpetual motion doesnt exist

I'm unsure I follow The springs definetley help as when you grab the axle to try and stop it you can feel the spring(s) providing more torque so its hard to stop it completely. The worm gear acts as a gear strip as well as a worm gear when the car gets stuck, the axle through the spring and worm gear doesn't slide, it only rotates.

Hi, Today and over the past few days I've been working on a way to have wheels driven for a 4x4 but to have as maximum torque, then I came up with the idea to use a worm gear drive but to add springs to it so if it gets stuck the springs get compressed by the worm gear and that then gives more torque to the spur gear, I also added a center differential to swap the torque between front and rear wheels, the result is quite good especially driven that there is not much weight on the car yet and slick-ish tires with no suspension or steering. Here is a video of it working

You could cut the arm off so you just have two 12 tooth idler gears but other than that the parts are too specicalised.

Excellent links, I might make a table using non right angle bent beams not sure, I'm jumping ahead of myself now.

Hi, Over the past 2 or 3 days I've been working on writing down all of the spacings and possible connections for the gears in old and new technic units, then I decided to make a table instead - because it's much tidier and it was even MORE confusing before this. The table displays what the old technic vertical spacing is, the linear spacing, and the diagonal/offset spacing "co-ordinates" that maps gears using non inline holes. The Key is as follows: L = Length (IE 1 stud less beam, or the width/length of a 1x1 brick) P = Plate (Height of one plate excluding the studs B = Brick (Height of one Brick, excluding the studs - = Cannot be done Now here is the table, note that it is practically complete but suggestions and more ideas of my own will be added soon: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AjvbKWhZEhu1dFFFbGdyNGw4Ql9GRFBmaEg5T0kxWVE&single=true&gid=0&output=html The ↓ (down) column means you move down by the given spacing, then for the → (across) you move alone for the given spacing, then that gives you the non linear gear connection. Be careful not to confuse say 12 tooth with 16, its easy to do that :) I have excluded gear pairs which I thought were too tight or too slack (I.E skipped a tooth) but a I guess they can be added in replies if there not that bad of connection. Later on I'll add a link to an image of each connection/spacing. The Next chart is for the larger gears and worm gears. Ill be doing that soon (I hope) Regards, S

Love the helical gears I was just about to ask actually but then I saw this :P

Clever idea for using the spring out of a lego shock over an axle, saves space, is linear and is very useful not just in cars but in mechanisms themselves.

Excellent review and lesson, I'm definite getting one of these for the electronics and rare parts, How does the articulation mechanism work and are those black cams rare?

You Mean this? That is also frictional unfortunately.

Nice Find, and very useful part. Frictionless pin would have been more useful since it can either spin or have more bricks added so that it doesn't spin. Also frictionless pins let you put bars, flex cables and other things inside of the pin hole, frictionless pins have a rectangular hole inside the pin.

What about this part: (technically technic I guess) Useful old parts: