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Ankoku

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Everything posted by Ankoku

  1. Ankoku
    Wow, that is vivid. Awesome! Yeah, I would never discourage anyone from doing it. It is an awesome thing. That said, if someone is planning to do other Akiyuki modules as well, then it might be good to do one of those first. e.g. I miss just being able to run one. Which is why I am building the Pinball one at the moment. Makes me wonder how many Ball Factory owners there are out there. I have seen a few where it is easy to see they have been doing some reverse engineering of their own in regards to not following the ReBrickers instructions exactly. Also, it is a good time to thank The ReBricker and Blakbird for all their work. It is daunting getting the factory going as is, I can't even imagine trying to reverse engineer it from scratch like he did. Such a mammoth task. It is only with Akiyuki's design and their work, that we are here today owning and tinkering with it.
  2. Ankoku
    @djm Have you got any photos of your red one? I have seen quite a nice looking white and purple/pink one.
  3. Ankoku
    That is very red. Could be tricky getting a red L PF-Motor as shown in the image :D As a point of note, the ReBricker version works. So just getting those parts and building it, will get you a working machine. I am a bit of a purist when it comes to trying to be as close to the original as possible and also making it as smooth and reliable as possible. I class the ball factory as being in a league of it's own really. It is generally the one that inspires people the most. The complexity, variety of mechanisms used and the timing of everything are all things which made me choose this as the first GBC I did. The downside of that, is that it is a very daunting project. You have to get very comfortable with pulling bits apart and rebuilding bits, resetting times etc. I was foolish enough to walk into doing it, thinking I could just get the bits, build and go, but even going with the standard design, it is quite the project. In the end, it has taken up countless hours and ended with me getting in contact with Akiyuki more than once. I am about to do the Pinball module and next will be fork to fork. Since some bits can be tricky to get, when ever I buy stuff from a seller on BrickLink or Owl, I am always checking their inventory to see what else I can buy for other modules. e.g. with my pinball order, I bought the needed antennas for fork-to-fork and some of the bars for the bucket tower. I am continually collecting for invisible lift. So yeah, building is fairly easy, syncing can be quite daunting and then getting it to run smoothly and reliably is the task you may be doing until the day you die. Am always happy to take any additional photos. The main thing to remember, is that everything should run as smooth as butter and it is best to make sure each bit does, as you build it, rather than completing it all and then wondering which bit is causing problems. If each component of it isn't smooth, it is not going to be a happy machine or motor. I spent a lot of time running it, by hand cranking it without motor, so I could feel where issues were with my fingers. At the end though, you have to run it at full speed to see if it is working correctly or not. Some parts work different at slower speeds.
  4. Ankoku
    There can't be two ball factories alike out there. e.g. even Akiyuki's isn't the same as it was in his video. What I have done is the closest to his version, but even I have made some modifications and if you make it, you will too. Ultimately, it is an unreliable machine. Fine for personal use, but not GBC event reliable. That is my ultimate mission, but it isn't finished yet. As an example of how different these things can be: Interestingly, he has 3D printed the cups. As for parts. I never bought all the additional tiles, as I wasn't interested in having the base smooth. Which also meant I didn't bother with the random coloured plates to mark out where everything should go. (They do make life easier though.) I have been doing Technic for decades, but with the ball factory, that isn't much help, as most of the parts are traditional LEGO bricks. My main recommendation, is to buy additional dark bluish grey bricks and plates of all sizes. Either just round up the number or buy X amount extra. Ultimately, what you don't use now, you will most likely use in other Akiyuki machines. He likes that particular colour. Once I had corrected the instructions to make it the same as the original, it meant the return conveyor no longer worked. So I actually cannibalised that for some parts. I think the best advise I can give, is to buy the stuff, make the machine, but do so, knowing you will most likely want to make some changes, so some more parts will need to be bought along side whatever else you are buying for your next build. One thing I have always done, is buy the odd extra Technic set, not to build, but for spare parts. The Bucket Wheel Excavator - 42055 is a good example. You can often buy it at about 2/3 of the retail price and even at full price, it is a good price-per-part. That would provide you with a good starting supply of spare Technic parts.
  5. Ankoku
    Essentially, they stuck a LEGO shell and interior on a normal car chassis and powered it with LEGO motors. Brakes from a go-cart. powered steering from an ATV (powered by a car battery). Although they never show it turning in the video, which is why I started looking into what was and wasn't LEGO. It has a metal frame, roll-cage, real seat-belts etc. For me, it looks cool. I like the fact that no glue was used, that is really nice. I think the main feature, other than looks, is that it was powered by PF-L motors. Didn't use LEGO batteries and did use metal chains, axles etc., but still cool and to achieve 20mph off them. Am curious as to whether it killed off the motors. More than anything, it is an interesting PR vehicle, which will do well on YouTube etc.
  6. Ankoku
    Great work! The main thing which got me, watching the video and the speed, was that that thing must have a fair amount of torque going on. Then looking through the thread and the broken gears, it seems it does! Anyway, love the details and love the fact that it is robust and moves at the kinda speeds you expect!
  7. Ankoku
    Models like Fork to Fork use this piece: Can you actually just use a normal worm cog instead? For models where it is used.
  8. Ankoku
    Another video of his Fork to Fork GBC. Interestingly, he doesn't use the hammers any more. Just 3L rods for all forks.
  9. Ankoku
    I love the new term @Berthil uses on his latest YouTube video: "Doug Mods". Has a certain ring to it! Good work!
  10. Ankoku
    It is no an issue about me needing them. I bought mine back many moons ago. My point is more about the LEGO Group just making it far harder than it needs to be for the GBC community, yet at the same time celebrating it. There is a certain irony to it. The fact that you have guides on how to buy balls kinda says it all.
  11. Ankoku
    That is my point though, the reason why I posted in the first place. I just find it baffling that the LEGO Group will celebrate Akiyuki's GBC system, whilst continuing to make it difficult for those who build and show these things at LEGO events to get official LEGO balls.
  12. Ankoku
    I was talking about the balls.
  13. Ankoku
    For the LEGO purist, that really isn't the way forward.
  14. Ankoku
    Akiyuki is getting some LEGO Group love again. I really wish that LEGO would actually support the GBC community by making it easier to buy balls. Especially the old soccer/basketball ones.
  15. Ankoku
    The Japanese guy who made it only posted it yesterday. He does have a few pics of the wheel on his Twitter account.
  16. Ankoku
    I can see this making events in the future! Hypnotic.
  17. Ankoku
    Some interesting designs:
  18. Ankoku
    I really like the speed of this. It is slow enough that you can enjoy watching the ball going round the loop.
  19. Ankoku
    Nice one! I really like the overflow elements of that machine. It is a very polished machine, image wise, even though it seems it isn't 100% reliable. Thanks for videoing it @Maico! (I try not to post stuff on here when I know said video is done by an active member on here.)
  20. Ankoku
    This is nice, I like the motion of the tipping cups:
  21. Ankoku
    I wish LEGO supported GBC more with access to balls.
  22. Ankoku
    I did it by hand off the PDF image. That said, I wouldn't recommend it, was a bit of a headache. I had my reasons, but if you just want to build the machine, then it is better to do it automatically.
  23. Ankoku
    The main thing to note with the tower, is that when top lift arm is horizontal, the bottom one should be as close to horizontal as possible. It can't be perfectly horizontal, but you can get close to it. It was this and obviously flipping the swipe arm connector the opposite way round which removed most of the friction. On the Akiyuki image here, if you look left and up and left of the red circle, you can see that the black and yellow lift arms are both pretty much horizontal. It was actually my brother which spotted both of these differences. Fixing them meant that I no longer worried about friction on the tower.
  24. Ankoku
    The tower and the shifter are the two areas which were fundamentally wrong. The tower once made the same as the Akiyuki one is very smooth, which is why I didn't bother adjusting it after correcting it. Additional bracing does help on the ball dropper part of it. The biggest issue for me now, is the emptying the bucket and putting the bucket back on the wheel parts. The wheel part is pretty smooth now, emptying the bucket can get dicey. Always great to see mods which bring it closer to being GBC event reliable.
  25. Ankoku
    The two balls near the grab point suggests it may have failed a few times there too. I hadn't noticed to be honest.
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