2GodBDGlory

[WIP discussion] Well, it's done! I had a couple uninterrupted days home alone, which were very productive! Really the only challenging thing since the last update was building the mechanism to steer the front wheels. I knew I needed some linear motion on both sides, but it was surprisingly hard to get both sides to move equally without a bending mechanism, in my limited space. In the end, I found a mechanism using a 7L gear rack in the middle of the model, moving a transverse beam forwards and backwards, with a couple rubber bands pulling into the sideways drive mode to improve reliability. Once that was done, it became a very satisfying function to operate! Building bodywork was a little intimidating at first, because I really didn't have any idea where to start for a vehicle like this, but once I got going it fell together pretty easily. [Finished model presentation] This model was built after seeing these unusual forklifts at work around the job site. They're designed to ride on the back of trucks dropping off loads, so that there's guaranteed to be a forklift handy for unloading when you get there. Their unusual features include a mast that can slide forwards and backwards, their forks mounted on a scissor-linkage to slide forwards and backwards (for unloading both sides of a truck from just one side), and front wheels that can rotate in 90 degrees to allow the forklift to drive parallel to the truck it's unloading. Because all the wheels are rotating so far, and because of their inconvenient locations, I decided it wasn't worth trying to include any kind of drivetrain, which drove me to build the model fully manual, which I expect was the right decision, given the small scale imposed by TC27 rules. Functions: HOG rear-wheel steering Knob-operated front wheel 90 degree turning (Sideways drive mode) Knob-operated mast sliding (Forward and backward) Knob-operated mast lift Knob-operated mast tilt Knob-operated scissor-fork-extend mechanism Manual fork side-to-side sliding Aesthetics: I'm pretty happy with how the model turned out! I don't think it's as good as other builders could do, but I do feel like I'm improving. The colour combination seems to work nicely, and there's enough detail to keep it looking interesting. I added a license plate on the back, not because forklifts need them (at least in Canada), but because these forklifts typically have the rear plate of their host truck, because they'd obscure any license plate on the back of the truck during loading! Here's a picture of one in its typical mounting: Rear-wheel steering: This steering was about as simple as could be, with a knob placed directly above the tire. It felt too easy, but I didn't feel any need to complicate it. It would have been nice to have a working wheel in the cab, but I felt I was out of space and could only do it by seriously compromising the shape of the interior. Sideways Drive Mode: This was a fun feature to implement! I had the two front wheels on linkages allowing them to steer inwards, pulled by two red 16L links. These were then connected to a sort of beam in the chassis, which was moved forwards and backwards by a 7L rack gear controlled by a knob. It ended up working very nicely, allowing the whole model to be driven sideways, provided that the rear wheel was steered at 90 degrees as well Mast Sliding: The whole mast of the forklift can be slid forwards and backwards, to allow it to compact itself for transport. To accomplish this, it was mounted on two "Arocs" racks, which were extended using worm gears connected to a knob. This function itself wasn't very complicated to make, but it caused a lot of other complications in making all the other mast functions have to be driven by extendable driveshafts using 8T sliding gears! Mast Lift: The mast was also lifted using two worm-driven "Arocs" racks, but it also included a chain pulley mechanism to make for a higher-lifting 2-stage mechanism. I realized after building it that because this style of build requires gravity to lower the forks, it would be completely unable to lift the forklift onto a truck! Thankfully, building a truck was never in the plans, so it's pretty irrelevant. (Except when gravity has a hard time overcoming friction to lower the forks, but generally it works alright) Mast Tilt: The whole mast was tilted using a small linear actuator. It was a little tricky to fit, but after that it worked smoothly! Apparently I didn't get any pictures of it tilted, but the above picture is good for showing the LA, and tilting can be seen in the video below Scissor-Fork Extension: The function that initially drew me to these forklifts (before discovering the mast sliding and sideways driving) was the distinctive scissor mechanism to slide the forks outward to reach loads further away! My scissor mechanism was slightly more complicated than some, and closely followed the linkage setup on real ones. After trying lots of strategies to operate it, I settled on using a small winch-type mechanism to pull the forks in, or pull the top of the linkage down to slide them out. I don't love using string, but it worked quite nicely here, and didn't require much space at all! The drive for this function was really complicated, though, going through a sliding shaft in the chassis, around a joint for the mast tilt, and then up a 32L axle up the mast, on which a worm gear could slide that ran a couple gears to finally run that string reel! Manual Fork Adjustment: The forks were mounted on axles, which allowed for the manual repositioning of the forks to lift different loads: Anyways, I was quite pleased with how the model turned out! There was a lot of craziness with all the parts moving relative to each other, but it actually turned out to be reliable in the end! Cranking knobs for long periods of time wasn't fun, but I don't think there was any other way to do it More images available at: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/tc27-forklift

Yeah, the front of that does look really good! I like the part usage with the unsteered hub being used as a CV joint in the rear suspension, and the engine piston parts as tailgate locking pins!

Thanks for showing pictures of the inside! That does look like it was quite a challenge to compact it that much!

Well, I guess it's time for an update! I've made a lot of progress since last time, and gotten most of the mechanical things figured out. One thing I hadn't realized before is that the entire mast of the forklift slides forward and backward, in addition to having the forks move forward and backward on the mast. This was accomplished using two more framed racks with worm gears. I also used a small linear actuator to tilt the mast. Now, none of this is inherently super complicated, but the challenge is just how much relative motion there is in the model! The mast is sliding forward and backward, tilting, and extending, so to route drive through joints and sliding components to knobs at the back was very challenging. Those red 8T gears that can slide on shafts ended up being invaluable, but it was still a challenge! The other feature I want the forklift to have is the 90 degree steering mode, so I now have some basic linkages set up to rotate the front two wheels 90 degrees inward, so with the rear wheel steered to 90 degrees, the forklift can drive sideways. Getting this hooked up to some reasonable control is probably the main mechanical thing I still need to do. Other than that, I pretty much just need to build some bodywork and a cab, but that's honestly more intimidating to me than the mechanical stuff... ^Mast slid forwards ^Mast lifted ^90 degree steering mode

Ooh, that is very unique! Nice job!

Oh yeah! I inherited my Dad's/Uncles' Lego collection (Mostly classic Space) on my fifth birthday, and have been at it ever since!

I don't know if I have much helpful to add, but I would clarify that the 600 mAh on the battery is just referring to its capacity, meaning that if you hypothetically wanted to discharge the entire battery in exactly one hour, you would have to be drawing a constant 600 mA to do it. Because of that, I don't think inferring that 600 mA is a good target current to plug into it--it's just talking about capacity, rather than the current it actually outputs. One other thought, though: If you have a potentiometer (or rheostat), which is basically a variable resistor, often controlled by a knob, you could potentially manually adjust current similar to the way you would with a bench power supply. That being said, when I have ideas about what a setup like this should do in theory, it often doesn't work as I expect in practice!

Looks like our new Technic angle connector is also being used in this new large-scale C-3P0 set!

Very nice! The color scheme really does make it stand out

He does, but the one in the address bar is the same as the one in mine, and that spelling is working fine for me Hopefully you can get that running again soon, @Paul B Technic!

Nice! A Unimog alt-model of this set definitely feels like something we should have seen coming...

Looks fun! And I like the idea with that clock

Or those 3x3 "biscuit" parts

Awesome, thank you! I didn't think about trying to compress the pdf first, but that should work great! [EDIT]: I've got it all converted and on the phone now! The formatting might have gotten a little weird in the conversion process, but it should be usable, and anyways that's on me for doing strange conversion anyways!

Absolutely!

One question for you, @Davidz90 I was hoping to convert the PDF to an EPUB file (e-book) to read on my phone using the Google Play Books app. I found online file converters for doing that, but when I had finished that, I had an EPUB book that was ~150 MB in size, when the limit for upload to Google Play Books is 100 MB. To get around that, I was hoping to split the book into two halves, but I haven't had luck yet with online PDF or EPUB splitters. Would splitting the book on your end and uploading it somewhere be reasonable? If it's a lot of work, don't feel like you need to do it, since this is probably a pretty niche thing I'm looking for, but if it'd only take you a few minutes I'd appreciate it!

Very nice! That thing looks like it means business now!

Very cool to see a full-on Trial Truck with free building instructions! I think the 8:56 portal axles always make for pretty intense-looking trucks! Unfortunately I only have 2 of them, which will prevent me from trying this model out myself. :( I also like the use of those old Bionicle frames in the front hubs!

Very cool! What's with the hex profile around the axle hole? Oh was it? My memory was 48 as well

I'm pretty sure there was an old part that was something like a 1.5x1.5 clear tile, but I can't quite remember what theme it was from. Clikits, Scala, or Belville, or something like that, I think

Looks like some impressive work! I'll have to download it to my phone for some quality reading in those spare moments in life!

Well, I'd agree that it can be an expensive hobby to keep up with, but I don't think it has to be. Personally, I haven't bought a Technic set with my own money in years (4?), and I generally budget around $30 a year to pick up any useful new parts, either from Lego directly, sometimes Bricklink, or (increasingly), clone parts from China. In addition, I'll often 3D print new parts where precision is less important, or modify existing parts into newly released ones. Between all that, I spend very little to stay "up to date" on Technic parts. Now, if they didn't release new parts, I wouldn't have to do any of this, but I'm glad they do release new parts. For one thing, it inspires building different models, because sometimes a new part allows for doing something in a way that wasn't possible before. Beyond that, it gives longtime builders encouragement to keep building, because it means that anything you build now is likely to be an improvement on anything you built 4 years ago, even just through new parts. I see it kind of like a board/card game that continually releases new expansions. On one hand, it does make them more money, but on the other hand, hobbyists want to spend that money, because it keeps the hobby they love fresh and interesting. I do often question the utility of specific new parts (panels!), but other ones (gearboxes!) make me very excited. Anyways, just my opinion!

Thanks! I guess I never mentioned it, but the "competition" had actually taken place before I posted this. In the end, the only people who showed up were @lmdesigner42 and I, so it was more of just a hangout/test drive than an actual competition, but it was lots of fun, and I was impressed with the performance! I do love the DBG on this truck Hehe! This stretched my DBG collection pretty far as it was, so I doubt you'll see it too often in the future, but I did really like the look. I really do think this suspension performed well, and splitting front and rear seemed to work nicely. If you take a look at this old model here: https://www.sheepo.es/2011/04/truck-trial-lizard-8x8.html, you'll see what I think is probably a fairly ideal design for an 8x8 suspension. Mine was very similar, but somewhat more complicated, in that the entire front assembly could tilt side-to-side while the entire rear assembly tilted the other way, but I think that extra complication was probably unnecessary. The suspension was sure complicated to figure out! As mentioned above, the meet had already happened when I posted the topic (though I didn't mention it for whatever reason), but I think performance was above expectations! It didn't really end up being a competition, but it was fun to get together. So, this RC system is a bit different than the hobby RC things other people on here are doing. It started with this mid-range, ~$80 RC car my brother got, which had a brushed motor capable of about 50 km/h. Anyways, I found that I could buy replacement parts for it cheaply, so I bought a complete electronic system from it, and used it in Lego models for a while. I've now phased out most of those components, so all I'm left with is the original car's all-in-one circuit board and controller. Because the original car was only using a brushed motor, it's pretty trivial to run PF motors off of it. The big downside is that the steering system is some weird 5-wire system, because the "servo" module in the original car just had a DC motor and a rotation sensor in one housing to act as a servo, so it's impossible to use a GeekServo with it (Well, probably not strictly impossible, but certainly inconvenient!) Plus, the original car only ran 9.6V, and after I applied 12V, the steering circuit fried. Luckily the drive still works fine! Thanks!

I just wanted to say that even though I never really understand what you're talking about in these posts, I always enjoy reading/skimming through them, mostly just because of your enthusiasm and good attitude! The topics definitely feel like an outlier on the forum, but I'm glad to have them, so thanks for sharing!

Welcome to Eurobricks! Looks like quite an in-depth modification you did! I like the idea of spinning the ball joints in a drill until they get loose! You can always argue that it's just worn out, not modified! :) (In seriousness, though, this forum is pretty accepting of modified parts. People might respect something unmodified more, but lots of people use custom/modified parts when necessary). One tip for next time, though: We'd like to see more embedded pictures! I had a look through your flickr album you linked, but it's easier for folks if you link images for what you're talking about directly. Anyways, I hope to see more work from you in the future! Looks like you had fun with this project!