KEvron

you run the risk of scorching. KEvron

true, that. i do like them; in fact, i own each of them except 3ppo, including 4 destroyer droids! loved the brown! my very first two post-dark ages sets were 7181 and 7191; they were so vastly superior to the sets of my childhood that i couldn't wait for more models with those same sensibilities. you know, i have to agree with pretty much everything you've said, point for point. i always thought a pair of those would make for nifty shoulder armor on a mech. give it that gwar touch! KEvron

i always make certain to add the (sp?) at the end. a dreadful neologism like that one deserves it. KEvron

it's "cuusoo(sp?)". KEvron

bigger than your previous monsters?! KEvron update: d'oh! i should have looked at the time stamp.

personally, i prefer the ucs series to the technic models. attention to detail is part of what makes star wars so appealing; detailed models cater better to that appeal. KEvron

ah, again! that makes sense. still, more contact surface. you'd think a thing like friction would be more intuitive. just when i think i've got my head around a thing, reality deals me a slap. keep us posted. you should think about acquiring the 5292 motors that came with the rc vehicles a few years ago: they don't have quite the rpm's that the train motors do, but they've got double the torque. they're beasts! and 5:1 brings up another gripe: the ratios which the bevels offer are irregular. 3:1 is the only straight ratio which they provide. i get that they're very useful for transmissions, where the range of the ratios is the critical factor, as opposed to specific specific ratios, but outside of that, who really has use for a 7:3 or 9:5 ratio? i believe they changed the design because the original was prone to structural failure. regardless, i ordered several from bricklink, just to make sure i have some on hand. KEvron

with four or five arbors making up the drive trains for my clocks, the additional friction, due to the additional mass, definitely adds up. i think the application would determine the appropriate sizes. a lot for me to try to get my head around, but thanks much for the info. '04, 8439 front end loader. otherwise, it's appeared in a few creator sets, nxt and supplementals. KEvron

good looking out, grum. do you have a link? KEvron

i've got news for you; it was my wife, at the time, who got me back into lego. btw, "your" is a possesive adjective; "you're" is the contraction required for your predicate. KEvron

where are your priorities, man?! lego always comes first. KEvron

okay, i get that. by dispersing the sum force over more contact surface, the gear teeth are able to better withstand the force. ...but you don't get something for nothing, right? the greater the diameter, the more input power required to overcome the torque. wouldn't proportionality come into play? the friction stuff is (even further) over my head. studied mu factors and all that in high school physics, but that was more than a dark age ago. oh, you need to get on that! a bag of 25 will run you $10 at legoeducation (u.s.). KEvron

bricklink is for afol geeks like us, not the general public. who'd have thought such an innocuous observation would elicit contention?! ....but yeah, it's fun. ah, i wasn't aware of this. could you explain? but the masses are substantially different; 36t weighs 3.5g, 24t weighs 1.14g. KEvron

generally, personal opinions are not subject to refutation. i addressed the points i wanted to address; was there something more you wanted to say, yourself? don't be shy. not on my end. it's a beautiful part. the quintessential technic element, imho. KEvron

i wouldn't mind that, either. a better fit on the axles would be nice, too. have i unwittingly stumbled into youtube? *snort!* i would think the 24:8 is stronger arrangement, owing to their smaller diameters. those holes complete the element. a million and one uses! i'm not following you, zeeb; do you mean the other + holes on the gear, itself? KEvron

the two are not mutually exclusive. to wit: the 40t spur gear is both. a rather hasty assumption, and one that doesn't change the fact that they're crap compared to the fine precision and sleek styling of the original spurs. KEvron

like i say, i've got enough of them to last 'til perdition. i just see it as a bad omen. it'd be nice for them to occasionally release a round of color palette gears, like they did with the slizers. if they were to mix the color choices right, people like me would buy the entire line just to complete the palette (i've got a project in mind that would make use of the various color gears, but it depends on using at least one - two would be better - blue 40t gear, which don't currently own and, considering the asking price at bricklink, i likely never will). KEvron

no, i didn't pursue it that deeply. i'm up to the gills in them, myself, so lego direct didn't occur to me. they tend to keep an educational supplemental set available, so i wouldn't know how to interpret a positive response from them. to be honest, i've been hoping beyond all that they'd give us at least one more round of color palette gears. the gear's continued absence from the theme only further dashes those silly hopes. KEvron

no, but i've compared their masses, as reported at bricklink, and i've found that the bezels are heavier than their spur gear counterparts; 12t weighs more than 16t, 20t weighs more than 24t, etc. superfluous mass can really have a pronounced effect. you have to get jiggy with the axle hole layouts, but i've found some pretty good meshes for most of them. for 20:8, i like to use two 20t half-bezels, face-to-face. makes a kind of a cage gear. very smoothe. no, my main gripe with them is that tend have a sloppy fit on the axles, and in that regard, they can be tough to align. poor alignment can really have a pronounced effect.... heh! the half-bezels are worse than the doubles, but they're both worse than the spur gears. spur gears are easier to align, too. usually fall right into place. and they rub. i can get away with eliminating a bush between a spur and a technic brick, but bezels will rub. and they're plain ol' ugly. spurs have style. KEvron

that one element speaks of lego precision like no other, imho. i omitted mention of that one because it's a mail-order supplemental set, but, yeah, it does have four of them, and i suppose it's fair to consider that set as still available, as opposed to the shuttle and the cycle. still, 'been two years.... KEvron

so, the last technic set to include a 40t gear was the 8051 motorbike, released in 2010, and that set had only one 40t gear (10212 imperial shuttle was released that same year, with eight 40t gears). we've seen a lot of changes to the theme over the last decade; is the dicontinuation of the 40t gear the final blow? KEvron p.s. i'm not going to pull this punch: bevel gears suck.

i rely heavily on this technique. it results in very rigid, lightweight structures. KEvron

how have these wonderful pieces gone without comment?! allemann's design is so clean it's sublime, and the display stand is a perfect compliment. i'd have gone with blue instead of the green, but i suspect he was building with what was available in his inventory, hence the abundance of the neutral color. KEvron

hmm. a vote without a tally is a bit unconventional. aw, c'mon! nothing too severe. say, losers have to post video of themselves attempting to down a spoonful of cinnamon, or video of themselves "making" in an adult diaper. let's up the stakes! KEvron

this was a fun competition, even for just an observer. a lot of clever people in this forum. fascinating to see the different takes on a theme. and, i don't mind admitting, it's kinda gratifying to see how closely my own choices matched the final winners. we should have had a side-bet going, a pool of some sort. next time. oh, and next time, can we have some sort of punishment for the losers? something mildly corporal. add a little hunger games to the fray! KEvron