Phoxtane

Edit 7/15/2015: I've updated the file download link because that Dropbox link is long dead. It's now hosted on Bricksafe.com. I bought myself a GoPro camera recently in order to gain full HD capabilities for my YouTube channel. At some point I want to mount it on a vehicle, so I spent some time today building a pan/tilt mount for it. In theory, this setup should be able to rotate 360 degrees and tilt about 30 degrees off horizontal both up and down. While it's nice to finally finish a project that I started, it has some flaws which are beyond me to solve at the moment: - The tilting action has a lot of backlash. - The rotation action will make the platform tilt, as the drive shaft for the tilting action passes through the center of the turntable. This will cause it to lock up and skip gears after about a half-rotation. The LDD file [from Dropbox Bricksafe]: http://bricksafe.com/pages/Phoxtane/digital-model-files Due to LDD being... special, the model itself is at a weird angle, and the worm gears aren't in place. On the right-hand model they've been colored to show which axle they should go on. The left-hand model is a cutaway to show only the drivetrain. Comments, criticism, and whatnot is all appreciated!

At first I thought this store bought used apples - as in the fruit - and then refurbished them to sell.

I like the idea of putting every drawer in its own bag. We had to move across the country a couple years ago; I sealed up my plastic drawers in three layers of plastic wrap and taped off the ends with packing tape - I'd do that as well, all around the drawers to keep them from coming apart in transit.

Sounds to me that it's similar to the Kickstarter stretch goals.

I've got my two sets together and running on a very small track at the moment. I put in fresh AAAs into the battery box I had available, then started running the set. After two or three minutes it was nearly as slow as it was before I had put fresh batteries in. I went and checked the motor, and it feels warm to the touch on the underside. Is there something I am doing wrong? The HEs are completely unmodified, and I am running them on one motor. The track uses two 9v crossover pieces, so it's like a figure-eight that crosses over twice with some straight bits in the middle.

What about wiring up two differently colored LEDs to some sort of three-position switch, with one position being the red bulb, the middle position being off, and the third position being the green bulb? As far as I know, you'd only need some resistors if you're running the setup off a battery pack.

While I don't own any 12v track, this MEK stuff sounds like it could come in handy for various applications. Thanks for the tip!

Garden Lego railways could become a possibility with this stuff, if you stained it with something designed for protecting decks and the like!

I don't think it was mentioned before, but the Red Cargo Train set comes with two covers for the AAA battery box. The whole top piece lifts away from the boxes and reveals a rack-like thing that holds six AAA, which the covers... cover. You get one in red for use in the train engine, and a dark grey one for general usage. Someone with more knowledge of the 4.5v and 12v systems can help me on this one, but the rail gauge is the same throughout the four systems that Lego has produced over the years [4.5v, 12v, 9v, and PF] - eight stud wide sleepers with the rails taking up six studs. The 4.5v and 12v systems had the rails as a separate piece from the sleepers, but the 9v and PF systems are all one integrated piece that you can snap together. There's no official solution released by Lego to connect between the older two and the newer two systems, but you can get one off of Shapeways that'll do the trick [http://www.shapeways.com/model/454182/lego-rail3.html?li=productBox-search]. As far as I know, all wheelsets are compatible with all rails, but as the older rails have notches cut into them and the older wheelsets have corresponding grooves for traction purposes, you'd be better off using the newer wheelsets on the newer rails and vice versa. I presume the models would be easily transferrable between systems, as you would only have to make minor modifications to swap the wheelsets.

Although they're expensive, the rechargeable battery boxes are well worth the cost. I'll need to pick up another one along with my Horizon Expresses, but then I'll never have to take it out of the train.

Why not start an informal LUG? My home LUG, CoWLUG, doesn't require members to pay dues, but it doesn't have a public 'pool' of bricks for people to use in competitions and things either. We supply our own bricks... and I'm sure that at any college of reasonable size, you're more than likely to find enough people into Lego to start up a LUG. Perhaps you could cut the dues to $5 per person and use that to pay for things like food and beverages. Based on the college students I know, they're not ones to turn down free food, especially when it happens to be provided along with discussion about a hobby they love.

The sealed stuff will only continue to go up in value the longer you hold on to it!

I bet you could use two of those strings with the 1x1 round plates on the ends attached to this part to make a swing seat: http://www.brickset....s/?part=4631877

It looks to me like the wheels on the new mobile crane are the same ones used on the Unimog - are they? I get my tires and wheels confused all the time...

I don't understand - you want to be able to mount magnets that are similar in appearance to the 9v magnets? Or do you want to replace them with magnets of your own design? Either way, I'm afraid I can't help you

Personally, I'm wondering if two of these sets would provide enough parts to build most of an Emerald Night locomotive.

Yes, it is a joke If I had taken the time to do the math properly, I would have come up with a price that's a bit more exorbitant!

I wonder if two of these sets would supply enough of the dark green and train bits to build an Emerald Night locomotive, albeit without the special stickers...

"Buy one of every product we sell in our new super-mega-jumbo bundle pack. A hundred easy payments of $19.99! [shipping and Handling fees separate]"

I haven't actually tried replacing them yet, as my local LUG's displays are the only place I'm actually worried about the amount of cars my trains can pull. Gotta put on your best shoes - er, traction rings - for those! The displays are the only place where my trains can actually stretch their legs on long straights, so I hardly ever get the chance to pull that many cars.

If you don't mind them, turning on the instruction outlines speeds things up dramatically as well. You also get this sort of cel-shaded look, similar to the Borderlands art style.

A good book it is

Oh, for crying out loud! I can only afford a limited amount of Lego in one time period I'm thinking I'll have to pass over the Grand Prix Racer - a shame, considering all the white parts in that set - and save up for the mobile crane. Maybe I should rob a bank.

Top Gear's done that already with a Corvette V8 engine. Well, with a blender, but you get the point

Ack! Guess that's what I get for making assumptions...