Hrafn

You might want to check the Bricklink prices. $100 and up for a complete set with 232 pieces. I have it (disassembled) somewhere and remember it fondly but compared to modern sets it is pretty rudimentary.

Given that the Tudor Corner explicitly references the old Guarded Inn (6067), this completes the cycle beautifully.

Thanks @2GodBDGlory! I hadn’t realized the second edition didn’t add much (and I agree a third edition could be great.) Maybe I will start with an Isogawa book for the holidays and go from there. Sariel’s book is too complex for my son at the moment.

My 6 year old has gotten into Technic and wants a book on the subject. I have a dog-eared version of Sariel’s first edition Unofficial Lego Technic book but I would like to get him his own book; unfortunately it looks like the second edition is out of print. Isogawa’s books seem too simple for him. What would you suggest for a precocious 6 year old - ideally something he can get value from now but grow into over time? Thanks!

@Stereo how about this? It does make orange/brown seem really dominant. Which makes the limited red selection look even sadder.

@Stereocould you explain what you mean by “stone” for nougat and dark orange? I organized the colors that way because I think Dark Orange is saturated while Nougat is desaturated. I agree that some Dark colors are darker than others, but no hue/column has both kinds of dark so I kept them all in one row (except for the browns, which I don’t think fit in any of the 9 hues). The blue-green colors are definitely less consistent with one another than the other hues are. Having 9 hue columns does sort of align with Cyan/Magenta/Yellow from the CMYK scheme, since those three are evenly spaced.

Thanks @Murdoch17. Sand red would be nice to have back but I would also like a less pink version to replicate the way most bricks look, especially in my New England town full of old mill buildings.

@Terron969 you are more likely to get a good answer if you ask in the Technic forum.

@idlemarvel I think Lego just made part/color combinations when they needed to - and they must not have felt a need for a gray 2x2 until 1984. As @JesseNight said, gray was mostly used for Castle sets at first (starting in 1984) and Classic Space (starting in 1979, but requiring fewer basic bricks since the sets were mostly vehicles). So prior to 1984 there just wasn’t a need for a gray 2x2.

Brick 2x2 (part 3003) was first available in the old light gray color in 1984: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=3003&v=3&in=A&colorID=9 Now I am nostalgic for the set it came in (King’s Castle, one of the first sets I ever got as a kid.)

I am sure there are many ways to do it, but this is the way I make sense of the current solid colors (other than those mostly devoted to skin tones). Dark, Saturated, Light, Pastel, Brick, Sand, and Fluorescent are the way I think of the rows. This makes Reddish Orange the “true” (saturated) orange, and Bright Light Orange the “true” yellow. Brown and Dark Brown don’t quite fit into the structure. I am really appreciative of the extensive modern color palette, having grown up with the very limited palette of the 80s - but looking at these colors makes me really wish we had a Brick Red color (similar to Tan / Brick Yellow and Medium Blue in terms of saturation and lightness) so we could build realistic brick buildings. Pastel Green would be nice, to add more foliage colors, and Light Red (like Coral but not fluorescent) could be handy as well. How do you organize the colors, and what key gaps do you see in the current palette?

Here is a two-way centrifugal clutch, based on the classic one by @piterx and using the “minions goggle” piece (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=68325#T=C) It isn’t 100% reliable with a PF-M motor run from a Lego LiPO battery, but at higher speeds (buggy driven by a BuWizz 2) it definitely is. Adding one of these helps a bit with reliability: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=11833#T=C

I think that is the first time I have seen someone find a good use for those Bionicle frames - nicely done. And the truck is great too 😊

I realize this was four years ago, but I was wondering if you had any further development of this project. The drifts seem quite well controlled for a Lego vehicle - what do you attribute your success to?

I need a two-way freewheel, not one-way. Piterx’s solution, while elegant, is also slightly too large for my application - three studs is the limit. The initial design I posted works except that it sometimes binds when the input is stopped and the output is free wheeling. A rubber band would help the parallelogram linkage stay in a square when the input is not turning, so that might be one direction to go.

Can anyone improve my bi-directional freewheel? It works ok (though only with the old, un-reinforced 8t gears). Input is yellow.

Do the 12 and 20 tooth spur gears mesh differently than just using the double bevel versions in a spur configuration? Are the spur gears less likely to skip under high torque?

@Carsten Svendsen my first thought would be to try https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=44374#T=C doubled up it gives you 6 blades, then you can align successive pairs on the same axle at 30 degrees offset between each pair. But that gives you too much twist… hm. For augers, I have seen other builders use flex axles twisted in a helix around an axle, to give a sense of the auger’s edge.

@Jundis, neither. I would use 12z double bevel gears instead - the knob wheels wear quickly and I have been told they are inefficient because they don’t mesh closely.

Between https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=87408&idColor=11#T=C&C=11 and the portal axle? I would try that out and see if it is feasible before worrying about the placement of the servo - you are cramming a lot of complexity in there.

@Technic tango how were you planning on steering that swing axle bogie module? Can you use skid steering on it?

Fair enough! 😁

As usual I have over-complicated things. Have a motor drive one side of a differential; have the output be the other side; add friction to the housing by meshing it with a gear on a friction pin. When the output is blocked because the lift has reached the top or bottom, the housing will spin instead of the output. You can switch any of the elements around - the motor could dive the housing, or the housing could drive the output.

I think so. A lot will depend on the motor, gearing, and load on the output axle. You could use a return to center mechanism like the hockey spring, or, better, Sheepo’s return to center system (I would link to it but his site seems to having issues).

Here is a purely mechanical proof of concept, which works no matter which way the motor is turning. The motor is attached to the red liftarm (Bricksafe cropped the picture). The motor remains on all the time, but when the output axle (with the lime connector and 20z gear) is blocked, the differential housing is blocked as well, and the orange gear selector disengages the red clutch plate from the gray clutch gear. The dark gray 2L liftarm is blocked from rotating more than 90 degrees either way, and acts as a manual switch to re-engage the output axle when desired. Construction notes: The clutch plate is on a smooth 2L axle joiner, not a ridged one. Obviously you would need a rigid structure- this just shows the positions of the parts. And the orange gear selector tends to rotate slightly even when the output isn’t blocked, so it needs some friction or a rubber band or spring to resist that tendency.