allanp

I have over 100 technic sets and only one of them had some missing parts so it is rare but it does happen. Thankfully Lego has excellent customer services. Contact them and they will send you your missing parts right away.

Over the years sets have slowly but surely got bigger and bigger with more and more pieces, which I like! But for this reason among others, some things really do need to be made bigger, longer or stronger.

Great thread, I am all for new parts and I think the technic line would benifit greatly from and be enhanced by many of the parts you have highlighted from myself (me being radbot) and others. My favorites are (starting with my all time most wanted part): http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3800130 and the cylinder here http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/c...r_new_parts.bmp http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3800175 not sure about the strength of the hinged ends but the idea is brilliant http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4030043 combined with another new part, a new pf servo http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3800184 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3800133 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3800186 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3800193 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=385425 http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/c...box_example.bmp and http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/c...xplanaition.bmp A more detailed explanaition of some of my wishes are here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36939 My wanting these parts has nothing to do with my abilities to think outside the box. These parts would just make things much better IMHO. Agreed. I welcome a new parts thread focusing only on technic as I don't have to wade through the mud of great but non-technic parts. Yes, a more reliable version of the 9v micro motor in a PF format would be great. Do you think it would be more useful if it was low speed but high tourqe? Also an "L" motor, which is basically the same motor inside the "XL" motor but without any gearing down. This would make it one or two studs shorter than the "XL" motor and put the fun and challenge back into building proper geartrains with fast spinning gears and such . It would also enable us to protect our geartrains using the white clutch gear (which is useless on the "xl" motor) by having it much further up the gearing down gear train.

I think it was good value as a parts pack, crap value as anything else.

A spur gear is a standard gear. http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/3648a A bevel gear is a gear that changes the direction of rotation along the same axis. http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6589 This gear is a combination of a spur and bevel gear http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/32269 A pinion gear is the smaller of two different sized gears meshed together. The pinion can drive the larger one or be driven by it. You may have heard of rack and pinion steering, the pinion is the small gear driving the rack side to side. Your worm gear is the pinion driving the 24t spur gear in this case (in real life it would drive a worm wheel, which is like a spur gear but whose teeth are at an angle matching that of the worm gear).

Another new picture of the excavtor = another dissapointment Maybe it's much better than I think it is, having all that function switching business people have mentioned allowing the motors to control 6 functions, but even motorising the little shift lever isn't exactly a leap forward in creativity. Can't know for sure until we get more pics/info but for now, i'm still not impressed. The whole thing looks so rushed and unfinished and nowhere near filling the potential of a technic flagship excavator. This seems to be becoming another trend (like the one of a godd flagship followed by a not so good one the next year) where the designer, as talented as they are, isn't being given enough time to properly finish a set due to TLGs desire to shorten the time it takes to go from intial idea to final release. The bike looks cool, an improvement on the previous street bike and it's nice to see a transverse engine setup which is uncommon in technic even though most motorbikes have that setup. The crane looks bland, again we get functions controlled by knobs right by the function itself, using no interesting mechanisms to operate them (if you didn't see, look at the ends of the stableisers. Makes me think of the fork tilt mechanism of the telehandler ) The container truck also looks just a little bland, I fear it has little more complexity than the hauler (which IMHO IS ONE OF THE WORST SETS EVER) but at least it's subject matter is something not seen in the technic line before and it should be a good source of blue parts.

Just went to technicbricks and read all those comments. And after you put so much work into all of it too. Some people just don't get it do they. Well...all's I can say is...... HHHHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE PPPPPPPPPPPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTI IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE E EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE E EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE E EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Oooooh that's cool! You know the 144 piece engine build stage of the test car needs a mention there! Well yes I can understand that, you already put sooooooo much work into your site and I am very greatful for that. But now you have me curious. Isn't the design of the model itself and its parts just as copyright protected as the boxes? Unless you would be willing to accept donations of pictures from other people like the LDRAW models then I see your point. Besides it's still a fantastic website and can't wait for 1995

Oh I see. I found the axles on which the beams slide into have enough flex to bend upwards enough to allow you to place the beams without removing any pieces, I guess this is what people meant by having to bend pieces. I didn't find it a ploblem, forgot about it by the end of step 16 but it could have been done in a better order.

I didn't find the 8455 that hard, but then I was drunk when I built it! This is the second time i've read somebody saying you have to bend parts and stuff like that to build the 8880. Can somebody enlighten me as I found in flew together quite nicely when I first built it at 9 years old and every time I built it since. No bent or strained parts anywhere (not counting broken bevel gears during play of course!) I found the 8480 space shuttle to be a nice and very rewarding challenge as all the pieces can't be just put togther like todays sets, they have to be aligned just right and the whole thing is notoriously flimsy during the first stages of construction. 8868 was good too because of all the tubing you have to route through the turntable but is very neatly done when it is finished, i'de recommend the 8868, 8880 and 8480 to anybody looking for a nice challenge, these being my three favorite sets. That engine build step in 8865 is great! I was 8 when I built it and the parts call out is immence, loved it! the 10030 star destroyer is a nice display piece but a tedious build, does that count as challenging? I have to say that if any other company were to produce these sets they would be probably a bit too challenging for some children, but the instructions you get with any Lego set from any time have always been great enabling anyone to build anything Lego ever released given enough time, and they only seem to be getting better and better. Even the design of the models seem to be leaning towards a far easier build. The 8258 is one of the most complex sets Lego have ever produced and yet a child could do it. In each step you only have to assemble on average something like 7 parts. So if you can put 7 parts together, you can put the whole set together. Kudos to the instruction team!

Well I don't have the tractor YET, i'm on the lookout for it, I can't seem to find it in the shops but I would say that it is deffinately worth it, will buy it as soon as I see it. By loader do you mean the tractors B-model? Many have said that it is in fact better than the A-model. I'm not sure about that but I must admit, 90% of what attracts me to the tractor and trailer is the trailer itself. Whilst the tractor unit has some good new parts, on the whole it's very boring, like most tractors from technic I find. Honestly all a tractor does is move forwards, backwards and steer. So unless it's got a gearbox or pneumatic steering or something what else can a tractor do? As for your worm gear question you can try adding a rubber band to whatever it is that the worm gear raises in a manner as to try to pull it back down. This should prevent any juddering as it comes down. As for your slow moving motor, this is strange. Gearing it down should put less strain on the motor enabling it to turn faster. I assume that you have checked that you have geared it down and not up by mistake and that all your axles are spinning freely and that your 2 cylinder engine comes before the added gearing down and not after am I right? If so then posting a picture of the problem would assist us in giving you a better answer.

Was just wondering Blakbird, when you dismantle your sets will you be putting the pieces back into their original boxes? If so, and please forgive me if I have mentioned this before, but it might be a good opportunity to add some pictures of these sets in their boxes to technicopedia, each set having 3 or 4 pictures, one of the front, one of the back and one or two with the lid up. Technic sets up until about the year 2000 had great presentation and wow factor when you open the lid to see all the pieces and the special pieces in the tray.

You know you're an AFOL when your first thought upon seein KY jelly is "hmmmmm, I could lubricate the rubber seal on my pneumatic ram with that!" But yeah, good thinking, I never thought of using that. Hmmmmm!

I don't think that is where the play is coming from as the drive to the turntable uses a worm gear after its respective dark grey clutch (or sychromesh gear as I like to call it ) meaning any rotation of the turntable and its drive mechanism will be stopped by that before it can turn the synchromesh gear. The play comes from the gears between the worm gear and the turntable and the frictionless pin used to hold the 24t gear to the turntable. This play is evident in almost any drive train and pretty negligable if you ask me.

After a brief search on the internet i've found that any product which contains petrolium distillates is NOT TOTALLY SAFE to use on rubber seals which is unfortunate as both 3in1 oil and WD40 use a petrolium distillate as it's main base ingredient. Maybe a silicone based grease would be better, like this one: http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/101625...ing_Grease.html

They should come down in time now that a new set with pneumatics has been released, at least I hope so

The 16t gear can be meshed with a 20t gear when it is off-set to one side or the other by one hole distance as seen here: http://www.peeron.com/scans/8419-1/34/ Incidentally the same distancing of axles allows you to mesh a 12t double bevel gear (or even two 12t bevels back to back facing each other) with a 24t gear, as seen here: http://www.peeron.com/scans/8436-1/7 Here we can see a pattern. If you add the number of teeth in the first combination of gears (16+20) and the number of teeth in the second combination of gears (12+24) you get 36 both times. So if you want to use two different gears in this same spacing, as long a the teeth add up to 36 it will work in that spacing. For example: The first differencial Lego released had 28 teeth. This means using the same spacing, we can drive it with an 8t gear, as 28+8=36.

The only issue I have with this set is having some functions opperated via a knob right by or connected directly to the function they was operating (outriggers, boom extention and winch) and the crane arm being a bit weak. Apart from that I didn't have any unwanted turning of the crane or steering misalignment or walking axles or any gears breaking or anything. The clutches in the white gears and LAs would always slip before any damage could be done. Was thinking of modding my 8258 to motorise everything and include pneumatics. I have it all designed, mechanicle concepts test built and the whole thing ready to build but after recently seeing a real one doing it's thing at work I got bored of modding the 8258. I'm now more interested in designing my own, better version without using more than 1800 pieces rather than modify somebody elses design.

WD40 ay? I'm sure WD40 works wonders but will it affect the seals over time? The only reason I say this is because I only have one leaking cylinder and it's the only cylinder I lubricated with 3in1 oil when I was about 10

Yes the 8258 will be really quite something, as will the 8480. Can't wait Oh and i'll fifthththth that

I guess about the same as the 8258.

Guess I keep thinking in the wrong scale I'm glad to see all the gears mesh nicely. I notice the gears are only on the pin by half a stud. I guess you could try using these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6587 instead of these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/43093 (with the stop inside the hub) and joinig two opposing ones using one of these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6632 inside the hub, with the fixed axle passing through the center hole there by stopping the gears rotating, making the whole thing a bit more rigid and providing you with a whole stud length on which to mount the gears whilst still allowing the hub to spin freely on the axle.

Mines the 8860 auto chassis from 1980. Bought as part of a 5 set job lot (along with the 8851, 8865, 8862 and 8049) which I found in the bargain pages. Really was a bargain to .

That's tricky. The large turntable and diffs do not accept chain drive very well at all and this gear http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6542 is too small. I will give this more thought and if I come up with anything better i'll let you know. But for now, one way you could drive a hub without driving the inner axle could be to make a large gear by having 6 of these gears http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/4019 in a circle. You could do this (I say could, havn't tried it myself!) by placing six of these peices http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/43093 in the six outer hole of the hub. Then place either a pair of these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/41677 or one of these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/60483 on each pin. Then, with some messing, you should be able to mount your 6 of these gears http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/4019 onto the ends of the 1x2 liftarms. They should form a rigid circle if done right but I wonder if the spacing between teeth would be a problem for the chain, and the look of a hexagonal gear might be a bit crappy if the chain doesn't disguise it well. If I think of anything better i'll let ya know.

Ah well lets not get carried away