Subject:
|
Have you ever warped or broken parts?
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.build
|
Date:
|
Fri, 31 Mar 2000 07:37:10 GMT
|
Highlighted:
|
(details)
|
Viewed:
|
2039 times
|
| |
|
|
Hi there,
I've started to construct things I would never imagined building as a kid --
things that might strain or even break parts. I've seen some examples of these
types of building on various AFOL web pages, and perhaps so have you.
For example, I've built a 45-degree, 7-stud brick wall that runs across the
diagonal described by going five studs over and five down. Several of the
standard Lego octagonal plates have a 5 X 5 cutout at the edge, such as...
http://www.lugnet.com/cad/ldraw/parts/ref/search.cgi?q=6106
...and this is a nice way to make a wall that covers that space. I've found
that Ed Boxer built this same wall for his Crown Cathedral model.
http://www.geocities.com/~edboxer/crown.html
We both seem happy enough with it. I've also built a 14-stud long wall that
spans the space covered by going ten studs over and ten studs down. What's the
big deal? Well, the math says that we have to be stretching the parts to make
these constructions work. The actual distance between a point (0,0) and point
(5,5) is the square root of 50, which is not seven. It's about 7.071. That
means that the bricks used to cover that diagonal must be stretching, though by
just a bit. The 14-stud wall should actually be 14.142 studs long.
I know it's possible to warp a plate -- I have a warped 4 X 6 plate from some
used parts I inherited. I have no idea how it got that way.
Moving on to potentially more serious consequences: I've started to build models
that put quite a bit of weight on hinge bricks, turntables, and hinge plates.
In one case, I have two plates, tilted somewhat to form a dihedral angle, that
meet on a knife-edge. To be sure, it's a fairly long knife-edge, but the model
is heavy.
Eric Harshbarger described destroying some parts when he was experimenting with
his grandfather clock.
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/clock.html
He describes breaking the chain parts, which is not really so surprising. I'm
really more interested in the kinds of things that resulted in, for example, a
broken gear, and a Technic axle getting twisted to the point of unusability:
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?clock_4.jpg+lego/images/clock
How far can you push Lego go before it begs for mercy? Share your war stories!
--
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Structural Biology
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, CA 94305
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Have you ever warped or broken parts?
|
| (...) building as a kid -- (...) seen some examples of these (...) perhaps so have you. (...) that runs across the (...) down. Several of the (...) the edge, such as... (...) that space. I've found (...) Cathedral model. (...) 14-stud long wall that (...) (25 years ago, 31-Mar-00, to lugnet.build)
|
2 Messages in This Thread:
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
