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Hi,
It also just occurred to me that you could do some serious damage on ebay
with an efficient, cheap bulk sorting system, and new bricks at less than 1
cent each...
Hum. Maybe bulk bricks from S@H, or incredible simulation, is not too far
off.
Mark
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Benz
> Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 11:22 AM
> To: lugnet.market.shopping@lugnet.com; lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf@lugnet.com
> Subject: RE: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
>
>
> Hi,
> Wow, I say, it never hurts to ask your dad. He might get a
> kick out of it.
> Worst he could say is NO, are you nuts! Would make a nice
> newspaper article
> w/ color photo, etc. though. What does the company usually
> use the equipment
> for when not sorting lego? I think any simple solution that
> saves time is
> worthwhile. Might also get TLG to reconsider how they package
> their goods...
> Mark
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mike Poindexter [mailto:mike@poindexter.cc]
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 11:12 AM
> > To: Mark Benz
> > Subject: RE: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> >
> >
> > I have round hole screens at work that I could use, but I
> > still have the
> > problem that they mix 2 different colors of 1x1 bricks in
> > each of the 3 bags
> > they are in. Plus, the smaller bricks don't really get in • the way of
> > picking out the bigger ones.
> >
> > I suppose that if I was going to go really crazy with this
> > (i.e. was going
> > to do 5,000 tubs or so) I could completely go crazy with our sorting
> > equipment at work. We have an Elbiscan Laser Sorter that
> > could sort the
> > bricks by color with 99% accuracy. I could set that up for
> > colors and then
> > just use a scale for weights of lots, but that entails
> > bringing in a bunch
> > of Lego bricks in to work and I don't really want to do that.
> > Still, it
> > would be pretty crazy to see that operation and the Lugnet
> > crew would die to
> > see a $400,000 computer controlled laser Lego sorter in
> > action. If you did
> > copies of just one bag, you could get the first pass with the
> > shaker table
> > to get the sizes right and then the laser sorter to do color.
> > Finally, I
> > have sorting tables that would work for the final visual sort.
> >
> > If I owned the company, I suppose I could look into this, but
> > I don't think
> > my father would approve of using the company equipment for
> > such endeavors.
> >
> > I think that our laser sorter could do about a 100,000 bricks
> > per hour. It
> > could go much faster, except that almost half of the product
> > going through
> > would be considered a "reject" as it kicks out colors
> > lighter/darker than X
> > and the air ejectors would get overloaded.
> >
> > I think the easiest way is to just sort them on the floor
> > while listening to
> > music, although a couple of the baggies would be very much • easier with
> > shaker screens. Mostly the red/blue, blue/white and
> > red/yellow, as they
> > have 2x4, 2x2, 1x2 and 1x3 all together. Pulling out the 2x4
> > makes the rest
> > easier to sort and dropping the 1x2 out also makes it go a
> > little quicker.
> > Of course, these are the easiest ones to sort anyway. I will
> > take home a
> > couple of screens and see if it helps. If so, I won't need
> > any made up, as
> > I already have them at work, but I could probably get some
> > idea on whether
> > or not it is useful enough to warrant others to go out of
> > their way and get
> > them.
> >
> > I still have 230 tubs to sort in my garage besides the 160 I
> > have to pick
> > up, so even saving 10% of my time is a lot. I figure it
> > takes 4 hours to
> > sort 16 tubs. That puts me at having about 100 hours to sort
> > these. 5
> > hours a night for 3 straight weeks would drive me insane.
> >
> > Luckily, I will be at 773 tubs when I get finished, which is almost
> > two-thirds of my initial goal of 1,200 blue tubs.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark Benz [mailto:Mark.Benz@BroadVision.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 10:43 AM
> > To: 'Mike Poindexter'; lugnet.market.shopping@lugnet.com
> > Subject: RE: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > How do you sort them? by both color and size I assume.
> >
> > Any thoughts about making a shake grate, or whatever they
> > call the wood
> > frames with wire mesh or screen stretched across to sift
> > dirt, fossils, etc.
> > This would at least sort FAST by size, particularly with the
> > volume you are
> > talking about. It would be easy to do a coarse division this
> > way if you
> > could get even just one or two frames with the right size • mesh. Might
> > scratch'em a bit though.
> >
> > I have some 1" chicken wire around, may have to overlap two
> > layers to adjust
> > the spacing and test it... Could probably get a frame • pretty quick to
> > separate the 2x2s and larger from everything smaller. If the
> > mesh is the
> > right size, you may not even need a frame, just hold it over
> > an empty blue
> > tub and shake/pour. You might check a hardware or garden shop
> > for mesh.
> >
> > I you want real fancy you could make a frame with two or
> > three levels, or
> > sections on one level with different mesh spacing and slope
> > the frame over 3
> > tubs. Depends on how much work it is to sort vs. building the
> > frames. Sounds
> > like a good BAYLUG club infrastructure activity... Color
> > sorting is another
> > matter.
> > Just a wild idea.
> > Mark
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Mike Poindexter [mailto:lego@poindexter.cc]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 10:15 AM
> > > To: lugnet.market.shopping@lugnet.com
> > > Subject: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> > >
> > >
> > > I had purchased as many of the <set:3033> from a $5 off sale
> > > about a month ago
> > > and ended up with as many as I thought I could afford, but
> > > still wanting more.
> > >
> > > Last night, I got a call from the manager of one of the local
> > > Toys 'R' Us
> > > stores and he had been shipped 160 of the blue tubs, even
> > > though he didn't
> > > need any. Since he just got Kids 'R' Us put into his store,
> > > he has no room,
> > > so he offered me all 160 at the $5 off price! Normally, I
> > > don't go crazy
> > > about 25% off, but I have never seen these available for any
> > > less and even so,
> > > it would be unlikely that I could ever get this kind of
> > > quantity if I did.
> > >
> > > If your local TRU is getting a Kids 'R' Us put in, the
> > > management might be
> > > willing to cut some deals to move stock, but your mileage • may vary.
> > >
> > > Now, does anybody want to help sort 160 tubs?
> > >
> > > Mike Poindexter
> >
> >
>
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