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Subject: 
Re: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.market.shopping
Date: 
Wed, 5 Apr 2000 18:49:49 GMT
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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




Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
 
(...) Actually, someone already makes one. (URL) (24 years ago, 5-Apr-00, to lugnet.market.shopping)
  Re: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
 
(...) just wondering, what are you planning to do with all those tubs? Anything specific, or is it just for the love of the brick? :) Dan (24 years ago, 5-Apr-00, to lugnet.market.shopping)

Message is in Reply To:
  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, (...) (24 years ago, 5-Apr-00, to lugnet.market.shopping)

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