To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.roboticsOpen lugnet.robotics in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Robotics / 12169
12168  |  12170
Subject: 
Brick Storage
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Fri, 18 Aug 2000 23:18:11 GMT
Original-From: 
Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.+NoSpam+net>
Reply-To: 
sjbaker1@airmailAVOIDSPAM.net
Viewed: 
498 times
  
This probably ought to be in the FAQ - and you've probably had this question
1e6 times before....How do people with *VAST* Lego collections store them?

I've just spent about four evenings collecting every Lego brick in the house
and sorting them into those neat little cabinets with millions of little plastic
drawers to make finding things easier. (Well, easier than rummaging though a
2'x2'x3' chest *full* of bricks at least).

I'm planning to catalog the collection by using my new-found discovery that
a flatbed scanner can take great photos of bricks.  By taking scanner pictures
of each brick type (there are about 300 of them in the collection my son
and I now share) - and putting them on a large poster above the build area,
it should be much easier to find out which drawer each brick type is in
without endless hunting.

One concern I have is whether 'creativity' will be stifled by not stumbling
over an obscure brick that is 'just the thing' in the course of looking for
something else.  I've heard that some people prefer to just spread bricks
all over the floor when building - but it's hard to imagine people at work
doing that.

Incidentally...

I'm amazed at how many brick types there actually are - clearly many of
them are unnecessary...some of the bricks seem to have 'evolved' from
earlier Lego designs - which makes sense - but others are *highly* model-specific
but could easily be replaced with just two or three 'standard' bricks. I
wonder why Lego did that.

I was also suprised that some quite 'normal' looking bricks are amazingly rare.
Out of all those bricks, there was only *one* 3x2 brick with a 45 degree slope
on it (it is white and all alone in its little drawer).
     ___
    /\  \
   /  \  \
   |\  \__\
   \ \ /   |
    \ |    |
     \|____|

By contrast, there were over 100 4x2's and a similar number of 2x2's...weird.

Another thing that suprised me was how very nasty the non-Lego-but-compatible
bricks are. We seem to have a number of 'MegaBlocks' bricks - but they are
of harder plastic and seem to have worn out much faster than the regular Lego
kind.  I've dumped most of them into an overflow bin - but some of them are
in really nice colours and are definitely worth hanging onto.

I guess most of these things come as no suprise to anyone on this list...but I
would like to hear about storage techniques.

--
Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
              WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
              HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
              Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
                         http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net



Message has 5 Replies:
  Re: Brick Storage
 
(...) If you're curious about types of sloped elements, check this out! :) (URL) [...] (...) I use Acro Mils storage containers and sort everything by shape. Some of the larger bins get split into multiple colors (like small plates and bricks). (...) (24 years ago, 18-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.storage)
  Specialisation (was Brick Storage)
 
Steve Baker wrote: <<snip>> (...) I 'came back' to Lego just recently after a 15 year absence (the return largely triggered by MindStorms) - and the one thing that struck me was how specialised Lego has now become. I know that when I was 'playing' (...) (24 years ago, 18-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Brick Storage
 
----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net> To: Lego Robotics <lego-robotics@crynwr.com> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2000 7:18 PM Subject: Brick Storage {snip} (...) that (...) pictures (...) area, (...) Very clever! I've used (...) (24 years ago, 20-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Brick Storage
 
(...) My contribution to the thread: (URL) have improved the system a tad so I have to take some new photos, but the time! The time! Play well :) /Tobbe - (URL) (24 years ago, 21-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Brick Storage
 
My tubs have about doubled since I last took these photos... (...) LEGO@jameswest.com LUGNET Member 63 LEGO Rulez! (24 years ago, 21-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)

11 Messages in This Thread:





Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR