Yay for Lego!

[Hank Fletcher]

According to Google, today's the 50th anniversary of arguably the best toy ever made: Lego!

In honour of the occasion, I've made a model of dual quick return levers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yL0QkjoZYg

 

[theinfamousbob]

That video is pretty cool Hank.

Obligatory Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego

Legos are made with 2:mu:m tolerance...cool.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

Legos are made with 2m tolerance...cool.

Yeah, I was impressed by that detail, also! Considering how well the pieces still fit after decades of abuse is impressive, too.

Thanks for the compliment!

 

[blueroomelectronics]

What are quick return levers used for?

 

[Dr.EM]

Lego is great! Here is my working Lego crossbow. Locks automatically when carrier is pulled back, ergonomic handle (ish!) and suprisingly accurate (lego man at 4 metres range is quite possible). Mabye I should get a Youtube account and make a video of it working.

**broken link removed**

 

[Hank Fletcher]

What are quick return levers used for?

I'm not sure what the most common, real-world application must be. A quick return lever can be used where intermittent power is desired, but the application calls for something other than the equal power/return of a piston, and if for whatever reason a cam just won't do. By tinkering with dimensions of the wheel and its relative position to the fulcrum, the proportion of one direction of motion to the other can be adjusted.

I'm going to build a larger version of my lego model for use with the recorder robot (and possibly use for later instrument robots). Each lever will move its own bellow. I think this method will require the least amount of bellows (only two) while providing the smoothest output (what with the slight overlap).

 

[Hank Fletcher]

Here is my working Lego crossbow... ...Mabye I should get a Youtube account and make a video of it working.

Hell, yeah!

 

[Krumlink]

Lol hank arent you at least 30 (dont mean to be disrespectful)? It would be somewhat wierd to see a grown adult playing with cute colorful legos

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Lol hank arent you at least 30 (dont mean to be disrespectful)? It would be somewhat wierd to see a grown adult playing with cute colorful legos

Lego is great! - it's why you have kids, so you have an excuse to play with their Lego!

 

[Hank Fletcher]

It would be somewhat wierd to see a grown adult playing with cute colorful legos

There's no shame in being old. Old people are just stupid young people who got smart enough to survive.

 

[Leftyretro]

Lego are for you young guys.

Us older and wiser were raised in a progressive manner.

Start with Tinker Toys

Graduate to Lincoln Logs

And finally those wishing to go further on the nerd path went on to

ERECTOR SETS

I ended up with a Erector set model 11 1/2, I think there was only one size larger.

 

[Andy1845c]

Lego are for you young guys.

Us older and wiser were raised in a progressive manner.

Start with Tinker Toys

Graduate to Lincoln Logs

And finally those wishing to go further on the nerd path went on to

ERECTOR SETS

I'm only 23 and I had all of the above when I was a kid
Makes me a little sad that I don't still have any of them.

Anyone else my age remember the Capsela construction sets? Kind of a cross between Legos and erector set?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela
**broken link removed**

 

[theinfamousbob]

I'm only 23 and I had all of the above when I was a kid
Makes me a little sad that I don't still have any of them.

Anyone else my age remember the Capsela construction sets? Kind of a cross between Legos and erector set?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela
**broken link removed**

Oh BOY did I have Capsela...Got my first set before K'nex or Lego (I'm pretty sure about having it before Lego).

Built some crazy stuff. Never had enough to do really cool stuff, so I was limited. Had the voice recognition module and later bought the IR remote set for it. One of the best things a kid in electronics could have.

...I always wanted crane parts like that. Although I don't get why one would set up the vehicle like that (the picture)...

I had plenty of Lincoln logs, K'nex, Lego bricks, Capsela, and some Erector all through childhood. My parents would buy half of the stuff second hand (all of the Lego bricks I have) from relatives. A fortune new.

Geez, this thread is making me want to bring a tub of K'nex to school with me. Built some interesting gear ratio/piston stuff. They don't have a lot of strength though. One time I built a gear box that ripped itself apart because of the extreme ratio.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

I had Capsela, too! I'm kinda surprised it lasted that long - I didn't know anyone else had had it until now. I don't have it anymore, but I remember it because the terminology in the instructions was my first introduction to sex ed (me as an eight-year old: "Male connectors into female connectors? What's that all about?").

 

[kchriste]

If you ever get the chance go to legoland:
http://www.layer1.net/gallery/legoland
It's pretty impressive.

 

[Krumlink]

With a quick glance at those pics, some of them look shockingly realistic.

 

[Marks256]

I loved legos. I have a whole VCR box FULL of legos. They were soooo fun! I also had an erector set, but my dad found it in the junk, so there were quite a few parts missing, and most of the pieces were bent. Still fun stuff, though.

 

[CheapSlider]

I liked mecanno.

If you ever wondered what they used before digital computers see the differential analyser (modelled in mecanno)

 

[crusty]

when i was a kid we have to walk 5 miles in the snow up hill barefoot to get 1 lego block.

 

[CheapSlider]

when i was a kid we have to walk 5 miles in the snow up hill barefoot to get 1 lego block.

Luxury !

Four Yorkshireman utube (3 versions):

Marty Feldman - The original

Monty Python - most well known

We know where you live - 'tribute' version


( In case you can't be bothered to tube: )

Four well-dressed men sitting together at a vacation resort:-

Michael Palin: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.

Graham Chapman: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah?

Terry Gilliam: You're right there Obediah.

Eric Idle: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?

MP: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

GC: A cup ' COLD tea.

EI: Without milk or sugar.

TG: OR tea!

MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.

EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."

EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.

GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!

TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a corridor!

MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.

EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.

GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!

TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.

MP: Cardboard box?

TG: Aye.

MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

ALL: Nope, nope..

The original sketch was written and performed by:
Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman