rgbrown

What I was thinking of is that the sliding friction should be less because the teeth are more parallel over the duration of contact. This presumably depends heavily on the tooth profile. My impression of technic gears is that bevel gears have much greater friction than spur gears, but I've never actually tested this. I keep intending to do some proper measurements, but never quite manage to find the time!

Haha, this thread is getting hilarious But larger diameters give less friction. (everything else being equal)

Why not just techniccreations.com? That doesn't seem to be a problem (e.g. TechnicBRICKS)

I agree! Have you ever done any efficiency measurements when building your clocks? What's your opinion on meshing bevel and spur gears?

Was messing around with the creator snowman (30008) and, seeing as it's topical, I thought I'd share the wee space shuttle that resulted: Photo on flickr edit: second photo!

I think the distinction is pretty clear in the official sets - Technic models focus on technical functions and use primarily technic bricks or liftarms, Model Team / Creator focus on realistic appearance, using mostly system pieces. With MOCs it's a different story, because many builders aim to achieve both. So you can't split the categories. I regard many MOCs as both Technic and Model Team / Creator (e.g. Sariel's various models). +1 for a EB overhaul with user-supplied tags. It's the way forward. And search functionality that lets you search more often than once every blue moon without flood control biting you. Time to modernise!

yurgh ... I really dislike these black colour schemes with blue and red showing through. I think the reverse-engineered red version looks much nicer.

To add to what others have said, the "safe" solution would be as follows: Get a transformer that supplies 9V or less (not more) Make sure it's rated for at least 1A at 9V. If you try and draw too much current you run the risk of damaging the transformer and at worst creating a fire risk. Wire it to the internals of the battery box, not the top. This shouldn't be too hard, and that way you get the benefit of the overcurrent protection provided by the battery box. The battery box trips at about 1.3A I think (there's a thread somewhere on here where it's been tested). The train regulator will have its own overcurrent protection. That said, if it's just a single M-motor that's not working very hard you won't be drawing anywhere near 1A, and you wouldn't need to run through the battery box like that and you could use a much lower current transformer. However if you're going to increase the power functions component of your build significantly then you'll need to be a bit more aware of the potential issues.

Open up the Building steps page of the LEGO Club website and click on "Test Case" (has a picture of a guitar) and lo and behold: an 8070 alternate with instructions! Presumably they'll put the picture and description up soon, but in the meantime it's hiding away there.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate it. I hope those kiwis of you out there have heard from your friends and relatives down here. The city is basically in shock. Most houses have no water, the sewage system is broken, and half the city is still without power. I'm fortunate - I moved my family out to the inlaws house about 30km north of the city, where we have water. Ironically, I was giving a lecture at the university when it hit. I had just finished the safety briefing and promised the class that of course we wouldn't actually have an earthquake today ...

off topic for the forum I know, but spare a thought for my city, Christchurch, New Zealand, which has just been rocked by a pretty nasty earthquake. My family and friends are ok, but there've been a number of fatalities. And the house is a shambles :(

Other things that are important - don't run them completely flat - if one goes flat before the others, it can end up being driven in reverse, which kills it. When the motors start slowing down, time to recharge.

Also, modern ones have much lower self-discharge than older ones -- should be able to hold the bulk of their charge for months on end.

I like it! Especially the parallel park manoeuvre. 3:1 gear ratio, yes?

8295 Telehandler. They stuck 3L liftarms (with boss and pin) to hold the mudguards into the middle of the steering linkage as if it were a parallelogram, which it isn't. Whenever you steer it, the geometry gets stressed. See picture for what I mean.