LEGO Ludo 851847 Disassembly

[Topsy Cret]

I couldn't find a thread about this, so I though I'd make one.

The set LEGO Ludo 851857 (review can be found here) comes with a LEGO board that is entirely glued together.

I was wondering if anyone had a good technique for disassembling any glued LEGO sets without accidentally damaging the baseplate. Thanks for your help.

[KimT]

You want a way to dissolve glue without leaving traces?

If you ever find it, make sure to write it down.

- You'll make a few zillion bucks in doing so.

No really, I don't think there's a way to do that.

You don't glue stuff, just to unglue it later on.

That's not the intentional use of glue, is it?

[Eskallon]

The review link is not working so here is one: here. (It's my review)

Anyway, it will be pretty hard to take it apart. Some pieces will be loose like in mine and might easily come off but I would not reccomend taking it all apart. You will succeed but the glue marks might be permanent.

[brickzone]

I once accidentally bought a glued set off ebay (note: always translate German listings fully even if you have a basic grasp of the language!). Prising parts off is possible, and the semi-dissolved/gluey mess is not so visible or necessarily an issue on the underside of bricks, but is very visible on the top side (not necessarily an issue if you put bricks in place of the removed glued ones). I say not necessarily an issue as the glue can leave a surface uneven enough to affect building in some cases.

In my experience the baseboards can even have holes or missing studs after pulling glued bricks off though!

[davee123]

When working with the Master Builders, we learned that the glue they use essentially melts the plastics together. So new chemical bonds between the bricks can form. Hence, prying apart elements will often leave residual parts of the opposing glued element, as well as some of the glue itself. I don't know if they use the same glue when gluing sets, but if so, you'd be hard pressed to remove the elements smoothly.

DaveE

[Topsy Cret]

When working with the Master Builders, we learned that the glue they use essentially melts the plastics together. So new chemical bonds between the bricks can form. Hence, prying apart elements will often leave residual parts of the opposing glued element, as well as some of the glue itself. I don't know if they use the same glue when gluing sets, but if so, you'd be hard pressed to remove the elements smoothly.

DaveE

I doubt that's much of a problem. I've started removing a few of the pieces from the LUDO set, and there's no evidence suggesting that a chemical reaction has taken place.