While studying all day I have nearly no time for building and of course even less motivation to sort my LEGO afterwards. So I spent my spare time on LDD, creating this small MOC - a Mini Forklift, to build it afterwards.

The aim was to build a forklift with the following features:

- 5-wide, comparable to the 8290

- Manually operated carriage with forks

- Tilting mechanism to pivot the mast to assist in engaging a load

- Rear-wheel steering with HOG (Hand of god)

And this is what I came out with.

The bodywork is dominated by the two yellow Technic Panels. Like most of the classic LEGO Technic construction vehicles it has the famous blue seat. The cab features some headlights, a strong roof to protect the driver and some levers to control the functions.

The steering is simple and direct via a HOG. The rear wheel is centred 1/2 L below the front wheels to be on ground level. I used some Liftarms 1x2 Thin to delimit the steering angle.

The tilting mechanism uses a Gear Worm Screw and a Gear 8 Tooth which are connected with the mast via a Connector Perpendicular Triple.

After several failed attempts on creating a moveable carriage with chain-elements and ropes, I adapted shockbeton's design, because of its reliabylity and simplicity on this smale scale. To use more common pieces and increase the range, I replaced the Gear Rack 1x10 with three Gear Racks 1x4 placed on Plates 1x2 and 1x8.

And this is how the forklift looks in action, lifting a pallet with my Small Fake Engine.

More detailed pictures and informations to be found on Brickshelf and on my Blog.

And of course I will share the LDD File with you.

With best regards,

laix

Edited March 11, 201212 yr by laix

Wow! Very impressive.

I'm amazed, you make great models!

Looks just like that forklift that keeps trying to run me over every time I go into my local Home Depot.

Nice little moc!

Nice forklift.

I like that it has many functions and looks like a real thing too.

As said before: such a fine an cute model.

Did a little rebuilt myself with the help of the LDD-file

Edited March 9, 201212 yr by JunkstyleGio

That is a really amazing little model...! Impressive...!

Fantastic little moc! You build some really great small-scale models! Nice work, again!

So small and cute! i love it. Do you have a video?

tim

Thanks for your positive comments. I'm currently working on a PDF-building-instruction, so you don't have to use the LDD-File.

@JunkstyleGio: Love to see someone already rebuilding it. But I'm not sure about the scale

@timr: It's in my post.

Really good stuff! I like your crane a lot as well.

After several trials and errors I'm pretty happy with my MLCAD/LPUB experience and hope you also like it

Mini Forklift Building Instructions

Edited March 10, 201212 yr by laix

After several trials and errors I'm pretty happy with my MLCAD/LPUB experience and hope you also like it

I do! very well done... How do you create the BOM with Bricklink links?

@ Philo: I created a PDF Parts List (using Laix's LDD .lxf file and LDD Manager) -- you can download it via SkyDrive here. The Mini Forklift uses 174 parts.

@ Philo: I created a PDF Parts List (using Laix's LDD .lxf file and LDD Manager) -- you can download it via SkyDrive here. The Mini Forklift uses 174 parts.

Thanks DLuders... but it seems that your link is broken, and I am not sure I was clear: there is a BOM in Laix instructions, and I'm curious to know how he inserted the links to Bricklink - manually I guess?

Thanks DLuders... but it seems that your link is broken, and I am not sure I was clear: there is a BOM in Laix instructions, and I'm curious to know how he inserted the links to Bricklink - manually I guess?

@Philo: Yeah, I just spent half an hour on importing them manually

@DLuders: A great tool. This could become quite handy!

Your mini forklift is really cute little MOC. I wonder how does fork lifting work? I can't see any element that generates friction to keep forks "up"... And I have one more question - what software did you use for creating building instruction? I use LPUB and I don't think it is able to create such instructions as yours especialy those red arrows showing way of connecting parts.

Your mini forklift is really cute little MOC. I wonder how does fork lifting work? I can't see any element that generates friction to keep forks "up"... And I have one more question - what software did you use for creating building instruction? I use LPUB and I don't think it is able to create such instructions as yours especialy those red arrows showing way of connecting parts.

The friction is generated by the momentum of the fork, the carriage is pushed in an angle against the mast and this works for smaller loads. In the building instructions I use MLCAD's "buffer exchange" for the arrows and this exploded view and save the LPUB file as png's. Then I use PowerPoint to arrange the several steps. I could make a tutorial on how it works if you like.

I would very much like a tutorial on adding arrows to building instructions,its a very time consuming thing to add but it is worth it for every one trying to rebuild your model.

The friction is generated by the momentum of the fork, the carriage is pushed in an angle against the mast and this works for smaller loads. In the building instructions I use MLCAD's "buffer exchange" for the arrows and this exploded view and save the LPUB file as png's. Then I use PowerPoint to arrange the several steps. I could make a tutorial on how it works if you like.

Yes, I would like to see this toturial and as I can see above I am not only one who is interested in it.

Yes, I would like to see this toturial and as I can see above I am not only one who is interested in it.

Here's the tutorial on making the instructions. It was fun and a new experience for me, hope you like it

Thanks for the toturial.

I have added your blog to my links.

Edited March 15, 201212 yr by Alasdair Ryan