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up vote 21 down vote favorite

Teeth and pliers tend to leave unsightly marks on the bricks.

Fingernails don't work too well.

What tool do you recommend to separate them?

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1  
These are called plates, by the way. 3 plates stack to a brick's height. – BoltClock Oct 25 '11 at 20:10
Thanks for the term. I'll edit to reflect the correct terminology. – Friend Of George Oct 25 '11 at 21:11
until I read below, I thought teeth were the next tool after nails. – jfyelle Oct 27 '11 at 20:42
I have found that to get a tile off of a baseplate you can use the minifig crowbar. – J. Walker Jan 30 at 18:08

10 Answers

up vote 36 down vote accepted

You could try the great brick separator. Designed for this it's probably your best bet.

enter image description here enter image description here

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9  
Perfect image... – 81bronco Oct 25 '11 at 20:02
You don't need two brick separators for this, do you? D: – BoltClock Oct 25 '11 at 20:06
@BoltClock, no. I've managed it with just the one (although there's no harm in having two around. – tombull89 Oct 25 '11 at 20:08
3  
hmmm, using a tool designed for the job...? -1 hack points +1 for correct answer ;) – Steen Oct 25 '11 at 20:08
1  
I'd never understood how these worked until I saw the second image - cheers. – Umber Ferrule Oct 25 '11 at 21:24
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up vote 6 down vote

In addition to the Brick Separator, there are some parts that work well for this

brick separator alternative

Original here.

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4  
Welcome to bricks.stackexchange.com! Please note that when answering with a link, it's usually expected that you add at least a summary of the link, so that people don't need to click it to understand your answer. Here, you'd need to embed the image itself, provided you're ready to license it under cc-wiki. – Joubarc♦ Nov 2 '11 at 5:05
@Joubarc, done. – retracile Nov 3 '11 at 0:24
up vote 6 down vote

Or you could use, guess what, a new brick separator:

96874 — Human Tool, Brick and Axle Separator

I just noticed this one appearing on BrickLink and have no idea in what set it will come out, or if it will be sold separately, or if it will work with jumpers.

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1  
Apparently, it will do jumbers thebrickblogger.com/2011/09/lego-brick-separator-new-version. – Kramii Nov 2 '11 at 18:56
Nice find, and great article! – Joubarc♦ Nov 2 '11 at 19:06
up vote 4 down vote

I (and my sons) use a plastic knife designed for children. We found ours in IKEA (larger bricks for houses)

I have also used this lego tool with moderate success

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up vote 11 down vote

theres the great LEGO Brick Seperator that can be bought in the LEGO Online-Shop:

Brick Seperator

i love this thing, it's just great if you want to take care of your nails & teeth ;)

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2  
would be nice to know why i'm getting a downvote for this. without a reason, a downvote seems pretty senseless. – oezi Oct 27 '11 at 19:33
up vote 3 down vote

A flat-style staple remover (as opposed to the jaws style) does well to maintain the surface of a stuck brickage. It also can be jimmied back and forth without much slippage.

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up vote 16 down vote

I normally use two big bricks: one on the top and one at the bottom. Then you push down while rotating.

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+1 totally forgot that good old hack :) – Steen Oct 25 '11 at 20:07
I always try the teeth first ;) – pcantin Oct 25 '11 at 20:11
That's the easiest when all your brick separators are nowhere to be found (hint: wear the thing on your neck) – Joubarc♦ Oct 26 '11 at 14:20
up vote 1 down vote

Disclaimer: I haven't tried this personally.

You could use two removal-tools (one to grab the top piece, one to grab the bottom piece)

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up vote 1 down vote

You can always try the Official LEGO Brick Separator. It would probably take a couple to work best on 1x2s though - one on the top, one on the bottom.

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up vote 5 down vote

I use a fingernail most times, or a guitar pick if the bricks are stuck too firmly.

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Fingernails are great - I use it a lot, but fingernails tear easily, so I love your suggestion for using a guitar pick. +1 – awe Nov 2 '11 at 13:31

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