Questions tagged [building]
Interested in building techniques? Then this is the tag for you.
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Is it possible to build simple logic gates with LEGO mechanics?
I built a simple bitshifter in Minecraft yesterday. I wondered if something like this could be built with LEGO?
Maybe there is a possibility to build gates with rubber bands and those movable ...
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9
answers
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Has anyone made LEGO fly?
It may not be the ideal material. But has there ever been a LEGO model airplane with the ability to glide, under power maybe, or some other kind of successful lifting airship? Helicopter, blimp, kite, ...
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How do I center a 2x2 plate on a 3x3 plate?
I want to be able to center a 2x2 plate in the middle of a 3x3 plate - specifically to put minifig on. Another option would be to center a 2x1 plate on a 3x1 plate.
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What glue should I use for permanent LEGO construction?
The incredible precision of LEGO parts makes them attractive for building precise jigs, but the fact that they can come apart fairly easily isn't so helpful for this application. Can anyone recommend ...
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7
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How can I invert the direction of blocks in a structure?
I have a structure with some blocks facing in the 'normal' direction:
nn nn nn nn
| || || || |
-- -- -- --
I would like to somehow connect a layer above this that has the blocks ...
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How do I build a curved wall?
On my latest MOC I want to build a round tower.
This is a minifig-scale build, and the tower is going to have a diameter of about 20/30 studs.
How should I go about building the "curved" wall of the ...
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votes
4
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When did LEGO decide that it was okay to put a stud into a Technic hole?
At one point, LEGO didn't really support putting a stud into a Technic hole, stating that it caused too much stress on the bricks. And for a while, there were no sets where that's the case. However, ...
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1
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How can I make a working pin tumbler lock?
I'd like to make a working pin tumbler lock out of LEGO bricks. I have already designed a key I'd like to use that should be compatible with five cylinder lock.
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What techniques can be used for laying plates at 45° angle?
I've seen a number of techniques for laying individual elements at 45° angles, but I need a consistent method for laying down larger plates at 45 degrees while maintaining close contact with the base ...
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How do you plan large structures for easy and safe transport to shows?
Imagine I am building a large display that will cover many square feet and have both tall buildings and lots of small details. What are some techniques for making these things modular? Is it safer to ...
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Can the new road plates be used to build ramps or hills?
I have the new LEGO City road plates, and I'm wondering if they can be used to create ramps or hills. Here's the road plate system I'm referring to:
Ramps and hills weren't easy to create with the ...
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5
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How can I build an (automatic) Mindstorms charging-station?
I'm thinking about buying LEGO Mindstorms and start programming robots. I'm a software engineer and LEGO fan since I was a child so this sounds like the perfect combination of my dearest hobbies.
But ...
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6
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What are some creative uses of the orange brick separator tool?
I have these piling up around my LEGO corner:
Any suggestions for creative uses? Especially multiple?
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3
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How do I build a sloped roof with a 60° rake?
I've seen the sloped roof on the "Winter Village Post Office" and similar using plates, and I want to build a roof with a similar angle:
What should I use to ensure they are well attached?
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How can you make a hip holster for minifigs?
Is there a way to create a holster of some sort so you could attach a LEGO pistol to the side of a minifig, around the hips?
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How to make a 1 ldu offset?
LDraw units are defined so that a simple 1x1 brick has a side of 20 ldu and a height of 24 ldu.
Using simple building techniques, it's easy to create 2 ldu offset, as illustrated in this picture, ...
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1
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How much weight can a handle of Technic pegs and beams support?
Some Lego spaceships have handles attached, made out of Technic beam and pegs, and attached to the model using Technic bricks, pegs, and axles.
For example, 7644: MX-81 Hypersonic Operations Aircraft ...
user23
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3
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Is there a catalog of Lego building techniques?
As a Lego noob watching Lego Masters, I spot certain techniques being used time and again, without any real explanation (Lego Masters is great for entertainment, but offers little to no instruction). ...
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1
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How is the roof on this bridge town formed?
I recently came across this build from Markus Rollbühler:
It includes many great details and building techniques. I'm curious how the conical tower roof is formed, though:
It's obviously made using ...
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3
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How would you make a good pivot-arm suspension?
I once tried to make a 4 wheeled Lego robot using a pivot arm suspension system. The robot was motorized using 2 Mindstorm (2.0) motors (one one each side). I can't find and original picture but it ...
- 13.5k
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Bridge from just basic bricks?
I teach an after-school engineering class using LEGO bricks, one of our classes has the students build a bridge. Each student gets a custom set of about 150 2x4 bricks, about 300 2x2 bricks, and, if ...
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1
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What would be a simple trebuchet design at the Minifigure scale?
I would like to have a trebuchet design at the Minifigure scale and simple enough for kids 10+ to build.
Note 1: The counter weight can be any non-LEGO heavy object.
Note 2: On top of the standard ...
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4
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How can I get my motor to line up with a linear actuator?
I am very new to Lego, and I want to create a simple horizontal sliding door. I'm using a medium linear motor to drive a linear actuator which is attached to the door. The problem is the motor does ...
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What is the quality of LEGO replicas on Aliexpress?
Aliexpress sells a lot of LEGO replicas, has anyone here bought one? I am wanting to know how the quality compares to LEGO?
Example products: https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&...
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Estimate building time for a given LEGO set
I'd like to be able to estimate better how much time a LEGO set will take me to build.
Are there any resources online that indicate average or fastest building times for a given set?
I suppose it also ...
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Is there a way to build a stronger LEGO ball than what was done by the Mythbusters?
In one episode, the Mythbusters busted a fake video by building a 7' tall LEGO ball. The construction did not roll very far before falling apart.
Assuming that they only used standard bricks (with ...
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3
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Technique for connecting a tile vertically next to a brick
I'm trying to create this effect, where a 1x1 half-circle tile seems to 'stick out of' a 2x2 brick at 90 degrees:
This is easily achieved with a 1x1 tile with light attachment, as seen here from the ...
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How can I make a precise one-way clutch using Technic elements?
I need a mechanism so that if a (NXT) motor rotates forward, it moves one gear, but the other stays still, but if it rotates backwards, the first gear does not move, but the second one does.
I found ...
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Building a full-size lamp using LEGO bricks
On an episode of the TV show 'Home by Novogratz' they featured a real, working lamp that was made out of LEGO bricks. More specifically, the creator surrounded an existing lamp with the bricks, ...
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Stained glass windows on The Throneroom of Cedrica
Can anyone explain how to make the stained glass windows in builds like The Throneroom of Cedrica?
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4
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What are some helpful techniques for applying stickers?
It can be tricky to place small stickers accurately on small parts using adult-sized hands. The best technique I've found so far is to remove the sticker and stick it on the corner of the sticker ...
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How can I build a LEGO marble pump?
All right, here's a tough one for ya'll.
How can I built a marble pump out of LEGO bricks? What would the mechanism which pushes the marbles up need to look like?
Here's an example in this video:
...
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Which Duplo bricks have practical uses in System building?
Traditional 2x4 and 2x2 Duplo bricks can be used to bulk out models and provide a structural support for landscapes, but have there been any other uses for Duplo bricks of all shapes and sizes in ...
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What are the essential resources for learning the fundamentals of LEGO building?
After years of buying and building LEGO sets, my six-year-old son is tearing through the first level of the Master Builder Academy. He's fascinated by micro-building, and generally seems liberated ...
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3
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Is there a Technique or Algorithm for Building Spheres?
There are times when I would like to build a sphere or a dome like this one:
From Small Lego Sphere Project
While this example is great, I find it difficult to scale it to another size, whether ...
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3
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Brick-built alternative to "Door 2 x 5 x 5 Swivel, Bracket Base"
I am trying to make a brick-built alternative to the swivelling door piece that's frequently used to provide secret entrances in castle sets.
Example: this combination (images from Bricklink)
The ...
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5
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Where can I find examples of everyday objects built in Lego?
Suppose for example I am interested in creative ways people have made trees, or minifig scale furniture, or just architectural details like windows. Is there some encyclopedia that organizes pictures ...
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2
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How to build this flower?
I found this picture of a flower in a book and would like to build it. I'm wondering what's inside the white bloom?
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5
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What's the most effective way to align 1x1 tiles?
There are a number of sets (e.g., the Farnsworth House and the Parisian Restaurant) that use a field of 1x1 tiles to represent a tiled floor. I have found aligning these pieces such that they are all ...
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How does the Space Shuttle dock the ISS?
The IDEAS International Space Station (21321) comes with a miniature model of a space shuttle. And while that has its place on the space station's stand, the official LEGO product page literally ...
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Is this an error in the updated Harry Potter Diagon Alley build/instructions?
In the book 1 directions for the 2020 Diagon Alley set (see pp. 43ff), I've run into the following issue:
In building the back of Ollivander's shop, we seem to be building some type of shelving unit:
...
14
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4
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Any way to make this setup "tighter"?
I'm trying to build a robotic arm, and I had the following built so that there was the minimum possible movement created by the gear wheel (that connects to the worm).
However, there is still play, ...
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What is the most compact way to make a flat six pointed star in LEGO?
I spend a lot of time building in Micro scale (I maintain the Micropolis collaboration standard) and my partner is trying to figure out how to build the most compact, or smallest, six pointed star ...
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14
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4
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Train level crossing using 2021 road plates
I'm interested in integrating a train level crossing into a city layout using the new road plates, but I've been struggling to figure out the best way to do this. Here's an example level crossing for ...
- 39.8k
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How can I create a visually appealing Castle wall from one colour?
I have a bag of hundreds of classic light grey 2x4 bricks, and 2x1 bricks.
How can I use these to make some interesting castle walls?
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1
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Why don't inverted brackets (99780) work in this SNOT 180 configuration?
I've been working on a MOC and tried using the following configuration of inverted brackets to achieve studs out SNOT 180 in a tight space:
As you can see from the photo, this doesn't quite work. I ...
- 39.8k
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2
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How can I add additional detail to large walls?
I've seen some rather impressive castle builds over the years, and with the release of Helm's Deep I'm clearly going to be building a few myself now.
As this set uses the LEGO sticker sheet to add ...
- 19.5k
14
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1
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Where do the pieces numbered 4255629 go in the Death Star (set 10188)
I just finished up the Death Star set, and while it comes with the usual smattering of leftover pieces, I've got two pieces numbered 4255629 (shown below) that never got used. I've scanned the manual ...
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1
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How can I build Victorian Style windows?
How can I build Lego Victorian style windows, like those on the White House or Capital Building?
This is one style I have done, which, as far as I know, was an original idea by me:
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How to connect fire to Lord Business' Coffee Mugs?
So, we have Lord Business' Evil Lair (70809-1), and we also have some two-tone flames from another set.
How can the flames be attached to Lord Biz' coffee mugs (as seen in The LEGO Movie)?
+
The ...
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