|
|
Copyright © 2001 - 2008, Thomas Avery | |||||||||||||
|
HOME |
CREATIONS | IDEAS | LINKS | ABOUT ME | FAQ | SITE INDEX | ||||||||
This page is a log of my current work and updates to the Texbrick website.
|
24 Apr 2008 FINALLY... the 17-foot bridge is online.
15 Oct 2007 3.5 years since my last update... but I'm still around! I have NOT left the brick yet. Please allow me to explain myself: I've been busy! My first child was born in early 2005. Being a parent for the first time is a complete lifestyle change. I've also been very busy at work. With the price of oil being relatively high for the last few years, business is screaming. It hasn't helped that I've been on projects requiring a lot of work out-of-town and offshore. So what, you ask? That never stopped anyone before :-) Well, I've also hit a period of what we call a "dark age". Many of my last projects ended in disaster, brought on by mistakes that I made while rushing the project and building for a deadline. I just became burnt out. It wasn't fun anymore. Any hobby that isn't fun just isn't worth doing.
I became very interested in photography. I'd been photographing for years, but in 2004, things really took off. You can see the results of that hobby on my photography website: I've built a couple of projects in the meantime. There was a 17-foot long bridge, a telescoping crane 4x4 truck, and another little (about 8-feet) bridge. I have photos of those projects and I've started building little webpages for each one. I'll get these online in the coming months. This last weekend I bought set 8284 (buggy / tractor) and built it. It was the first LEGO set I've purchased in about a year. I had a blast building it, and I really miss my bricks. I'm not sure what I'll build next. I'm waiting on a little inspiration. Also, my son is getting old enough to somewhat understand what I'm doing. Although it's still a challenge to keep him from tearing apart my work and dumping out my parts bins all over the house! ;-) I've received many emails over the years from people wanting to know what I've been building and asking my various LEGO-related questions. Keep 'em coming and know that I'm still a huge fan of LEGO! In the current stage of my life, things will come more slowly. But I'm still building!
2 Apr 2004  A new bridge model.
1 Nov 2003 Whew!!! Many new things to report:
• The MSG 50 model is complete.
March 27, 2003 MSG 50 project updated. Still workin' on it!
March 21, 2003
January 2, 2003 Happy New Year to all! I have many things planned, but you probably won't see anything new for a while. I'll keep my site updated. The next big project will be the one that's "on the shelf" right now, the MSG 50 model. I'll get this one going again!
December 11, 2002 The marine crane webpages are finished! Check it out!
November 11, 2002 Wow, how time does fly! Yes, I'm still alive and kicking. • I've done quite a bit with TEXLUG. See the notes from the recent meeting. • The marine crane page sits stagnant. I'm sorry, I'm trying to find time to finish it. The model is still built and sits in my living room, much to my wife's dismay :-) She keeps asking when I will tear it down. "No, dear. it's a permanent part of the decor" ;-) It's great entertainment for our guests. • The MSG 50 model is ongoing, but slowly. It's proving a lot more difficult than I'd anticipated. • I'm still the curator of the Technic page at LUGNET. Check out the left sidebar for updates (see the "new moc" feature). • I'm still an associate editor at BimP. Check out the models section for new entries from some well known builders. • I've had a flurry of emails lately from people asking questions and showing interest in my site. Thank you! Keep them coming! The traffic to the site has really picked up in the past couple of months. It frequently reaches triple of what it used to be!
August 7, 2002 It's long past due for some updates! Many things have happened: • The R 996 excavator model now has full detailed pages. • See my photos from Brickfest 2002. • Yes, that's a new creation of mine in those pics (more details). • There is a TEXLUG meeting in the works for this fall. See the TEXLUG website for more info. • I've made more additions and updates to the LUGNET.Technic newsgroup sidebar. Remember, the sidebar is a most excellent reference for all things Technic. Be sure to look through it, and check back often!
June 28, 2002 The R996 excavator model is now being featured at Bricks In My Pocket (BimP) (look in the Models section).
June 13, 2002 I updated the FAQ page. I've added a few more questions that I've received recently in emails. The FAQ is not meant to say "read this and don't email me", I just thought it would be interesting to all those who have questions, but are hesitant to send me email. I get emails all the time from people all over the world. I apreciate everyone's comments and their interest in LEGO. Keep them coming!
June 10, 2002 The R996 excavator model nears completion. Steven Combs, editor of the online magazine, Bricks In My Pocket (BimP), has choosen to feature the model in a series of model submissions. The entries will chronologically cover the model selection, planning, design, and construction. Please stay tuned to BimP for the first entry, it's due out very soon. If you have a small personal computer (a pocket PC), or a PDA, get a subscription to BimP today! Just visit the BimP site for more information.
June 6, 2002 Happy anniversary! My Lego stuff has been online for a year now. I jumped onto the Internet on June 6, 2001 with a website located on my account with my ISP. My site moved to Texbrick.com just a few months later.
April 25, 2002 And, continues! Go Here
April 8, 2002 The work continues (finally)! I had a long building session this weekend and produced something. It still has a long way to go, though. I scrapped the earlier version (see Dec. 3 entry below) and rebuilt it from scratch. Why, you ask? I put all the motors in the cab and the power for the crawlers goes through the turntable via concentric shafts (no, I didn't use a differential- guess how?). The turntable is mounted upside down so that the swing motor is also in the cab. This was done so that no wires pass through the turntable, and the cab will have full 360° movement. In fact, I will be able to sit there with my finger on the button and rotate the thing for hours if I feel like it, or until my minifigs get sick and harf minifig puke on my model!
BTW, it's an excavator. A BIG excavator. Also, see this page.
March 29, 2002 Planning for my next mega-project began quite some time ago. Construction won't begin for a while, I'm still in the "parts aquisitions" phase. Here's a sneak preview. I've finished another series of revisions on the website. The crawler crane pages have been revised and the images fixed. Have a look!
March 17, 2002 Finally, some new stuff!!! Check it out: RR Truss Bridges Freight Train With UP Loco Row Buildings
February 28, 2002 I've been pretty busy with all sorts of things this past month. Earlier this month, I was appointed curator for the Technic newsgroup at Lugnet. I have spent some time updating the sidebar on the front page, and if you want a good reference source for all things Technic, it's an excellent place to start. I've been coordinating the next TEXLUG meeting, and it will be on March 9th in Austin, Texas. I've been building stuff for the upcoming meeting (we're going to do a train layout). I can't say much now, due to the high level of secrecy involved with my building (IOW, I haven't taken any pictures yet ;-). I can say that the bridges are finished and I have enough straight track for them (and I'm in serious danger of becoming a train-head!). The bridges look nothing like what I had previously planned (see earlier entries), but I think they're pretty cool. The tractor will make its final appearance at the meeting (March 9th). Afterwards, it will be scrapped. The parts will be needed for my next mega project, which is still undecided at this time.
February 7, 2002 Bridge No. 2 revised and updated. The pics are still bad, but that cannot be corrected as the original photographs were bad. I renamed the bridge to it's proper description, a "three span deck truss" bridge.
February 4, 2002 I finally got around to upgrading the site index. It includes all the pages that can be found on this site. The new format is more simple and will be easier to update. I've also created a new header and footer, which you may have noticed on all the base-level pages. Even this page has been updated (see top and bottom of this page).
Upcoming Changes Part of the problem with the existing stuff is that it was done in quite a hurry. About the time I was finishing the big crawler crane last year, I began to hastily throw together a few simple webpages to present my past work. The result was poor pictures and badly written text. As an example, I've updated one of my MOC pages. Click here to see the update!
January 25, 2002 I updated my gears page. There's new information and pictures about gear breakage.
January 24, 2002 The tractor can pull 94.5 lb (42.9 kg) of weight on a trailer! See It HERE
January 21, 2002 Added a little page on the transmission of the tractor. See It HERE I also added a description of my picture taking and image processing. See It HERE
January 20, 2002 Just a quick shot of what my "Lego desk" looks like: 
January 19, 2002 I finally got the tractor pictures and webpages online. See It HERE
January 18, 2002 I'm getting closer to a final bridge design ( click here for pic, size: 88 KB). This will be for the upcoming TEXLUG meeting. The tractor sits collecting dust while waiting for me to finish the webpages, still! One of my primary projects this new year is upgrading my storage system. Partswise, I almost doubled the size of my collection last year. I am in serious need of a better, and larger, sorting system. I'm starting to switch from open-lid compartmentalized boxes to larger wall-mounted boxes with small pull-out drawers. It was getting difficult to build while trying to shuffle around 20 small tackle boxes. The only drawback is that now I can't look down into the open compartments of each box and see all the parts. With the new boxes, I must tape a description or picture of the parts on the front of the drawers.
January 2, 2002- The tractor is finished: 
Nice wheels, huh?
December 3, 2001- I haven't had a chance to do much of anything. I've only accomplished a few things:
THE TRACTOR  ,
Well, sort of! I don't like the tires because they look too small and have poor traction. I'm getting a 8466 for Christmas, or at least it's on my list. I'll use the larger tires from that set on my tractor. I'll finish the tractor for good after Christmas. I tried a few pulls with it and accomplished a maximum of 6.5 lb (2.95 kg). I broke a gear somewhere deep in the gear train when I tried a 6.8 lb (3.08 kg) pull. The pull required large amounts of weight to be placed on the tractor to increase traction. I had more weight stacked on the tractor than I was trying to pull. I think I can do better with different tires and a rougher surface (perhaps course grit sandpaper). The tires from the 8466 should help a great deal as they will grip much better than the old solid tires I'm using now. See the next entry (for 12 Oct.) for more details on the tractor.
THE NEXT PROJECT 
(It's not a crane!)
THE NEXT, NEXT PROJECT In the meantime, I've been creating a spreadsheet that will aid in the design of the bridge and greatly reduce construction time. This program will allow me to design the main structural members and to estimate the amount of required materials before I pick up a single brick. Also, it will allow me to design the arch to a specific form, in this case a parabolic equation.
The program is easy to use and uses simple geometry (law of cosines) to calculate joint locations. The user defines the overall size of the arch and then by trial-and-error, sizes the members for each section of the arch. The sizing of the members is governed by the shape of the parabolic arch.
October 12, 2001- Not a whole lot! I haven't had much time to build lately. I've been slowly working on an articulated tractor and you can see my progress
here and
here.
The chassis is nearly finished and it's fully functional now. The model is remotely controlled using parts obtained from
HiTechnic. The R/C controls the main motors (fwd & rev) and a simple gear shift (low-neut-hi).
The articulated joint is controlled by two pneumatic cylinders which are hand operated. The plow attachment joint also has two pneumatic cylinders.
There are 4 geared 9v motors that provide drive power. There is 1 non-geared 9v motor that operates the shifter. There is a 9v battery crammed into a small cavity on the underside of the model.
The articulated joint only rotates in one plane (horizontal, or rotation about a vertical axis). To compensate for uneven terrain, I've made the front set of wheels to rotate about an axis parallel to the length of the tractor. You can see this in the
picture. Notice one of the front wheels on the crater plate.
I've begun to work on the body panels, cab, and other aesthetic stuff. It will only take time to finish! Now, to find that time...
And yes, I will be in competition with Steve Lane's
Rotinoff Atlantic. I haven't tried a pull with my tractor yet, but it won't be long. Honestly, I think I'll tear up the tractor's gear train when I load it, but I'm going to finish building it before any tests ;-)
September 29, 2001- A group of AFOLs in Texas met together in Austin. I helped to organize this meeting by sending emails and coordinating the whole deal.
It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. You can see some pics from the meeting
here and
here.
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001 - 2008, Thomas Avery email me! |
|||
