Lego’s Technic line options every kind of mechanical gadgets, from cogs to gears to chains and even pneumatic parts. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of those parts are made out of plastic and are solely able to toy-like ranges of efficiency. Within the aggressive world of Lego YouTube, builders usually push these components to their limits, breaking them extra usually than you would possibly assume. To that finish, [Brick Experiment Channel] has been investigating stouter Lego-compatible common joints from quite a lot of third-party producers.
The video begins with a easy demonstration, exhibiting {that a} Lego common joint pops aside at simply 0.4 Nm of torque. It’s no shock, given it depends on tiny plastic pins in snap-fit joints. Nevertheless, which means it’s not that onerous to construct a stronger common joint to outperform the inventory components.
The video steps via a variety of different choices out there available on the market. For instance, CaDA builds a common joint utilizing aluminium sleeves, a copper middle, and metal pins to affix all the pieces collectively. It’s so robust that the plastic Lego axles fail lengthy earlier than the joint does. Examined with third-party aluminum axles, it will definitely fails at 2.3 Nm of torque when the aluminum sleeve snaps. An all-steel joint from MTP goes even tougher, ultimately stripping out its axle mount at 4 Nm. The remainder of the video goes on to discover angular efficiency, measurement, and different design options.
It’s truthful to say that for those who’re swapping out common joints and axles for aluminum metal components, you’re probably not enjoying with Lego anymore. On the identical time, it’s neat that there exists a type of defacto customary package for mechanical experimentation that’s now being expanded upon with stronger parts. Video after the break.
