why do you build me up
August 7, 2019 8:54 AM   Subscribe

The Brick Experiment Channel does wordless, lightly-annotated build experiments with lego bricks and gears and motors. How fast a wheel? How heavy a weight? What if you built a submarine inside a plastic pitcher?

Part of the joy of the channel is the quiet narrative building from one video to the next as the builder tries new tricks, replaces equipment, learns tricky lessons about part tolerances, etc. There's a whole progression and iteration across multiple videos of different lines of inquiry.

So the videos linked above the fold are all fun in their own right, but for the full experience it pays to watch in series. Breaking them out by general topic:

~ Hoisting weight ~
1. Testing Lego pulley systems
2. Testing Lego gear systems for hoisting
3. Testing Lego gear and pulley systems - part 1
4. Testing Lego gear and pulley systems - part 2
5. Lego Motor Lifts a Rock (88kg/195lb)

~ Spinning wheels fast ~
1. Spinning a Lego Wheel FAST
2. Spinning a Lego Wheel FASTER
3. Spinning Contest with 10 Lego Wheels
4. Cheap the Lego Wheel Spins ALMOST TOO FAST

~ Destructive machines ~
1. Building and Testing a Lego Press
1a. 2.5 Hours Building a Lego Press (no talking, ASMR-ish) (long version of previous)
2. Lego Press vs Barbie Head and Other Things (an homage to Hydraulic Press Channel, previously)
3. Shredding Paper with Lego Gears

~ Vehicular tests ~
1. Spinning Lego Propellers
2. How To Make a Lego Man Fly
3. Building and Testing a Lego-powered Submarine

~ Misc. stress tests ~
1. What Happens If You TWIST a Lego Axle HARD?
2. 30 Volts to a Lego Motor
3. Testing Lego Worm Gear HIGH TORQUE Performance
4. How Much LOAD Can the Smallest Lego Gear Handle?
5. Testing a Lego-compatible Steel Axle
6. Testing Lego in Cold and Hot Temperature
posted by cortex (4 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Subscribed, thanks!

I'm pleased to see that we came to the same solution for making a Lego Man Fly.
posted by jquinby at 10:29 AM on August 7, 2019


This is super cool and the way they present iterating towards the final design makes my engineering-instructor-heart sing and the final results are incredible but HOLY SHIT friend, the first rule of Experimental Submarine Club is ALWAYS TIE A STRING TO YOUR EXPERIMENTAL SUBMARINE, I had a damn heart attack watching that sub get thrown into the lake without any kind of leash. I know you have lots of string, I just watched an hour of block and tackle videos.

(I know I know, the lake is 18" deep there and by the time the cameras were rolling the sub had probably already proved reliable, I know all that and I don't care, I'm getting old and I had palpitations anyway)
posted by range at 6:43 PM on August 7, 2019


(I note for completeness that the "deep dive" test immediately demonstrates why you always have a leash, because the sub refused to surface the first time, and luckily in deep water there was a line attached. I still don't care, I've spent enough time around prototypes to know that experimental AUVs crave the open seas and will go find it, even from the shallows)
posted by range at 6:49 PM on August 7, 2019


That submarine is super cool. I was just looking for RC subs on Amazon this past week and was a bit surprised that there aren't many options.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 8:54 PM on August 7, 2019


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